Acura DQ Hands Battle On The Bricks Pole To Cadillac

The No. 31 Whelen Cadillac in Grand Touring Prototype qualifying Saturday. (Jake Galstad/Lumen Digital for IMSA photo)

INDIANAPOLIS – Cadillac will lead the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship field to green for Sunday’s six-hour TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

As part of a top-three sweep for the marque in Grand Touring Prototype, the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac inherited the pole position for IMSA’s premier class Saturday.

In search of the brand’s first win of the year, it appeared as though the trio of its cars – the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R and the Nos. 40 and 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillacs – were poised to start second, third and fourth behind the No. 60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb-Agajanian Acura ARX-06, which unofficially took the Motul Pole Award.

However, in post-qualifying technical inspection, it was discovered that the No. 60 car was not within LMDh bodywork tolerances. With the penalty, the entry loses its qualifying times and drops to the rear of the GTP class for Sunday’s race.

It’s the first pole for Cadillac all season and the first for the brand since last year’s Motul Petit Le Mans, where Jack Aitken scored his first WeatherTech Championship pole.

Aitken, who’d unofficially qualified second, moves to the front of the field with a best time of one minute, 14.610 seconds (117.683 mph). Aitken will share the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen entry with Earl Bamber and Frederik Vesti, as one of only two GTP entries to run three drivers in Sunday’s race.

“I’m pretty pleased. I think all the Cadillacs showed pretty well,” Aitken said. “We had an OK practice, but it wasn’t entirely smooth. The nature of having so many cars on track here means getting clean laps, which was quite difficult. I think we’re in a good place. I'm pleased that we’ve come out today with a strong car and clean qualifying session, and I think [it’s] a strong car for tomorrow.”

The No. 40 WTR Cadillac of Jordan Taylor and Louis Deletraz will start second ahead of the No. 10 WTR Cadillac of Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque.

The championship-leading No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 of Mathieu Jaminet and Matt Campbell will roll off from fourth, with the second Acura – the No. 93 Acura ARX-06 of Renger van der Zande, Nick Yelloly and Kaku Ohta – completing the top five.

United Autosports USA put up a united front in Le Mans Prototype 2 qualifying. For the first time in IMSA competition, the two-car team owns the front row of the class entering a race start.

Nick Boulle collected the Motul Pole Award in class with an impressive lap of 1:17.846 in the No. 2 United Autosports USA ORECA LMP2 07. Teammate Daniel Goldburg was second fastest, with a lap of 1:18.222 in the No. 22 United ORECA.

Boulle also won the LMP2 pole at IMS a year ago, on his way to capturing the class championship with co-driver Tom Dillmann when they drove for Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen. Pressure to repeat the pole effort intensified in Saturday’s 15-minute session when nearly half the time was lost to an early red flag for the No. 73 Pratt Miller Motorsports ORECA driven by Chris Cumming sliding off track into the gravel.

Boulle, who is sharing the No. 2 this weekend with Ben Hanley and Juan Correa, credited a setup change the team made for qualifying that allowed him to push it to the limit with minimal time on the clock.

“I think I could have tidied up a few spots,” Boulle said, “but to go out here and know you have like two laps to do it, it feels even better. It’s one thing to go out somewhere where you know you have five laps to bring one in. This was a situation where you go out and you’ve got two times to do it.

“We didn’t get to test here, so to stick it on pole is even better.”

Boulle has been a part-time driver in the No. 2 this season, competing in the first three LMP2 races before joining PR1 Mathiasen for July’s event at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

In his absence, Hanley finished fourth in the past two races with Phil Fayer as the co-driver. Boulle believes he, Hanley and Correa have the car “to fight with” in Sunday’s six-hour enduro.

“This is a pretty scrappy place,” he said. “You have to hustle the car, especially in a P2 car, compared to some other places that are super fast and flowy. Getting through traffic, we have to be really eyes up and pay attention to the rhythm. Hopefully, we stay clean and I can get Juan and Ben a car that they can go fight with.”

Twelve LMP2 cars are entered this weekend. Goldburg, who’s sharing the No. 22 United entry with Paul Di Resta and Rasmus Lindh, qualified just ahead of points leader PJ Hyett in the No. 99 AO Racing ORECA.

Hyett, co-driver Dane Cameron and the No. 99 start the race with a 105-point lead over Goldburg and the No. 22.

All six hours of the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks will be streamed live starting at 11:40 a.m. ET on Peacock in the U.S. and IMSA.TV and the official IMSA YouTube channel internationally.

NBC joins the race in progress at 3 p.m., with coverage to the finish.