Porsche Penske Claims Pole Position at Indy

September 16, 2023Ramon Jones
IMSA

The No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsports Porsche 963 led a Porsche 1-2 in qualifying to secure pole position for the Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Matt Campbell led the way for the No. 07 car and Mathieu Jaminet set the fastest time for the No. 08 car. The No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura finished in third just under 2 tenths behind the lead car.

After the session Campbell said, “We want to perform well at home and put on a good show. Obviously at such an event, with Roger owning the circuit, we have a lot of supporters and sponsors along as well. We’re not necessarily shining in one (sector) at the moment. I think we can just really put together a lap quite well, whereas with everyone else we’ve seen a lot of mistakes in practice with brake-locking and running off track. We have as well, but I feel like a lot less as some of the other competitors.”

LMP2

In LMP2 the No. 52 driven by Ben Keating secured in class pole for PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports. Keating led the No. 04 Crowdstrike Racing car by 4 tenths in the session. In third was the No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA LMP2 07.

Keating seemed to have mixed feelings on the session, “We made a bunch of big changes and are delighted to start up front and get those extra bonus points,” said Keating. “Something I’ve been working hard on this whole year is to bring my tires up to temperature as quickly as I can. The fastest laps usually come at the very end because it takes so long to get your tires up to temperature.”

LMP3

After a late red flag due to the championship leading No. 74 Riley car crashing. Bijoy Garg took advantage of the mistake by setting a 1m20.513 lap in the No. 29 Jr III Racing Ligier JS P320. The team secure a 1-2 finish in class with the No. 30 Ligier JS P320 car running second fastest ahead of the No. 13 AWA Racing Duquenine 808. A relaxed Garg stated the following after the session, “It felt pretty easy, but it was a real team effort. After practice, we had that speed and it allowed me to be relaxed and deliver the lap. That was really helpful. The car was amazing, probably the best P3s I’ve ever had.”

GTD/GTD Pro

In GTD Paul Miller racing continued their dominance in the class securing pole position again setting a fastest lap of 1m23.075 seconds. Mikael Grenier was the second fastest GTD in the No. 32 Korthoff Preston Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 and Patrick Gallagher was third in GTD in the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW.

Pfaff Motorsports secured GTD Pro pole position as the team attempts to cut into the champion leaders point advantages this weekend. The finish meant that Pfaff cut 5 points off of their deficit. The No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 currently holds a 245 points lead ahead of Pfaff and the No. 3 Corvette racing car sits in second in the championship standings. Anything can happen in the main race so we will see how the points get shaken up come tomorrow afternoon.

Live coverage for the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks starts at 1 p.m. ET Sunday on NBC and IMSA Radio.

Full Qualifying Results Are Below