Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet delivered in qualifying at the track owned by their boss, locking out the front row Saturday for the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks in the Penske Porsche Motorsport prototypes.
Campbell, from Australia, won the pole with a quick lap of 1 minute, 13.672 seconds in the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 owned by Roger Penske. He will team with Felipe Nasr of Brazil in the two-hour, 40-minute IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race that starts at 1:10 p.m. ET Sunday on the 14-turn, 2.439-mile road course at IMS.
Campbell and Nasr hope to continue the momentum generated by winning the last race for the sleek GTP cars, Aug. 6 at Road America.
“Really excited,” Campbell said. “Obviously, there’s a lot of emphasis on us coming here this weekend to perform well, and luckily we have in free practice and now qualifying. We still have the race to come tomorrow, and that will be really, really tough. It will come down to track position and also strategy with 48 cars on track.
“Super happy to put in on pole, especially at the boss’s home.”
Jaminet, from France, qualified second at 1:13.824 in the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 in the premier GTP class, which features hybrid-electrified powertrains paired with internal combustion engines. Jaminet will co-drive with Nick Tandy of Great Britain on Sunday.
The front-row sweep continued a dominant weekend for Porsche Penske Motorsport at the track where team owner Penske has won a record 19 Indianapolis 500s, including last May by Josef Newgarden. Campbell and Nasr led the first two practices, and Jaminet and Tandy were second quickest in the second practice.
Tom Blomqvist, who will move to the NTT INDYCAR SERIES full time with Meyer Shank Racing in 2024, qualified third at 1:13.864 in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian Acura ARX-06. Four-time INDYCAR SERIES champion Sebastien Bourdais will join Blomqvist in the second row after qualifying fourth at 1:13.939 in the No. 01 Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R.
In the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class, Ben Keating earned his 13th career IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship pole in the No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA car with a lap of 1:17.950. That was good for 11th overall, behind the 10 GTP cars in the field.
Bijoy Garg won the pole in the Le Mans Prototype (LMP3) class in just his second IMSA start, earning the top spot with a lap of 1:20.513 in the No. 29 JRIII Racing Ligier car.
Madison Snow won the overall GT pole in a GT Daytona (GTD) class car for the first time, grabbing his third consecutive GTD pole this season and 12th of his career. His best lap was 1:23.075 in the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3.
Klaus Bachler won the GT Daytona PRO (GTD PRO) pole and was the second-quickest GT car overall, with a best lap of 1:23.140 in the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R.
A 20-minute warmup for all five IMSA WeatherTech SportsCAr Championship classes will start the on-track action from 8-8:20 a.m. Sunday at IMS. Also on the schedule are races for the Porsche Carrera Cup (9:40 a.m.) and Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America (10:40 a.m.) support series.
Fans can participate in a grid walk before the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks from noon-12:50 p.m. Sunday.
Tickets and information for the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks are available at IMS.com. Public pedestrian gates open at 7:30 a.m. Sunday (Gates 1, 2, 4, 6S and 7S).
Morad, Taylor Win in Michelin Pilot Challenge Thriller
Daniel Morad won the overall and Grand Sport (GS) class honors in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway 240 race in the Michelin Pilot Challenge series.
Morad, from Canada, drove his No. 57 Windward Racing Mercedes AMG GT GT4 to victory by .566 of a second over Scott Andrews in the No. 27 Lone Star Racing Mercedes AMG GT GT4 in a thrilling finish to a four-hour race that started in daylight and ended in darkness. Morad’s winning co-driver was Bryce Ward.
“There’s so much emotion,” Morad said. “Everything didn’t seem to go the right way. At the exact moment it needed to happen, it didn’t happen. So, we kind of had to make it happen ourselves. I was not losing today.”
Kenton Koch rounded out the podium finishers in the No. 92 Random Vandals Racing BMW M4 GT4, 7.334 seconds behind Morad.
Morad didn’t take the lead for good until the last 10 minutes of the four-hour race. On a restart with about 11 minutes remaining, Morad trailed Elliott Skeer in the No. 47 NOLASPORT Porsche 718 GT4 RS. Morad overshot Turn 1 and still managed to re-enter the track in second place in pursuit of Skeer.
Skeer and Morad made repeated side-by-side contact in a thrilling joust before Morad took the lead. Skeer’s hopes of challenging Morad for the lead and win ended with less than two laps to go when his car sputtered into the pits, apparently on fumes due to lack of fuel.
Mikey Taylor passed former INDYCAR SERIES driver Robert Wickens with less than two laps to go to spoil a possible fairy tale win for Wickens at IMS in the Touring Car (TCR) class. Taylor, from South Africa, teamed with co-driver Chris Miller in the No. 17 Unitronic/JDC Miller MotorSports Audi RS3 LMS to edge the No. 33 Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb-Agajanian Hyundai Elantra N of Wickens and co-driver Harry Gottsacker by 1.138 seconds.
“This is a lifelong dream for a lot of racers, and my throat is still sore because I was screaming so much on the radio,” Taylor said. “What a race. The team put together a great strategy, and it’s just amazing to win here, for sure.”
Taylor and Wickens ran side by side for the lead through Turns 7, 8 and 9 with less than two minutes to go before Taylor pulled ahead in Turn 9 and never trailed thereafter.
Wickens was frustrated by his sixth runner-up finish this season, with no victories.
“There’s only so much we could do,” Wickens said. “That Audi is massively quick. They’re doing everything right. It makes our life difficult. I’m getting really tired of leading late and losing the lead.
“I don’t have contact all year, and the 17 has contact with me every time we’re racing. If that’s how it is, that’s how it is. We’ll go into Road Atlanta and see who comes out on top.”
Wickens and Gottsacker lead the TCR standings by 20 points with one race remaining this season.
TIRERACK.COM BATTLE ON THE BRICKS SCHEDULE
Sunday
7:30 a.m.-4 p.m.: Public gates open
8-8:20 a.m.: IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Warm-up
9:40-10:20 a.m.: Porsche Carrera Cup Race 2 (40 minutes)
10:40-11:30 a.m.: Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America Race 2 (50 minutes)
Noon-12:50 p.m.: IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Pre-Race, Open Grid, Fan Walk
1:10-3:50 p.m.: IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks Race (2 hours, 40 minutes)
