Fastest Gunn in the East Speeds to Lime Rock GTD PRO Pole

On a fast day at Lime Rock Park, Ross Gunn found the most speed.

Gunn whipped the No. 23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 around the 1.474-mile Lime Rock “Bullring” in 50.593 seconds on Friday to earn the Motul Pole Award for the FCP Euro Northeast Grand Prix presented by Liqui Moly, a standalone round for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GT classes.

The 104.883-mph lap around the seven-turn road course smashed the existing track record for the GT Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) class established by Matt Campbell in 2022 by nearly half a second. It was also nearly two-tenths of a second faster than this year’s second fastest GTD PRO qualifier Jack Hawksworth could manage in the championship-leading No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 he shares with Ben Barnicoat.

Gunn paid tribute to his Heart of Racing crew, which built up a new Aston Martin car in less than two weeks since the team’s primary car was damaged in an accident during the last round at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. It was the second pole in Gunn’s WeatherTech Championship career.

“It’s nice to reward the guys after the really quick turnaround,” said Gunn, whose co-driver is Alex Riberas. “To be honest, I owe all of that to them because they’re the ones that do the really long hours and the real hard graft. We’re the lucky ones that get to drive the car.

“I left it all out on the track, and I’m really, really happy with how it went.”

All five cars entered in the GTD PRO class broke Campbell’s 2022 track record of 51.079 seconds. Practice pacesetters Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor (No. 3 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTD) will line up third in Saturday’s 2-hour, 40-minute race.

Gunn and Riberas have faced their share of challenges in 2023, and they are seeking their first podium finish of the season.

“Sprint races are notorious for being very important for qualifying, so hopefully we can take advantage of the track position,” Gunn said. “We’ve been really struggling this year to get any sort of luck or any sort of form running.

“We still have to go out tomorrow and try and get a result.” 

Early Flyer Holds up for Skeen to Take GTD Pole in No. 32 Mercedes

Mike Skeen did what he had to do early, then all he could do was wait and see if he’d collect his first Motul Pole Award in WeatherTech Championship competition.

Skeen turned a track-record lap of 51.157 seconds (103.727 mph) a little more than six minutes into Friday’s qualifying session, then parked the No. 32 Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 and waited out the checkered flag. The lap held up – barely – by 0.007 seconds to deliver the GT Daytona (GTD) class pole to Skeen, co-driver Mikael Grenier and the No. 32 Mercedes. They’ll start sixth overall in the 20-car GT field for Saturday’s race. 

Afterward, Skeen credited team strategy for the success.

“We decided it was a pretty narrow window with the tire degradation,” he explained. “We felt like there would be two, maybe three laps that would be good so we set pressures and fuel accordingly. More or less, it went to plan. We found ourselves a gap and were able to push for those couple laps and get a good, solid lap in. Testament to the guys again for that strategy.”

Frederik Schandorff came tantalizingly close to upsetting that plan in the waning moments, pushing the No. 70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3 to a 51.164-second lap. But it wasn’t enough to eclipse Skeen, who eclipsed the previous GTD record at Lime Rock set in 2019 by Trent Hindman by 0.299 seconds.

“Very special,” Skeen said of his maiden pole. “Obviously, I haven’t had the opportunity to qualify a bunch of these cars; didn’t do a lot of qualifying last year. To get over the struggles we’ve had a little bit this year and see the team really executing and gelling well, it’s nice to be able to reward them for all the hard work and giving me a great car to be able to put it on the pole for us today.”

Taking care of the Michelin tires will play a vital role in Saturday’s race as well, he added.

“Tire degradation looks pretty significant here,” Skeen said, “so it’s going to be all about kind of managing the pace and keeping the car in a comfortable position to hand it off to Mik, and hopefully have him finish strong for us.”

Live coverage of Saturday’s two-hour, 40-minute race begins at noon ET on USA Network, Peacock and IMSA Radio.