It’s two poles in a row for Risi Competizione’s Toni Vilander in the No. 62 Ferrari 488 GTE, taking the top spot in today’s qualifying effort for Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta.
Backing up their pole-winning effort at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Vilander turned a 1:17.660, just 0.045 ahead of second place Richard Westbrook in the No. 67 Ford GT.
Third place went to Corvette Racing’s Antonio Garcia.
Garcia, along with co-driver Jan Magnussen, will take the drivers’ crown upon starting tomorrow’s 10-hour enduro. After wrapping up their title, the focus turns to the manufacturer’s championship, where the Corvette C7.Rs hold a slim four-point advantage over the Ford GT duo.
Joey Hand, in the No. 66 Ford GT, took the fourth spot with Bill Auberlen—making his 400th start for BMW—lining up fifth in the No. 25 M6 GTLM.
Just 0.071 of a second separated the first five cars, highlighting the incredible level of competition within the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTLM class even at the end of the season.
Corvette’s Tommy Milner slotted in just outside the top five in the No. 4 machine, ahead of Martin Tomczyk in the No. 24 BMW.
The pair of Porsche 911 RSRs filled out the field with the No. 912 of Gimmi Bruni taking eighth and the No. 911 of Patrick Pilet, ninth.
In the rest of the field, Ferrari swept pole in both GT classes, with the championship leading No. 63 taking pole position in GTD.
Performance Tech continued their domination of the PC class, taking yet another pole position, and, in prototypes, legendary race team, Penske Racing, set pole position in their return to sportscar racing and debut in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship with Helio Castroneves behind the wheel.
Two poles in a row for @toni_vilander and the @risicomp team. Will they end up on top tomorrow? #MotulPLM pic.twitter.com/QBkRtzxBN4
— Michelin Alley (@MichelinAlley) October 6, 2017
GTLM qualifying at @RoadAtlanta is over – and @RLLracing finished in P5 and P7. Bring on the 10-hour race on Saturday! #BMWM6GTLM pic.twitter.com/NqgdMXQoKR
— BMW Motorsport (@BMWMotorsport) October 6, 2017
How close was that?!@AntonioGarcia_3 only .054 from #GTLM pole and @TommyMilner just .163 off! Great showing today #Corvette #C7R #Z06 pic.twitter.com/tC17sbdxNX
— Corvette Racing (@CorvetteRacing) October 6, 2017
//imsa.alkamelsystems.com/Results/17_2017/25_Road%20Atlanta/01_IMSA%20WeatherTech%20SportsCar%20Championship/201710061620_Qualifying/05_Results%20by%20Class.PDF
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