Saturday’s qualifying session was uneventful. What that might mean for Sunday’s race is entirely different.
Dries Vanthoor put the no. 24 BMW M Team RRL on the GTP and overall pole on a warm afternoon at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca–his fourth consecutive pole. But his time of 1:12.854 was just 0.005 of a second quicker than Matt Campbell’s Porsche Penske Motorsport 963. In fact, the top 11 qualifiers in GTP were within a second of Vanthoor’s prototype.
Although Vanthoor acknowledged that track position is important for Sunday’s TireRack.com Monterey SportsCar Championship, he warns that “tire wear will be an issue tomorrow.”
According to Vanthoor, who will share driving responsibilities with Phillip Eng on the 11-turn, 2.23 mile course, teams will be double-stinting tires–in other words, running tires to their limits.
“It’s just hot,” he says. “Everybody will have to keep their tires alive.”
Despite clean qualifying runs, Sunday’s grid is full of questions in all classes. Giacomo Altoe claimed the GTD Pro pole for DragonSpeed’s no. 81 Ferrari 296 GT3, just a tick ahead of Dan Harper in the no. 48 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO. It is the first pole for Altoe in IMSA sportscar racing–and his first go at Laguna Seca.
“I didn’t know what to expect,” he says. “It’s a tricky track.”
Kenton Koch put in the fastest GTD lap in his no. 32 Korthoff Competition Motors Mercedes AMG GT3–also his first appearance at the front of the line. His time of 1:20.810 was just a fraction ahead of Alec Udell’s no, 36 DXDT Racing Corvette Z06 GT3.R, with co-driver Robert Wickens.
Both GTD cars outpaced several GTD Pro machines. But they will start behind the slower GTD Pro cars when the green flag drops on Sunday. The cars will line up according to class, not overall qualifying time.
Koch was also concerned with rubber. “It’s trying to get the tire in the right window,” he says. “It’s cool to be on pole–it goes without saying.”
In all, 36 cars will start on Sunday. The green flag drops at 12:10 pm.
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