IMSA

Garcia grabs spectacular Lime Rock pole for Corvette

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Antonio Garcia, Lime Rock Park, Corvette Racing
Credit: IMSA Media Gallery

Spanish racing Endurance veteran, Antonio Garcia, delivered a stunning 49.754 second lap at Lime Rock Park to storm to pole position for the Northeast Grand Prix for one of the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship’s GT-only rounds.

This was Garcia’s firs pole position for two years, beating Laurens Vanthoor in the number #912 Porsche 911 RSR by 0.166 seconds in the process. Meanwhile in GT-Daytona, Patrick Long set a new class record with a 51.49 second lap in the Wright Motorsports Porsche.

Garcia told IMSA regarding his qualifying performance that: “For the first time, we don’t have cars ahead of us. So it’s definitely the best start position so now we will see how strategy plays out here because it’s very important.”

GT-Le Mans

Antonio Garcia led the pack after qualifying in the number #3 Corvette, which he shares with Jan Magnussen for the GTLM class, beating the number #912 Porsche 911 RSR by 0.166 of a second of Laurens Vanthoor and Earl Bamber.

In third place was the number #66 Ford GT of Joey Hand and Dirk Muller, who ended qualifying around the Connecticut circuit a further 0.03 of a second further behind.

Tommy Milner was next quickest in the sister Corvette, with Richard Westbrook starting fifth in the number #67 Ford GT entry.

The BMW M8 cars of John Edwards and Connor De Phillippi will start the race from sixth and seventh positions respectively, ahead of the final GT-LM car of number #911 Porsche 911 RSR, fielded by Patrick Pilet after suffering an off in pre-qualifying warm-up, which has derailed their qualifying efforts.

GT-Daytona

Patrick Long was quickest of the GT-D field, posting a new class record around Lime Rock Park in the number #58 Wright Motorsports Porsche.

He was 0.137 of a second quicker than the number #14 Lexus RC-F from the 3GT Racing outfit,  driven by Dominik Bauman, while the sister car of Jack Hawksworth did well to recover to P3 after missing the chicane on his quickest attempt.

Next up was the number #48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan, which Bryan Sellers took to the fourth quickest time, a hundredth quicker than the number #63 Cooper MacNeil in the Ferrari 488, with Bill Auberlen putting the Turner Motorsports BMW M6 into sixth position.

The Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX machines qualified seventh and ninth, split by Ben Keating in the Riley Mercedes AMG GT. John Potter will start last in the number #44 Audi R8 LMS GT3 after failing to set a time in qualifying.

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NCTJ Graduate and nominated finalist for Sir William Lyons Award in November 2018. Formula E and Jaguar I-Pace eTrophy TCF correspondent.
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