IMSA News: Acura locks out front row on streets of Detroit

Nick Yelloly (pictured) uncorked a series of laps that would have been good enough for the Detroit Motul Pole Award in the No. 93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06, culminating in a 1 minute, 5.762 second (90.052 mph) effort.

That earned the 34-year-old Englishman his first career pole in WeatherTech Championship competition and puts him and co-driver Renger van der Zande in the absolute best starting spot for Saturday’s 100-minute race on the 1.645-mile street course.

Tom Blomqvist added to the joy for Acura and MSR by placing the team’s No. 60 Acura ARX-06 entry he shares with Colin Braun on the outside of the front row with the only other sub-66-second lap in the 15-minute qualifying session (1:05.908, 89.852 mph).

BMW M Team RLL, which took pole position for all four WeatherTech Championship races this year, swept the second row, with Sheldon van der Linde in the No. 25 BMW M Hybrid V8 outqualifying Dries Vanthoor in the identical No. 24 car for the first time in 2025.

Yelloly is the only one of the top four qualifying drivers who raced at Detroit in 2024, with Blomqvist, van der Linde and Vanthoor all making their downtown Detroit debuts.

With passing expected to be difficult within the track’s narrow confines, qualifying might have been the most important aspect of the Detroit weekend. The pole boosted Yelloly’s confidence that he and Acura can break Porsche Penske Motorsport’s four-race win streak.

“Pole is the best place to start at any street circuit; it usually makes your life quite a bit easier,” Yelloly remarked. “Super happy to get my first pole in IMSA. We’ve been working very hard as a team to make sure we get everything right, chipping away week after week. We go from strength to strength every weekend, and it just keeps getting better and better.

“At a street circuit, you can’t just bang in one lap, because you’ll probably make a mistake,” he added. “You kind of need to edge closer to the limit. I knew I’d done a relatively good lap already and knew I had two laps to go at the end. I put it, let’s say, all on the line and rubbed the wall a few times, but it was just enough to get that pole.”

It was the first pole for the Meyer Shank team since the WeatherTech Championship race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in July 2023. That was also the last time the polesitter won the GTP class race.

Meyer Shank Racing’s last front row sweep in IMSA’s top class came at the 2008 Rolex 24 At Daytona.

Yelloly took pride on the light scrape marks on the side of the No. 93 Acura and the sidewalls of its Michelin tires.

“Every lap here you’re edging to the limit, and if you get the limit just right, you’ll rub the wall,” he said. “I checked the bodywork, and it’s literally just a scrape, and there’s a little mark on the tire. That usually means you’ve done a decent lap, so I’m happy with my little painting on the side of the car.”

Porsche Penske Motorsport continued the team-by-team aspect of the Detroit grid by sweeping the third row, with GTP points leaders Nick Tandy and Felipe Nasr lining up sixth. Cadillacs filled the next three positions. Tandy and Nasr’s No. 7 Porsche and both Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing entries went into qualifying knowing they’d lose their fastest qualifying laps after bringing out red flags in the two practice sessions held earlier Friday.

Strategic variations are likely to be few in the 100-minute “sprint” race, with most teams expected to run the event with a single pit stop for energy and a driver change, only taking tires if circumstances permit.

“It’s going to be important to pull out a gap, whether through traffic or just on pace, and nail that driver change,” Yelloly said. “The people starting further back will probably roll the dice more than the people starting at the front.

Detroit Qualifying Results