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IMSA Petit Le Mans: Cameron pips Taylor to pole in Acura Penske 1-2

Acura Team Penske's ARX-05s locked out the front row for the IMSA SportsCar Championship Petit Le Mans as Dane Cameron edged team-mate Ricky Taylor by less than a tenth

On the championship's second visit to the Road Atlanta track this year after a six-hour race held in September, Mazda's Harry Tincknell was the first driver to duck under the 69sec barrier, but his benchmark was soon beaten by defending IMSA champion Cameron before Taylor edged his team-mate by 0.090s.

Tincknell pitted with five minutes still remaining while lying third, but Cameron stayed out on track and managed a time 0.094s faster than Taylor.

His 1m08.412s stands as a new track record for DPi cars.

Felipe Nasr, the 2019 Petit Le Mans winner, slotted the Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R just ahead of Tincknell to claim third, while championship leader Ryan Briscoe placed the Wayne Taylor Racing Caddy he'll share with Renger van der Zande and Scott Dixon in fifth ahead of the second Mazda of Tristan Nunez.

With his final flyer, Sebastien Bourdais moved ahead of JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac teammate Gabriel Aubry to claim seventh, the entire class covered by just 0.817s.

Antonio Garcia also set a searing record-breaking pace on his final flying lap to land the GTLM class pole in the championship-leading #3 Corvette C8.R.

The Spaniard's 1min15.163s effort in the car he shares with Jordan Taylor put him over a quarter second faster than his nearest challenger, Connor De Phillippi in the #25 BMW M8.

John Edwards took third in the second of the Rahal Letterman Lanigan-run BMWs, while Laurens Vanthoor was half a second off the pace in the faster of the two Porsche 911 RSRs.

Following his late race-ending shunt at Charlotte last week, Tommy Milner's repaired #4 Corvette was 0.7sec slower than Garcia's sister machine but managed to outpace the second Porsche of Nick Tandy.

Meanwhile in GT Daytona, Shinya Michimi scored Meyer Shank Racing's first pole of the season in the championship-leading #86 Acura NSX he shares with Mario Farnbacher and Matt McMurry, pipping Jeff Westphal's #63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 by 0.173s.

Frankie Montecalvo fell 0.1sec short and slotted into third in the #12 AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F.

MSR's two main GTD title rivals will start from the fifth row, with the second Lexus that Michael de Quesada shares with Jack Hawksworth and Aaron Telitz, and the Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R of Ryan Hardwick, Pat Long and Jan Heylen starting ninth and tenth in class.

Patrick Kelly's PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA was fastest in the thin LMP2 field, 1.6s ahead of Rob Hodes in the similar Inter Europol Competition machine.

John Farano was third in the Tower Motorsports by Starworks machine he'll share with European Le Mans aces Job Van Uitert and Mikkel Jensen.

Petit Le Mans starting grid

Pos Class Driver Team Car Gap
1 DPi J.P.Montoya, D.Cameron, S.Pagenaud Acura Team Penske Acura 1m08.412s
2 DPi H.Castroneves, R.Taylor, A.Rossi Acura Team Penske Acura 0.094s
3 DPi F.Nasr, P.Derani, F.Albuquerque Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac 0.200s
4 DPi J.Bomarito, H.Tincknell, R.H.-Reay Mazda Team Joest Mazda 0.224s
5 DPi R.van der Zande, R.Briscoe, S.Dixon Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R Cadillac 0.438s
6 DPi O.Jarvis, T.Nunez, O.Pla Mazda Team Joest Mazda 0.513s
7 DPi S.Bourdais, T.Vautier, L.Duval JDC-Mustang Sampling Racing Cadillac 0.628s
8 DPi C.Miller, M.Leist, G.Aubry JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac 0.817s
9 LMP2 P.Kelly, S.Trummer, S.Huffaker PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA/Gibson 3.178s
10 LMP2 A.McCusker, J.Smiechowski, R.Hodes Inter Europol Competition ORECA/Gibson 4.749s
11 LMP2 J.Farano, M.Jensen, J.van Uitert Tower Motorsport by Starworks ORECA/Gibson 5.670s
12 GTLM A.Garcia, J.Taylor, N.Catsburg Corvette Racing Chevrolet 6.751s
13 GTLM B.Spengler, C.De Phillippi, C.Herta BMW Team RLL BMW 7.022s
14 GTLM J.Krohn, J.M.Edwards, A.Farfus BMW Team RLL BMW 7.203s
15 GTLM E.Bamber, L.Vanthoor, M.Jaminet Porsche GT Team Porsche 7.245s
16 GTLM O.Gavin, T.Milner, M.Fassler Corvette Racing Chevrolet 7.444s
17 GTLM N.Tandy, F.Makowiecki, M.Campbell Porsche GT Team Porsche 7.446s
18 GTD M.Farnbacher, M.McMurry, S.Michimi Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian Acura 10.879s
19 GTD C.MacNeil, A.Balzan, J.Westphal Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 11.052s
20 GTD F.Montecalvo, T.Bell, K.Kirkwood AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus 11.151s
21 GTD B.Sellers, M.Snow, C.Lewis Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini 11.155s
22 GTD B.Auberlen, R.Foley, D.Machavern Turner Motorsport BMW 11.245s
23 GTD A.Parente, M.Goikhberg, T.Hindman Heinricher Racing with Meyer Shank Racing Acura 11.254s
24 GTD R.Ferriol, M.Winkelhock, A.Davis Team Hardpoint Audi 11.310s
25 GTD D.Olsen, Z.Robichon, L.Kern Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 11.362s
26 GTD J.Hawksworth, A.Telitz, M.De Quesada AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus 11.496s
27 GTD R.Hardwick, P.Long, J.Heylen Wright Motorsports Porsche 11.987s
28 GTD I.James, R.De Angelis, D.Turner Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin 12.022s
29 GTD A.Lally, J.Potter, S.Pumpelly GRT Magnus Racing Team Lamborghini 12.041s
30 GTD G.Robinson, L.Aschenbach, B.Keating Riley Motorsports Mercedes 12.210s
31 LMP2 J.McGuire, M.Bell, C.Braun Performance Tech Motorsports ORECA/Gibson -

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