Acura literally rubs its way into a front row lockout for IMSA's Detroit GP start

Welcome to Detroit, where the story so far this weekend is "The Taming of the Slippery Track Surface" for both the IndyCar and IMSA Weathertech Sportscar series. Every track session is luckily adding a little more rubber to the track, with hopes there might be enough to lessen the slips and slides that have plagued every practice and qualifying session thus far and provide a little forgiveness on the very technical street circuit with an already aggressive surface.

Nick Yelloly leaves his mark on Detroit GTP qualifying

Successfully taming the surface to earn pole for IMSA's Saturday race was Nick Yelloly in the #93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian car, laying down a 1:05.762 lap time. Yelloly managed to put down a series of fast laps, with such precision he was able to rub the wall, a few times.

"I think every lap here, you're edging to the wall and then you find the limit," Yelloly told Motorsport.com. "If you get the limit just right, you will rub the wall.

"I mean, I checked the body work — it's literally a scrape and a little bit on the tire wall. And that means you've done a decent lap. So I'm happy with my little painting on the side of the car."

Yelloly is joined on the GTP front row with its fellow MSR teammate, the #60 car, with Tom Blomqvist putting down a lap time of 1:05.908 (0.146 gap).

Off to a rough start for GTP qualifying: the #7 Porsche Penske Motorsport and both Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillacs (#10, #40) who lost their fastest laps in the session after causing red flags during today's practice sessions. The #7 lost the rear engine cover after tousling with the wall during the second practice session. The Cadillacs also falling victim to the track's slippery foundation.

A red flag session still puts Ford at the front for Saturday's green flag

Sebastian Priaulx celebrates his pole in Detroit for the GTD Pro class driving the #64 Ford Multimatic Motorsports car

Photo by: Lumen Digital Agency

The GTD Pro class only had a 15-minute window (per regulations) to qualify, cut short after the #81 DragonSpeed Ferrari of Rasmus Lindh lost the rear end in Turn 4, causing it to spin into the wall and stopping, completely disabled on track. Race control issued a red flag with just over six minutes left in the session. Workers were able to clear the car as the session clock continued counting down. Cars were able to get in a flying lap before the checkered flag waived.

Despite the red flag, there was no stopping Sebastian Priaulx from landing his second pole in a row in Detroit, his first here with the #64 Ford Multimatic car. According to Priaulx, the prior IndyCar session's rubber did provide a little bit of relief for on-track grip, but fighting that and the rest of Detroit's quirks was a challenge.

"So, this place is unforgiving, right? You haven't got a lot of room for error, and the walls aren't like marshmallow. I make them think they are, but actually, they're concrete slabs. So, for sure, you need to be on your A-game here."

'A-game' landed Priaulx the front row spot also joined by its #65 Ford Multimatic teammate (Chris Mies). The last time the two were joined at the front was the 2024 Rolex 24 at Daytona.

Not necessarily on their A-game today was Antonio Garcia behind the wheel of the #3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports, and Andrea Caldarelliin the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini — both encumbered by earlier penalties from also causing red flags in the day's earlier practice sessions. They'll start 9th and 7th, respectively.

Going into Saturday, there are at least five on-track sessions between IMSA, IndyCar and Indy NEXT (with both open-wheel series' qualifying) that should put a decent layer of rubber on the track and hopefully give way to a little more stability for both series' cars on track. Green flag for IMSA's 100-minute Detroit race is at 3:40pm EDT.

Photos from Detroit - Practice & Qualifying

#6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Mathieu Jaminet, Matt Campbell


Cla	Drivers	#	Chassis	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h
1	R. van der Zande N. Yelloly Acura Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian	93	Acura ARX-06	13	1'05.762		128.646
2	T. Blomqvist C. Braun Acura Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian	60	Acura ARX-06	13	+0.146 1'05.908	0.146	128.361
3	M. Wittmann S. Van Der Linde BMW M Team RLL	25	BMW M Hybrid V8	13	+0.316 1'06.078	0.170	128.031
4	P. Eng D. Vanthoor BMW M Team RLL	24	BMW M Hybrid V8	13	+0.378 1'06.140	0.062	127.910
5	M. Jaminet M. Campbell Porsche Penske Motorsport	6	Porsche 963	13	+0.734 1'06.496	0.356	127.226
6	F. Nasr N. Tandy Porsche Penske Motorsport	7	Porsche 963	13	+0.864 1'06.626	0.130	126.977
7	J. Aitken E. Bamber Whelen Cadillac Racing	31	Cadillac V-Series.R	13	+1.073 1'06.835	0.209	126.580
8	R. Taylor F. Albuquerque Wayne Taylor Racing	10	Cadillac V-Series.R	13	+1.154 1'06.916	0.081	126.427
9	J. Taylor L. Deletraz Wayne Taylor Racing	40	Cadillac V-Series.R	13	+1.791 1'07.553	0.637	125.235
10	T. van der Helm G. Bruni JDC/Miller Motorsports	85	Porsche 963	12	+1.920 1'07.682	0.129	124.996
11	R. Gunn R. De Angelis Aston Martin THOR Team	23	Aston Martin Valkyrie	9	+2.145 1'07.907	0.225	124.582
12	M. Rockenfeller S. Priaulx Ford Multimatic Motorsports	64	Ford Mustang GT3	9	+5.160 1'10.922	3.015	119.286
13	C. Mies F. Vervisch Ford Multimatic Motorsports	65	Ford Mustang GT3	9	+5.489 1'11.251	0.329	118.735
14	A. Telitz J. Hawksworth Vasser Sullivan Racing	14	Lexus RC F GT3	8	+5.654 1'11.416	0.165	118.461
15	M. Snow N. Verhagen Paul Miller Racing	1	BMW M4 GT3	9	+5.718 1'11.480	0.064	118.355
16	M. Hesse D. Harper Paul Miller Racing	48	BMW M4 GT3 EVO	8	+6.122 1'11.884	0.404	117.690
17	T. Milner N. Catsburg Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports	4	Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R	9	+6.139 1'11.901	0.017	117.662
18	A. Caldarelli M. Mapelli Pfaff Motorsports	9	Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2	9	+6.534 1'12.296	0.395	117.019
19	L. Heinrich K. Bachler AO Racing	77	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	9	+7.584 1'13.346	1.050	115.344
20	A. Garcia A. Sims Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports	3	Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R	10	+7.798 1'13.560	0.214	115.008
21	P. Thompson F. Montecalvo Vasser Sullivan Racing	15	Lexus RC F GT3	9	+8.363 1'14.125	0.565	114.132
22	A. Costa R. Lindh DragonSpeed	81	Ferrari 296 GT3	6	+11.993 1'17.755	3.630	108.803
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