Tom Blomqvist won the pole for the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks on Saturday for the second consecutive year, but this one had a bit more meaning.
Former NTT INDYCAR SERIES driver Blomqvist earned the top starting spot overall and in the Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class with a best lap of 1 minute, 14.674 seconds in the No. 60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06 he will share Sunday with Colin Braun. The two-hour, 40-minute race starts at 3:10 p.m. ET Sunday.
The pole came as the Acura GTP program has just two races left in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, as the manufacturer announced in April it was leaving the series after this season.
SEE: Qualifying Results
“The car has been giving me good confidence in key areas around here, which just unlocks lap time,” Blomqvist said. “Thanks to the guys. They’ve been working really, really hard. Coming toward the last couple of races of the program, so to get small little wins is obviously nice for everyone, nice for myself, too.”
Reigning Battle on the Bricks winners Jack Aitken and Earl Bamber will start second in their No. 31 Cadillac Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R after Aitken’s best lap of 1:14.975. Aitken leads Porsche driver Laurin Heinrich by 118 points in the GTP drivers' standings with two races remaining this season.
Dries Vanthoor qualified third at 1:15.073 in the No. 24 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 that he will share with Sheldon van der Linde. Louis Deletraz qualified fourth at 1:15.216 in the No. 40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R he will share with Jordan Taylor.
Heinrich will have some work to do Sunday to keep pace with points leader Aitken after his teammate, Kevin Estre, qualified eighth at 1:15.395 in the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963. Estre was quickest Friday in the opening practice of the weekend, while Blomqvist gave a preview of speed to come by leading pre-qualifying practice Saturday morning on the 14-turn, 2.439-mile road course.
Jeremy Clarke earned the pole position for the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class with his best lap of 1:17.555 in the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition ORECA LMP2 07. Clarke and teammate Tom Dillmann have won the class in the last two races this season to pull into second in the standings, 36 points behind George Kurtz and Alex Quinn in the No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR ORECA LMP2 07.
Daniel Goldburg qualified second at 1:17.713 in the No. 22 United Autosports USA ORECA LMP2 07 that he shares with Paul Di Resta, the first cousin of INDYCAR SERIES legend Dario Franchitti.
Kurtz and Quinn will need to find speed to protect their class lead after Kurtz qualified sixth at 1:18.046.
Lightning arrived in the Indianapolis area shortly before the start of qualifying, forcing a delay in the start of GTP and LMP2 time trials and a cancellation of GT Daytona PRO (GTD PRO) and GT Daytona qualifying due to schedule time constraints.
GTD PRO and GTD teams will line up on the starting grid based on the current team points standings. The No. 1 Paul Miller Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO shared by Connor De Phillippi and Neil Verhagen will start from pole in GTD PRO, while the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 shared by Russell Ward and Philip Ellis will lead the GTD field to the green flag.
Ibiza Farm Motorsports Team Repeats in Michelin Pilot Challenge Thriller
The Ibiza Farm Motorsport duo of Moisey Uretsky and Michael Cooper kissed the bricks for the second straight year after Cooper made a full-contact pass for victory on the final lap to win overall and Grand Sport (GS) class honors in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway 120, a two-hour race for the Michelin Pilot Challenge series.
Cooper drove the No. 44 Ibiza Farm Motorsport McLaren Artura GT4 under the No. 60 KOHR MOTORSPORTS Ford Mustang GT4 of Michael Skeen in Turn 7 on the final lap, which was a one-lap race for the win after a late full-course yellow. Cooper and Skeen made side-to-side contact during the decisive pass, with light damage to both cars.
SEE: Race Results
“I expected an opportunity, but what I didn’t expect was all the weaving on the straight before that,” Cooper said. “He (Skeen) didn’t really pick a lane too well, and at the last second he decided to go to the right, and I went to the left and got through. Just awesome to win here at Indy again.”
Skeen and teammate Evan Slater hung on to finish second, and Sean McAlister and Jeff Westphal rounded out the podium finishers in the No. 39 CarBahn with Peregrine Racing BMW M4 GT4 EVO.
The one-lap dash to the checkered was set up when leader Gabby Chaves, the 2014 INDY NXT by Firestone champion and INDYCAR SERIES veteran, ran out of fuel with seven minutes remaining while trying to stretch his mileage to the finish in the No. 43 Andretti Performance Porsche 718 GT4 RS CS that he shares with Jarett Andretti, son of INDYCAR SERIES and NASCAR Cup Series race winner John Andretti. Chaves’ car stopped adjacent to the track in a vulnerable position, triggering the final full-course caution of the race.
Skeen also was trying to stretch fuel like Chaves, so the caution period helped him save enough to get to the finish. There were two lapped cars between Skeen and Cooper on the restart with one minute, 20 seconds to go, another bonus for Skeen.
But Skeen still had to soft-pedal the throttle to ensure he had enough fuel to see the checkered, and Cooper had no such concerns. Cooper blasted past the two lapped cars and set his sights on Skeen before making the winning pass in Turn 7 at the end of the back straightaway on the 14-turn, 2.439-mile road course.
Cooper then powered away easily over the last half of the final lap, winning by 2.377 seconds.
Spanish manufacturer Cupra also repeated as a winner at IMS with a victory by Tyler Gonzalez and Steven Clemons in the Touring Car (TCR) class of the Michelin Pilot Challenge. Gonzalez drove to victory in the No. 99 Victor Gonzalez Racing Cupra Leon VZ TCR by .995 of a second over the No. 76 Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb Agajanian Hyundai Elantra N TCR shared by Denis Dupont and Preston Brown.
Karl Wittmer and LP Montour rounded out the podium finishers in the No. 93 MMG Honda Civic FL5 TCR.
Single-Make Support Series Also in Racing Action
All three single-make series competing this weekend at IMS conducted their first of two races at this event.
Tyler Maxson drove the No. 77 Topp Racing Porsche 911 Cup car to victory by 1.301 seconds over the No. 40 ACI Motorsports Porsche 911 Cup car of Janne Stiak in the Porsche Carrera Cup North America race.
Elias De La Torre and Dennis Lind combined to win the Lamborghini Super Trofeo race in the No. 29 TR3 Racing Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo Evo2.
Bobby Gossett triumped in the Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup presented by Michelin race, driving to victory in the No. 44 BSI Racing Mazda MX-5 by .145 of a second over the No. 546 Advanced Autosports Mazda MX-5 of Nathan Nicholson.
Visit IMS.com for tickets and more information on the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks.
