CORE autosport’s Braun Leads Qualifying For IMSA WeatherTech Northeast Grand Prix and Earns Third Po

With the mercury hitting the century mark at Lime Rock Park, Colin Braun captured his second consecutive TOTAL Pole Award and third of the season in Prototype Challenge (PC) in qualifying for Saturday’s IMSA WeatherTech Northeast Grand Prix (FOX, Live, 3 p.m. ET).

Braun ran a track record lap of 48.824 (108.6 mph) in the No. 54 CORE autosport Flex-Box/Composite Resources/Crowdstrike ORECA FLM09 co-driven by Jon Bennett.

“Obviously, I’m really happy to get the pole, but with the race being held in the heat of the day tomorrow, we felt qualifying as a good opportunity to evaluate the car and setup,” said Braun, winning his seventh career pole in the class. “Saturday’s race is the most important thing here, and with limited track time, we felt this session was ideal to prepare for it.”

Bennett will start the race in the No. 54 machine, moving him to the rear of the PC grid. As a result, Robert Alon, who was only 0.016 seconds behind with a lap of 48.840 seconds (108.6 mph), will move to the top starting spot. He will be joined by 2015 Lime Rock winner Tom Kimber-Smith of nearby Pleasant Valley, New York, in the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Professional Security Consultants/Westfield ORECA FLM09.

James French was third with a lap of 48.930 seconds (108.4 mph) in the No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports ORECA co-driven by Kyle Marcelli.

Lamborghini, Pumpelly Take Second TOTAL Pole Award Of Season In GT Daytona Qualifying

In GT Daytona (GTD) qualifying, Spencer Pumpelly stepped up to give Lamborghini its second TOTAL Pole Award of the season.

Pumpelly ran an IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GT Daytona (GTD) class track-record lap of 53.148 seconds (99.8 mph) in the No. 16 Change Racing Pertamina/Monster Energy Lamborghini Huracán GT3 co-driven by Corey Lewis.

“We’ve had awesome race pace in this car, but we’ve been struggling in qualifying,” said Pumpelly, who captured his third career pole in WeatherTech Championship competition. “I remember the exact same thing happening here [for an ALMS GTC class] race in 2013. It was really hot, and we ended up getting the pole and winning the race. I hope this pole is a good omen – we’ve got the heat and the pole, now all we’re missing is the win.”

Audi took the next two positions. Andrew Davis was second, a scant 0.030 seconds behind, with a lap of 53.178 seconds (99.7 mph) in the No. 6 Stevenson Motorsports Audi R8 LMS GT3 co-driven by Robin Liddell. Teammate Matt Bell was only another 0.044 seconds back, running 53.222 seconds (99.7 mph) in the No. 9 Audi he shares with Lawson Aschenbach.

Christina Nielsen was fourth with a lap of 53.250 seconds (99.6 mph) in the No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3. Nielson and co-driver Alessandro Balzan enter the race with a 22-point lead in the GTD standings, leading sixth-qualifying Porsche drivers Mario Farnbacher and Alex Riberas, 191-169.

During WeatherTech Championship qualifying Friday afternoon, the track temperature was measured at 140 degrees Fahrenheit, the hottest of the season to date.

Saturday’s schedule begins with a 20-minute WeatherTech Championship warm-up at 9:05 a.m. ET. Round 6 of the Continental Tire SportsCar Championship takes the green flag at 10 a.m., followed by the IMSA WeatherTech Northeast Grand Prix at 3:05 p.m. The race will be televised live on FOX, with the three-hour program beginning at 3 p.m. ET.

Contact:

nsiebens@imsa.com

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