BRASELTON, Ga. - Louis Deletraz already parlayed his impressive performance as the third driver in the No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06 in endurance races this year to secure a full-season seat when Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport expands to two Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) cars in 2024.
He proved his worth again Friday at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia, by earning the Motul Pole Award for the 26th running of the Motul Petit Le Mans, the 2023 season finale for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
In slick, half wet/half dry conditions, Deletraz hustled the car he is sharing with full-season drivers Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque to a lap of 1 minute, 15.402 seconds (121.269 mph) around the undulating 2.54 miles and 12 corners. Sebastien Bourdais, who was fastest in practice in dry conditions in the No. 01 Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R, qualified second at 1:15.632 (120.900 mph).
The points Deletraz scored for securing his first career WeatherTech Championship pole, when combined with the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac V-Series.R qualifying eighth, lifted the No. 10 Acura into the GTP championship lead by nine points over the No. 31, with the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 and the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 still in striking distance, 11 and 45 points back, respectively.
The title will be resolved over 10 hours of racing Saturday on what is expected to be a warmer and drier day.
“When Wayne Taylor Racing told me I was going to qualify this weekend, obviously I’m always happy to do it, but it also added pressure because we are fighting for the championship,” Deletraz said. “It’s a big show of trust from them.
“I’m super happy for what we achieved. It’s good for the championship, good for me and good for everyone. I’m very thankful for the opportunity and think we had a very strong car today.”
As the last group to qualify Friday afternoon, Deletraz and the other GTP competitors started their 20-minute session on a damp track with light mist lingering over the circuit. After starting on slick tires, everyone elected to soon pit for treaded wet-weather tires as the rain increased.
Just prior to the checkered flag, Bourdais recorded the lap that ultimately netted him and teammates Renger van der Zande and Scott Dixon a starting spot on the front row. Meanwhile, Deletraz was uncertain whether he would be able to complete a final lap after leaving the decision to change to a second set of wet tires for one final run until the very last minute.
“It was very tough,” he said. “I was hoping for dry conditions, to be honest, because we had a very fast car in the dry. It was definitely too wet for slicks, and I couldn’t put energy or heat into the tires. And I didn’t want to take risks – this is really not the time to crash the car.
“I think we may have pitted for wets a lap late compared to some others, but we reacted to that,” Deletraz added. “But I felt good, I pushed. I got a bit of traffic at the last chicane, but the lap was good enough to make it.”
Among the championship contenders, the No. 6 Porsche qualified fifth in class, directly ahead of the No. 25 BMW. The No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian Acura, with a remote chance to pull out the title, qualified fourth and is 131 points out of the lead. The No. 7 Penske Porsche qualified seventh and sits 81 points out of first.
Keating’s Furious Last-Second Lap Wins LMP2 Pole
With a championship and an influential award on the line, Ben Keating got the early jump on the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class.
Keating won the Motul Pole Award for the class Friday with a last-second lap of 1:13.859 (123.803 mph) in the No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA LMP2 07, giving himself and co-drivers Paul-Loup Chatin and Alex Quinn the prerace edge over their closest competitors.
The pole shaved the championship lead held by the No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA LMP2 07 co-driven by Steven Thomas, Mikkel Jensen and Scott Huffaker to just 17 points heading into Saturday’s season finale. Thomas posted the second-fastest lap of the LMP2 qualifying session – 1:13.879.
“I had nothing to lose,” said Keating, the first LMP2 driver to switch to slick tires during intermittent rain in the LMP2-LMP3 qualifying session. “I took a ton of risk and completely sent it across (Turns) 10A and 10B and pulled it off. It was pretty magical to get it in that way. Now I hope the championship comes down to that qualifying.”
The pole also gave Keating a slight advantage in the competition for the Jim Trueman Award, which goes to the top Bronze-rated LMP2 driver in the final standings.
Three drivers – Keating, Thomas and George Kurtz – are tied atop the Trueman standings heading into Saturday’s race. The award includes an invitation to the 24 Hours of Le Mans next year.
“We talked about how big this pole was,” Keating said. “The margin was 0.02 seconds. I was joking that I chose not to wear my watch during qualifying, which might have been the difference. … We all know what’s at stake. To be able to pull it off in the last handful of corners when I knew I didn’t have it – to be able to perform like that under pressure – was pretty special.”
John Falb had the third-fastest lap of 1:14.380 in the No. 35 TDS Racing ORECA he co-drives with Giedo van der Garde and Josh Pierson. Kurtz was fourth fastest in the No. 04 Crowdstrike Racing by APR ORECA he shares with Ben Hanley and Nolan Siegel.
Van Berlo Puts Andretti Ligier In Top LMP3 Spot In Bid To Repeat
Glenn van Berlo is the new member of the Andretti Autosport team defending its Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3) victory at Motul Petit Le Mans. The talented Dutch driver helped set the No. 36 Ligier JS P320 on a path to repeat by taking the Motul Pole Award in qualifying.
Van Berlo posted a best lap of 1:16.674 (119.257 mph) midway through the 15-minute session in slick conditions and saw it hold up by 0.129 seconds over Rasmus Lindh (No. 85 JDC-Miller MotorSports Duqueine D08). It’s the second pole of van Berlo’s WeatherTech Championship season and career, following the one he snared in LMP3 at Sebring in March.
It wasn’t the easiest session for van Berlo, even with the pole-winning accomplishment. The slippery conditions contributed to him running wide and edging into the grass in Turn 4 on one lap, but he saved the car from going completely off track and brought it back to the pits.
“It was tricky out there,” van Berlo said. “You couldn’t really get the heat into the tire and then in the entry to (turn) 3 I went a little bit through the wet and got a big snap on the entry and I went through the grass. That’s the reason for the grass on the car.”
Van Berlo was one of only four LMP3 drivers to participate in the qualifying session, with three teams electing not to run in the sketchy conditions. The No. 74 Riley Ligier was among those electing not to qualify but will still clinch the LMP3 season championship by starting the race on Saturday.
Van Berlo joins Jarett Andretti and Gabby Chaves in the No. 36 Andretti Ligier, the latter two returning as winners from last year at Michelin Raceway with Josh Burdon.
“I think we are looking quite good in comparison to the others,” van Berlo said. “Yesterday we had a really strong (practice) run with race fuel (and) tire deg seems to be really good with the current setup that we have. Obviously, it’s a long race. With 52 cars on track, a lot can happen, so it’s challenging. We will try to stay out of trouble, no penalties and then I think we can fight for a good position tomorrow.”
Split Tire Strategies Net GTD Poles At Road Atlanta
Treacherous conditions greeted Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) and GT Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) drivers in Friday’s qualifying. But on a damp track with consistent drizzle, Ian James and Jack Hawksworth split their tire strategies to score the two class poles.
On slicks, James set the overall fastest time among the 27 cars (19 GTD, eight GTD PRO) on his 10th and final flying lap. That broke a tie with Hawksworth, still best of the GTD PRO entries and on wets, as they had initially posted the same lap time around the 2.54-mile road course.
James is the third different driver for the Heart of Racing Team to win a Motul Pole Award in GTD this season, as teammates Marco Sorensen and Roman De Angelis had one pole apiece in the No. 27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3.
The best lap of 1 minute, 23.116 seconds (110.014 mph) netted out more than six-tenths of a second quicker than second place in class. This is James’ third career Motul Pole Award, first since 2004 at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in a Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class entry.
It also follows Heart of Racing Team’s announcement earlier this month it will field a global Le Mans Hypercar (LMH) platform entry with the Aston Martin Valkyrie starting in 2025.
“This Heart of Racing Team likes to take a gamble,” James said. “We said let’s try slicks and keep it on the island, and it got faster and faster.”
James, making his first WeatherTech Championship start since the Six Hours of The Glen in June, was happy to take off the team principal hat and put his driving helmet back on for qualifying.
“It’s nice to decompress and put the helmet on, and I really appreciate the opportunity to get behind the wheel every now and again,” he added.
Doriane Pin brought the No. 83 Iron Dames Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 into second in the car she will share with Michelle Gatting and Rahel Frey. That car starts ahead of Aaron Telitz, in the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 that he’ll share with Frankie Montecalvo and Parker Thompson.
GTD champions Paul Miller Racing, who seek to add the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup crown to the full-season WeatherTech Championship and IMSA WeatherTech Sprint Cup titles they’ve already sealed, will roll off from 10th in class. Bryan Sellers, Madison Snow and Corey Lewis share the No. 1 BMW M4 GT3 in the team’s and Sellers’ home race.
Vasser Sullivan Lexus Poised To Secure GTD PRO Title From Pole
Hawksworth looked poised to start best of all GTD entries before James’ faster lap at the end of the GTD qualifying session supplanted him. However, his time of 1:23.168 (109.945 mph), still led the way among the eight GTD PRO cars and was second best among all GT cars.
That lap was nearly four-tenths clear of second place en route to his fourth Motul Pole Award of the season and 12th of his WeatherTech Championship career.
“It’s not bad at all. We’re pretty happy with that,” Hawksworth explained. “You’ve got slicks, you got wets. We had to put the wets on to be safe. It was then about managing the wets; it was warm, cool, warm, cool.”
The Englishman will share his No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 with full-season co-driver Ben Barnicoat and third driver Kyle Kirkwood as the trio seeks to defend its Motul Petit Le Mans win of last year.
More importantly, Hawksworth and Barnicoat will clinch the GTD PRO title provided they take the race start on Saturday.
“It’s a great situation championship-wise. I’m happy for it,” Hawksworth said. “It’s amazing the amount of work that’s come into it here at Vasser Sullivan, as it hasn’t been easy. It’s had ups and downs. Ben and I drive the car but so many people make it happen; it’s a whole team effort to be part of this program and Lexus.”
The No. 63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 was provisionally second in class in qualifying, but its times were deleted post the checkered flag for a rules infraction (driver exiting the car during qualifying).
That elevated the No. 3 Corvette Racing Corvette C8.R GTD of Antonio Garcia, Jordan Taylor and Tommy Milner to second and the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Jules Gounon, Daniel Juncadella and Maro Engel to third.
Corvette Racing is in its final race as a full-factory program as it sends off the C8.R, Garcia seeks an elusive first Motul Petit Le Mans win and Taylor caps off his time with the program before moving to the Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class in 2024.
Saturday’s Motul Petit Le Mans runs from 11:40 a.m. to 9:40 p.m. ET, with flag-to-flag coverage available on Peacock and IMSA.com. USA Network joins the race in progress from 6:30 p.m. to the finish.
