ALTON, Va. – With help from Fred Makowiecki, the Porsche GT Team made a loud statement Friday before the start of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Michelin GT Challenge at Virginia Int’l Raceway.
Makowiecki topped teammate Laurens Vanthoor to complete a Porsche GT Team sweep of the front row for the start of Saturday’s race. Makowiecki recorded a lap of 1 minute, 40.389 seconds (117.263 mph) in the No. 911 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR-19 to claim the pole position.
Makowiecki and Nick Tandy will co-drive the car when the two-hour, 40-minute race starts Saturday at 2 p.m. ET. Vanthoor, who was just 0.130 seconds behind Makowiecki in the team’s No. 912 car, will share the drive with Earl Bamber.
Makowiecki credited braking and downforce over the 17-turn, 3.27-mile VIR circuit for the Porsche’s ability to top the BMW and Corvette challengers in the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class.
“We are always strong on braking,” Makowiecki said. “Here you have some braking where you need to dive into the corner. This is a big help. You can see from the beginning of the year that we have a real advantage in braking from our competitors. We also have a good downforce level, which helps because when you get to the Esses section – Turns 8, 9 and 10 – the downforce is important.”
The pole was Makowiecki’s second in IMSA competition and first since the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts in 2015. This is his second event at VIR.
“It’s a big pleasure every lap to drive here,” he said. “You need to respect the track because no mistake is impossible to do. … This morning (in practice), I tried to be conservative and learn where the limit of the track and the car is.”
On the final lap of the 15-minute qualifying session, Connor De Phillippi in the No. 25 BMW Team RLL BMW M8 GTE (1:41.095) bumped Jordan Taylor in the No. 3 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C8.R (1:41.228) for the third starting position. Taylor and teammate Antonio Garcia hold a 10-point lead over Bamber and Vanthoor in the GTLM driver standings.
In GT Daytona, it took a meeting of the minds and a transatlantic phone call, but it ended up with Corey Fergus claiming the Motul Pole Award.
The effort in a spirited and competitive qualifying session Friday at Virginia Int’l Raceway resulted in the second pole position for Fergus in just his fourth WeatherTech Championship race. Putting the No. 76 Compass Racing McLaren 720S GT3 at the head of the class also earned the team and manufacturer their second pole positions in the series.
On his fourth flying lap in the 15-minute, late-afternoon session, Fergus toured the 3.27-mile, 17-turn road course in one minute, 45.236 seconds (111.862 mph). A lap later, Fergus pulled into pit lane and held his breath as the rest of the GTD field unsuccessfully took its shots over the final few minutes.
“I came over the radio after that (pole-winning) lap,” Fergus said. “And I said, ‘Guys, that’s it. There’s nothing else on the table. I’ve left it all out there.’ Everything was clicking. It just felt so good.”
Robby Foley came closest to knocking Fergus off the perch, qualifying second in the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M6 GT3 at 1:45.310 (111.783 mph). Highlighting the overall competitiveness, the top five GTD qualifiers each represented a different manufacturer and the top nine were separated by less than a second.
It was quite the turnaround for Fergus and teammate Paul Holton from morning practice, when they ranked 11th among the 14 entries, more than a second off the pace. With the afternoon practice and a chance to improve eliminated by rain and wet track conditions, it forced a Compass Racing engineering huddle that included a call to McLaren in the United Kingdom.
“It was just putting everything together, all the pieces together,” Fergus said. “We struggled a little bit in practice this morning. We sort of went back to the drawing board and I had a conference call with the guys in England, with McLaren, and really just tried to look at everything we could to figure out what we were missing. It was a team effort. We tried out what we thought could work and it seems to have worked.”
Fergus’ maiden pole position came last month in the IMSA WeatherTech 240 At Daytona, but the moment was spoiled when the car wasn’t gridded on time, had to start the race from pit lane and serve a drive-through penalty. The memory of that disappointment served as motivation for Fergus on Friday.
“I drove with some sort of revenge on that lap,” he said. “We felt like we left something on the table. We didn’t get what we deserved at Daytona for how hard everybody worked. This is a redemption.”
Pole position means more, Fergus added, for Saturday’s race since only the two GT classes are competing.
“Especially in a GT-only race, it means even more to start on pole because it’s a smaller field,” explained Fergus. “I think (the GT Le Mans cars) are going to break away from us and it’s going to be a good GTD battle. I’m really looking forward to starting on the front row and hopefully staying out front.”
Frankie Montecalvo qualified third (1:45.397) in the No. 12 AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 that won the most recent race three weeks ago at Road America. Matt McMurry was fourth in the No. 86 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian Acura NSX GT3 (1:45.434).