IMSA News: Aitken puts #31 Whelen Cadillac on Sebring Pole
Porsche Penske Motorsport topped every practice session on Friday, but Cadillac Whelen will start on pole for the 74th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring after Jack Aitken (pictured) in the Action Express Racing-run #31 Cadillac V-Series.R turned a lap of 1m46.153s lap to secure the front spot for himself, Earl Bamber and Frederik Vesti.
That time fell just three-tenths shy of the Sebring International Raceway GTP track record set by his former teammate Pipo Derani in 2023.
“From what we saw in practice, there were some really quick cars out there,” Aitken said afterward. “We were trying to find that little extra, especially as the conditions cooled off — this is one of the coolest Sebrings we’ve had in years. Getting the tires to work with you is always a challenge here, but we know we’re strong in qualifying. The Whelen Cadillac gave me huge confidence. It’s such a tough lap that nobody gets it perfect, but we came closest.
“It was a lot of fun. We’ll do our homework tonight and get ready for some stiff competition tomorrow.”
The front row will feature an all-Cadillac lockout broken only by the #60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing ARX-06. Tom Blomqvist took second with a 1:46.262, while Filipe Albuquerque qualified third in the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac at 1:46.298.
The quickest factory Porsche Penske 963 was the #6 car, with Kévin Estre fourth at 1:46.395. Louis Deletraz placed fifth in the #40 WTR Cadillac, and defending Sebring winner Felipe Nasr qualified sixth in the #7 Penske Porsche at the very end of the session.
Further back, Kaylen Frederick impressed in seventh in the new-look #5 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche, ahead of both BMW M Team WRT entries and the #93 MSR Acura of Renger van der Zande. Ross Gunn rounded out the top ten in the #23 Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyrie. The entire GTP field was covered by just 1.296 seconds.
LMP2
In LMP2, Misha Goikhberg scored a career-first pole — and the first for the 13-year IMSA veteran in only his second race back in the category — driving the new-look #52 Bryan Herta Autosport with PR1/Mathiasen ORECA 07-Gibson. His 1:51.182 lap topped a tight battle, with just 0.078 seconds separating first from third.
Daniel Goldburg qualified second for United Autosports USA at 1:51.255, a scant five milliseconds ahead of defending Sebring LMP2 winner Jeremy Clarke in the #43 Inter Europol Competition ORECA (1:51.260).
PJ Hyett actually set the fastest raw time in the #99 AO Racing “Spike” car (1:50.941), but will start fourth after forfeiting that lap due to his Practice 1 accident that triggered a red flag. He falls back on his 1:51.322 backup time. Daytona winner George Kurtz qualified fifth in the #04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR entry.
GTD Pro
In GTD Pro, Jack Hawksworth set a new class record on the eve of his 100th IMSA start with Lexus, claiming pole for Vasser Sullivan Racing in the #14 Lexus RC F GT3. With six minutes remaining, Hawksworth’s 1:58.480 lap not only shattered his own 2024 mark but also broke Daniel Serra’s long-standing GTD record of 1:58.710 from 2018. He will share the front row with Ben Barnicoat and Kyle Kirkwood.
Luca Stolz had initially placed the #48 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG second at 1:58.769, but the car was disqualified in post-qualifying inspection for insufficient ground clearance, sending it to the rear of the grid. That promoted Rolex 24 winners Paul Miller Racing and Neil Verhagen to second in the #1 BMW M4 GT3 EVO (1:58.886), followed by Ricardo Feller third in the #911 Manthey “Grello” Porsche and Dean MacDonald fourth in the #59 RLL McLaren.
Antonio García qualified fifth in the #3 Corvette, ahead of former record-holder Serra in the #62 Risi Ferrari and Tommy Milner in the #4 Corvette. AO Racing’s #77 Porsche could manage only eighth despite strong practice pace. The debut #9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini Temerario qualified 12th, with Andrea Caldarelli’s 2:00.062 lap 1.582 seconds off Hawksworth’s record.
GTD
In GTD, Heart of Racing Team repeated its Daytona success by taking pole for the second straight race. Eduardo “Dudu” Barrichello — in just his third IMSA WeatherTech start — delivered a 1:58.856 lap to claim his first series pole in the #27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo, beating Philip Ellis in the #57 Winward Mercedes (1:58.980). Robby Foley placed third in the #96 Turner BMW, with Scott Andrews fourth in the #80 Lone Star Mercedes (after appearing to mistime his final lap). Le Mans winner Antonio Fuoco rounded out the top five in the #21 AF Corse Ferrari.
Polesitter Quotes
Jack Aitken, No. 31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R run by Action Express Racing:
Obviously you look at the times there, there’s not quite 3/10ths first to fourth. Top nine within a second. What did you have to do to get the pole here today? How competitive do you expect this field to be?
“Very. From what we saw in practice, it was some really quick cars out there. We were up there. I think we were trying to find a little bit of something, especially as the conditions were cooling off. It’s one of the coolest Sebring’s that we’ve had for a few years. Just getting the tire to work with you is a bit of a job. We know that we’re relatively strong in qualifying. Again, I have a fantastic car. The Whelen Cadillac was giving me a lot of confidence. It’s a really tough lap around here, so I don’t think anybody gets a perfect lap, but we were closest. It’s a lot of fun. I enjoyed it a lot. We’re going to keep doing our homework tonight and expect we’re going to have some stiff competition tomorrow.”
A lot of GTP teams have been not concerned but cautious about the tires usage this weekend because there’s 11 sets. Same number as last year. With the new tire and everything, does that cross your mind?
“Yeah, it’s always a concern. The way the race runs, it kind of pushes you to a double stint early in the race when it’s hot, which is pretty unpleasant. We’ve had to do it in previous years, and it’s not been a major issue. It’s been unpleasant for everybody, but you’re all in the same boat. This year we are going into a bit of the unknown because nobody has pushed that much mileage on the tire in practice this weekend. We’ll see. I’m sure it will be fine. The new Michelin has been a pretty nice little upgrade from the previous tire, fixed a few issues that we had. I wouldn’t expect the degradation is going to be especially worse. Like I said, it’s been one of the coolest Sebring’s, so that’s going to help us as well just to control the tire temps.”
Have you guys or JOTA done any long runs on the new tire in testing before?
“We have. But not at Sebring. And Sebring is a pretty brittle track for that. Personally I’m expecting it to go in a similar vein to previous years, but we’ll be prepared if it looks like it’s going to go sideways late in the double stint.”
How much more do you think you had in that?
“In a perfect world where I get tons of laps with the tire at its peak, there’s probably another half second in there, realistically. Like I said, it’s a really tough lap because of the bumps. The way you have to set the car up around here is going to be a bit on a knife-edge. Going through turn one, sunset, even today we got a big tailwind going through 15 and 16, it’s really tough to keep the car on the track and four wheels going in the right direction. I think we saw a few spins from previous sessions. It’s going to be the same up and down the grid. Everybody will have a similar story, I’m sure.”
Daytona, a lot of y’all talk about qualifying doesn’t seem to matter as much. Is it a different story here? Does qualifying matter more here?
“Maybe matters twice as much. 24 hours to a 12-hour (smiling). But still not a lot. No, I think it’s going to be fairly inconsequential. It’s lovely to be on pole. It’s nice to show how the team is working, putting out a good car, to get the bragging rights on some points. At the end of the day, we started last in ’25 because of an issue, and we were into the lead in less than two hours with the help of yellows and stuff. It’s kind of neither here nor there. We saw a lot of cars further down the grid were very quick in night practice and over longer runs yesterday. Fully expect they’re going to make their way through, as well.”
At the end of Daytona, you were incredibly upset with how close you were. How do you put that behind you, turn the page?
“Luckily I was over it a week or two after (smiling). It always hurts immediately after because you just get out the car, there’s lots of ifs, woulds, maybes. I think realistically, looking back at the race with the benefit of hindsight, the winners did a fantastic job over the whole race and were fairly dominant. We did well to run them as close as we did. This a whole new weekend. I’m not really carrying any of that baggage or anything like that.”
How confident are you in the pace when the Porsches were kind of showing their hand, being quickest in the practices leading up until today?
“I think, like I said earlier, we know that we’re relatively strong in qualifying. It’s been the trend over previous years. Even with the Evo upgrades and stuff we have working on the car now, I think it seems to be similar. One and a half pole positions this year. I’ll say two (smiling). I’ve still got the trophy. Definitely we’re aware of how strong some of the other cars are, like the ones you mentioned. They don’t show any signs of dropping out of the fight. If anything, they tend to somehow get quicker as the weekend goes on. I’m not taking much stock from what we’ve just seen in qualifying. I believe they’ll be right there from quite early in the race. We’ve got some homework to do still I think to find what we need to win this thing. That’s all we can do, yeah.”