Campbell takes overall pole in a day for first-timers at Laguna Seca.

It was a day of firsts at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on Saturday.

Matt Campbell took the overall pole position in the Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 in the first appearance of the new GTP hybrid class at the venerable course. George Kurtz qualified the Crowdstrike Racing Oreca at the front of the LMP2 field for his first series pole. Meanwhile, Klaus Bechler, driving the Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911, claimed his first ever pole–in his first appearance at Laguna Seca.

“When I hit the track yesterday, it was new to me and I was not feeling so great,” Bechler says. “It’s something special to get my first pole.”

Kurtz’ achievement came as a surprise to everyone, except perhaps for him. Ben Keating in the Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca held the quickest time throughout the qualifying session. With seconds remaining, however, Kurtz put in a fast lap to edge Keating by 0.06.

“I knew we had more pace; I just needed traffic to clear up,” Kurtz says. “I just put my head down.”

But most eyes were on the GTP class, billed as the future of motorsports. Campbell turned a lap of 1:14.77, running 0.7 faster than in practice despite facing the warmest temperatures of the weekend so far.

“We made a few changes that worked better than I expected,” Campbell explains. Still, Sunday will be the first full race for the GTP cars at Laguna Seca, and tire wear on the worn surface is a concern. “It’s going to be a tough race.”

The Motul Course De Monterey Powered by Hyundai N rolls at 12:10pm on Sunday, with competition in GTP, LMP2 and GTD classes making for a 38-car grid.