DETROIT — The Chevrolet vs. Ford – and the rest of the Grand Touring Daytona Pro class – manufacturer battle is finely poised in Motor City for Saturday’s Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic, Round 4 of the 2026 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season.
Last year, pole position proved pivotal for Seb Priaulx’s No. 64 Ford Mustang GT3 en route to his and Mike Rockenfeller’s win in Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) on the downtown Detroit Street Circuit. For Alexander Sims in his No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R, he’ll be hoping that pole produces the same result this year.
Sims set a best lap of 1 minute, 9.354 seconds (85.387 mph) around the 1.645-mile, nine-turn circuit to secure the Motul Pole Award. Sims will share the No. 3 Corvette with Antonio Garcia.
Chevrolet was already in good shape heading into qualifying. The manufacturer led both practice sessions with Nicky Catsburg atop the 90-minute morning session in the No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R and Sims faster in the two-hour second session in the sister No. 3 car. There is also a short practice session available Saturday morning for teams.
Sims’ team opted to change its set of Michelin tires early in the session and the grip – and pace – improved the longer the 15-minute session ran. The Englishman set his best time on his 11th lap of the circuit.
Catsburg then proceeded to qualify second, only 0.043 of a second in arrears of Sims, to ensure a Corvette 1-2 on the grid. Catsburg and Milner lead the championship points heading into this weekend’s race, while Sims and Garcia sit fifth.
“I was exploring the limits!” Sims said. “That was really close actually. We want to win them all to be honest. It’s lovely coming here. Pratt Miller is just up the road, and it’s GM’s home race. So, a Corvette lockout is pretty special. It lines us up nicely, but the Ford cars are right there. I thought they’d edge us in qualifying. But it’s an awesome job by the whole team.”
The 1-2 result in qualifying has been a trend of late in Motor City GT qualifying.
It’s the third year in a row where a single team locked out the front row at Detroit in GTD PRO, as Garcia led a Pratt Miller 1-2 in 2024 while Priaulx led the way with the then-Ford Multimatic Motorsports team (now called Ford Racing) in 2025.
Additionally, this is the fourth pole for Pratt Miller between Belle Isle and the Detroit Street Circuit (they won the pole in 2007 and 2008 in GT1 at Belle Isle). All those four poles were also front-row lockouts, and each was the No. 3 car on pole followed by the No. 4 car. Coincidentally, a Corvette GT car has not won an official IMSA points race in Detroit since that 2008 GT1 triumph.
Behind the pair of traditional yellow Corvettes, Ben Barnicoat qualified third in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3 with the pair of Ford Racing Mustang GT3s – now in their Evo version – in fourth and fifth. After an incident in practice, Paul Miller Racing performed a rebuild of its No. 1 BMW M4 GT3 EVO and Neil Verhagen lines up sixth.
