Record-Setting Runs Earn Road America Poles in GTD PRO and GTD

You get a track record, and you get a track record, and you get a track record. Alex Riberas led the parade of track records Saturday at Road America, winning the Motul Pole Award in the GT Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) class for Sunday’s IMSA SportsCar Weekend.

The first race for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship on Road America’s newly repaved surface yielded four track qualifying records among the five classes. Riberas was first to gain the honor with his lap of 2 minutes, 2.918 seconds (118.556 mph) around the 14-turn, 4.048-mile circuit in the No. 23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3.

“This place is a dream for any race car driver, to be honest,” said Riberas, who claimed a pole at Road America for the second time in his IMSA career. “It’s so enjoyable. The track is full of ups and downs, fast corners, slow corners and heavy braking zones. It seems like you have everything in one place.”

Riberas’ lap shattered the previous GTD PRO track record set by Jack Hawksworth in 2022 by more than two seconds. The new surface is both fast and a bit frightening, Riberas admitted.

“It is extremely tricky for the drivers, but also very enjoyable because it’s just so fast,” Riberas said.

He was just 0.057 seconds faster than Daniel Juncadella, who will fill the front row in the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 he co-drives with Jules Gounon. Jordan Taylor had the third-best lap (2:03.143) in the No. 3 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTD he shares with Antonio Garcia.

Riberas will start 26th overall in the 45-car field in the car he co-drives with Ross Gunn when the two-hour, 40-minute race begins Sunday at 11:10 a.m. ET. The Heart of Racing Team recorded its second consecutive pole in a season that hasn’t produced the expected results. The team is fifth in the GTD PRO standings, with its only win coming two weeks ago after Gunn qualified on pole at Lime Rock Park.

“I am just so proud of the whole team,” Riberas said. “Everybody has been doing a tremendous job – even when the results don’t reflect the progress we are making. I knew behind the scenes we were making that effort and that progression, and yet the results didn’t quite work for us. I’m happy to finally have the results pay off and get a good result for the team.” 

Snow Claims Important Pole for No. 1 Paul Miller BMW in GTD

The speed wasn’t the important part. The points were. Madison Snow won the Motul Pole Award in the GT Daytona (GTD) class with a track-record time of 2:03.291 in the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3. That broke the previous GTD record of 2:05.250 set by Ben Keating in 2019.

The resulting 35 points were crucial, expanding the lead Snow and co-driver Bryan Sellers have over the rest of the GTD field. They’re now unofficially 92 points ahead of the No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 co-driven by Marco Sorensen and Roman De Angelis heading into the race.

“Every little point you can get matters,” Snow said. “Qualifying always helps. The points add up at the end of the year.”

Snow qualified fourth fastest among all GT cars on Saturday, a starting position almost as important as the points for the pole because two GTD PRO cars are sandwiched between him and the rest of the GTD field.

“It’s definitely going to help, especially where I am on the start,” Snow said. “You definitely want to be on the inside. But being up front is always a good thing. I mean, I didn’t really know what lap time we were going to get. It definitely surprised me a little bit.”

Brendan Iribe secured the second GTD starting position with a lap of 2:03.382 (118.110 mph) in the No. 70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3 EVO he co-drives with Frederik Schandorff. Frankie Montecalvo will start third in the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 (2:03.950, 117.569 mph) that he co-drives with Aaron Telitz.

“Everybody is so strong lap timewise and everything, so you have to give it everything you’ve got,” Snow said. “We did a lot of hard work overnight because of where everybody is in terms of the championship right now. We gave it everything we had.”