LEXINGTON, Ohio — Jeff Westphal doesn’t qualify frequently in IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge competition, so it came as no surprise that it’d been quite a while since he achieved his most recent Motul Pole Award.
When told it was 15 years ago at Watkins Glen International just past 15 years to the day, June 2, 2011, in an ST (Street Tuner) class BMW 328i, Westphal summed it up succinctly:
“The old dog has still got it!” he laughed.
The now 39-year-old drove, fittingly, the No. 39 CarBahn by Peregrine Racing BMW M4 GT4 EVO to something new: a new track record at the 2.258-mile Mid-Ohio SportsCar Course.
Westphal’s best lap of 1 minute, 25.216 seconds (95.390 mph) on his eighth lap not only broke but smashed the previous mark of 1 minute, 26.262 set in June 2024.
The CarBahn team of Westphal and Sean McAlister, which finished second in the 2025 Grand Sport (GS) championship, has had an abnormally and uncharacteristically difficult start to the 2026 campaign. With a best finish of 13th through three races, the No. 39 pair enter Sunday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 4 Hours of Mid-Ohio 30th in GS points, 670 points out of the lead.
There are still seven races to go in the season and the team figured it should switch something up for the second four-hour race of the season. McAlister usually qualifies and so with Westphal aboard for qualifying, things appear on the up ahead of Sunday’s race.
“I’m elated with the effort of this CarBahn team; they gave me a great BMW,” Westphal said. “This puts us in such a great position to start the four-hour race. It’s a boost in momentum as it’s something the team needed, given we’ve had a rough start to the year.”
One of Westphal’s longtime series sparring partners, Stevan McAleer, also took the opportunity to qualify and promptly positioned his No. 27 Auto Technic Racing BMW M4 GT4 EVO second on the grid. McAleer was 0.375 of a second in arrears. He and Austin Krainz are in search of their first victory together but have been one of the GS field’s most consistent finishers of late, including with three top-six finishes to start 2026 to sit fourth in points.
Van der Steur Racing qualified a season-best third with Allen Patten and Trenton Estep sharing the team’s No. 66 Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 Evo. With the top Toyota and McLaren fourth and fifth, four GS manufacturers finished in the top-five of the stacked 30-car class. The top eight cars in GS beat the previous track record.
In Touring Car (TCR), the qualifying track record fell too – and in similar fashion as it did in 2025.
Last year, Karl Wittmer broke his own mark in the No. 93 MMG Honda Civic FL5 TCR of 1:26.747. This year, another Honda beat that lap, as Rocco Pasquarella took his No. 5 KMW Motorsports with TMR Engineering Honda to the best lap of 1 minute, 26.564 seconds (93.904 mph).
Pasquarella’s pole only slightly beat Bryson Morris’ flyer in the No. 33 Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb Agajanian Hyundai Elantra N TCR. Morris ended just 0.008 of a second adrift, but is still in strong shape to build on his and Mason Filippi’s 110-point lead.
The No. 5 car has qualified in the top three in all four Michelin Pilot Challenge races this year but has finished between fifth and sixth in the first three races. Pasquarella is hoping to convert his second pole (Sebring) into a win or podium along with Tim Lewis Jr., and return the KMW team to victory lane with its new manufacturer.
The longtime Alfa Romeo squad switched to Honda ahead of the 2025 season and is racing on the manufacturer’s home turf this weekend, which Pasquarella had a chance to experience earlier this week.
“The car was on absolute rails; massive thank you to KMW for the car,” Pasquarella said. “This week I got to tour the MAP (Marysville Auto Plant) Honda plant; huge thanks to American Honda for that. I know our car will be fast in the race.
“I think it’s super important. There’s a lot of Honda signs around this track, and I’ve seen some people at the track this week that I met at the plant. Obviously, a lot of support out here, and we’ll try to get them a win.”
Wittmer’s No. 93 MMG Honda qualified third in the hands of Dai Yoshihara, the third driver alongside Wittmer and LP Montour, and also got under Wittmer’s previous mark. Cupra completed the top five with the pair of Victor Gonzalez Racing entries, qualified by Tyler Gonzalez and Steven Clemons, respectively.
