Harper & BMW Lead IMSA GT Qualifying At Indianapolis

Dan Harper with the GTD PRO Motul Pole Award at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. (Michael Levitt/Lumen Digital for IMSA photo)

INDIANAPOLIS – Dan Harper made quite the statement Saturday in grabbing his first Grand Touring Daytona Pro Motul Pole Award ahead of the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks.

Having earlier lapped the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s 2.439-mile, 14 turn road course in one minute, 23.337 seconds, Harper hustled the No. 48 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO clockwise around the circuit with a lap of 1:23.259 in the closing minutes of the session.

It was enough to secure the inside of the GTD PRO front row for the penultimate round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season.

“The car’s been mega,” Harper said. “Obviously it’s time to finally get a pole position. I’ve been close a couple of times, so it’s nice to get one today and I hope it’s the first of many. A big thanks to everyone at Paul Miller Racing.”

Both of Harper’s quick laps were good enough to secure the top spot, as Christopher Mies could only conjure up a 1:23.445 in the No. 65 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3.

Although Mikael Grenier was third fastest in the 75 Express No. 75 Mercedes-AMG GT3 – the team’s first WeatherTech Championship race since the Rolex 24 At Daytona – his time was disallowed when the car’s ground clearance was discovered to be less than the minimum allowed in technical inspection.

As such, the No. 75 will start at the back of the GTD PRO field.

Harper noted that the Paul Miller squad had one eye on the pole position and one eye on Sunday’s race in using two sets of sticker Michelin tires in the 15-minute qualifying session.

“We sort planned it for tomorrow’s race in that it’s always an advantage on the ‘out’ lap especially to have scuffed tires,” he said. “All season long we’ve had the program that says in qualifying you go with two sets. No matter how good a driver you are, you always seem to improve on the second set; you always put the lap a bit more together and obviously the points available in qualifying are very important for the championship.

“So today we did the same pattern with two sets. On the first set we were on provisional pole. There were still some cars circulating that were very fast and putting personal best sectors together. So, we went out on the second one with a plan to improve the lap time which I did very marginally, but it also means we have another set of scuffed tires with just a single qualifying lap on them for tomorrow.”

While Harper was comfortably quickest on both sets of Michelins, little more than half a second covered the next four qualifiers. Alexander Sims lines up third in the GTD PRO championship-leading No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R.

The session ended in a dead heat between Andrea Caldarelli in the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 and Lauren Heinrich in AO Racing’s No. 77 Porsche 911 GT3 R at 1:23.559, with Caldarelli getting the nod for fourth spot as he was the first to post the time.

Meanwhile, the No. 81 DragonSpeed Ferrari 296 GT3, currently second in the GTD PRO standings, will start sixth after Albert Costa turned a best lap of 1:23.618.

In Grand Touring Daytona, the most recent winners in an IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup race are looking for an encore in Indianapolis.

They accomplished a qualifying repeat Saturday, just as they did at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) Int’l back in June.

At the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen, Zacharie Robichon placed the No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo on the Motul Pole Award.

Robichon, Casper Stevenson and Tom Gamble then scored a dramatic race win when the championship rival No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3 ran out of available energy on the final lap.

Stevenson matched Robichon in scoring a pole, this one at Indianapolis, with the Englishman scoring his first IMSA pole aboard the No. 27 Aston Martin. With a best time of 1 minute, 23.088 seconds (105.675 mph), Stevenson will lead the 18-car GTD grid to the green flag.

He missed the GTD track record set by Madison Snow in 2023 by .013 of a second.

While the car’s full-season championship hopes will require a bit of luck – he’s 171 points back of championship leaders Russell Ward and Philip Ellis in the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 entering the race – the No. 27 is locked in a three-way fight for the Michelin Endurance Cup GTD lead.

The No. 27 car is tied with the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 and No. 70 Inception Racing Ferrari for the Michelin Endurance Cup lead in GTD.

“The pressures were there and all came together on the second push. It wasn’t a perfect lap but it was as close as I could get,” Stevenson said. “It’d be nice to repeat (Watkins Glen). I have every bit of confidence we can.”

The No. 21 AF Ferrari, qualified by Lilou Wadoux, will start second in GTD with the No. 80 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 in third.

Wadoux was just .194 of a second in arrears of Stevenson, while Lin Hodenius – one of five drivers making their WeatherTech Championship debut Sunday – was only .482 off the pace after a truncated Friday where the No. 80 Mercedes-AMG lost valuable running due to a sensor issue.

The season-long WeatherTech Championship points-leading No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG starts fourth, with Conquest Racing’s No. 34 Ferrari qualified by Manny Franco completing the top five in the team’s home race.

Sunday’s TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks airs live with flag-to-flag streaming on Peacock starting at 11:30 a.m. ET, and NBC network coverage beginning at 3 p.m. ET.