Van der Zande On Pole at The Glen for MSR

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

Renger van der Zande stormed to pole position for the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen on Saturday, earning Acura Meyer Shank Racing back-to-back IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship poles.

The Dutch driver laid down a 1:31.558 lap time in the No. 93 Acura ARX-06 he will share with Nick Yelloly and Kaku Ohta for tomorrow’s race, beating Action Express Racing’s Jack Aitken to the GTP class pole by 0.287 seconds.

MSR’s second No. 60 entry was third-best overall in the hands of Colin Braun, who was just 0.609 seconds off his stablemate’s leading pace. The top three GTP qualifying times all outpaced Louis Deletraz’s 2024 pole effort, with Van der Zande’s time going some 0.651 seconds faster.

Wayne Taylor Racing’s V-Series.Rs were fourth and fifth-fastest overall, with Ricky Taylor aboard the No. 10 and Deletraz in the No. 40, respectively.

Dries Vanthoor set the session’s sixth-fastest time for BMW M Team RLL in his No. 24 M Hybrid V8, with stablemate Sheldon van der Linde behind in seventh.

Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Mathieu Jaminet went eighth-quickest in his No. 6 Porsche 963 ahead of an impressive qualifying effort for the Heart of Racing Team’s Aston Martin Valkyrie, which qualified ninth in the hands of Ross Gunn, ahead of the No. 7 963 of Felipe Nasr in tenth.

LMP2 class pole honors went to PJ Hyett after he brought his No. 99 AO Racing Oreca 07 Gibson to the top of the times after Dan Goldburg led the way early in the session. Hyett claimed the class pole 0.173 seconds over the TDS Racing Oreca of Steven Thomas after his AO crew changed the car’s motor following a reported failure in the morning’s second practice.

United Autosports were third and fourth fastest with Goldburg and Nick Boulle, respectively, ahead of Tobias Lutke’s Era Motorsports machine in fifth.

Both George Kurtz in the No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR Oreca and John Farano in the No. 8 Tower Motorsports entry both lost their fastest flying laps after separately causing red flags in the weekend’s practice sessions.

Caldarelli and Robichon Claim GTD Pro and GTD Poles

Pfaff Motorsports will start tomorrow’s race from the GTD Pro pole position after a 1:44.595 lap from Andrea Caldarelli outpaced multiple late charges from Dan Harper’s Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO.

Cladarelli’s benchmark lap was 0.142 seconds clear of Harper’s time after the Italian driver laid down his fastest time on his fifth of eight attempts around the 3.38-mile road course to take the Canadian team’s first pole position of 2025 in the No. 9 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 he shares with Sandy Mitchell.

Nicky Catsburg recorded the third-fastest GTD Pro class time in his No. 4 Corvette. Z06 GT3.R ahead of Albert Costa’s DragonSpeed Ferrari 296 GT3 in fourth. The No. 14 Vasser-Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3 of Aaron Telitz went fifth-fastest in class.

Zacharie Robichon claimed the pole in GTD for the Heart of Racing Team in his No. 27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo, jumping to the top of the times on his fourth of seven total qualifying laps. The Canadian driver’s 1:44.788 pole lap was third-fastest among the GT3 cars, though Robichon will lead the GTD field to green behind the GTD Pro competitors, per IMSA rules.

DXDT Racing qualified second in class in the hands of Alec Udell, just 0.211 seconds off of Robichon’s time.

Daniel Morad was third-quickest in-class aboard the No. 32 Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO ahead of Russell Ward in the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes and the No. 12 Vassar-Sullivan Lexus of Parker Thompson, who rounded out the top five.

The No. 021 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari of AJ Muss was stripped of its fastest qualifying lap for bringing out the red flag during Saturday’s second practice. Muss set the class’s 15th-best time.

Though warnings were issued to multiple drivers for flirting with track limits, no drivers lost lap times as a result of exceeding defined circuit boundaries.

The Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen goes green Sunday at 12:10 p.m. EST with live coverage on Peacock and IMSA.tv.

RESULTS: Qualifying

Source: Sports Car 365