In opening there was a Cadillac 1-2, in second practice there was a Cadillac 1-2-3, and the story of the day did not change in qualifying as Felipe Nasr scored pole for the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship race at Long Beach in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R. with a time of 1m11.620s.
Kevin Magnussen was second in the No. 01 Cadillac Chip Ganassi Racing DPi-V.R. after setting a time of 1m11.724s. Loic Duval rounded out the all-Cadillac top three with a time of 1m11.827s.
The pair of Acura ARX-05c entries from Meyer Shank Racing and Wayne Taylor Racing ended the session fourth and fifth with the No. 60 Acura and Dane Cameron getting the better of Filipe Albuquerque in the No. 10 Acura.
Oliver Jarvis in the No. 55 Mazda RT-24P caused a red flag in the final minutes of the session after going nose-first into the tire barrier at Turn 9. There was minimal damage to the car, but Jarvis could not get out of the barriers on his own. The No. 55 Mazda will start last in DPi.
Without serious drama, it’s hard to envision a non-Cadillac win tomorrow. Cameron was +0.820s behind Nasr’s pole time and the gap from Duval in third to the Acura’s in fourth and fifth was over six-tenths of a second.
Congratulations to our IMSA WeatherTech @motul Pole Winners at Long Beach! #IMSA / @GPLongBeach pic.twitter.com/OA4EtZEA99
— #IMSA (@IMSA) September 25, 2021
In GT Le Mans, the No. 3 Corvette C8.R will start from pole after Jordan Taylor’s time of 1m16.801s beat out Tommy Milner in the No. 4 Corvette C8.R by +0.297s. Cooper MacNeil qualified the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Porsche 911 RSR third in class but ended the session nearly three seconds behind Taylor.
This is the fifth consecutive pole position for Taylor dating back to the WeatherTech 240 at Watkins Glen and the sixth consecutive pole for the No. 3 Corvette dating back to the 12 Hours of Sebring.
Madison Snow put the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo on pole in GT Daytona with a time of 1m19.475s. The No. 1 Lamborghini had shown pace in the free practice sessions in the hands of Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow backed that pace up in qualifying.
The No. 96 Turner Motorsports BMW M6 GT3 of Robby Foley ended the session in second and +0.134s behind Snow. Richard Heistand in the No. 39 Carbahn with Peregrine Racing Audi R8 GT3 was third. It was a good lap from Heistand in the No. 39 Audi, which had finished sixth and seventh in the practice sessions entering qualifying.
Laurens Vanthoor earned the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R maximum points during the GTD points-paying session. Vanthoor brushed the left side of the car and knocked the mirror off during his lap.
UP NEXT: Tomorrow’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach is set for 5:05 p.m. ET.
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