Niederhauser bags Indy 8 Hour pole for Porsche and Herberth

Patric Niederhauser’s rapid opening lap was enough to seal Indianapolis 8 Hour Presented by AWS pole position for Herberth Motorsport and Porsche this evening.

The Swiss set a blistering 1m22.564s to beat the impressive Alex Palou (Lone Star Racing) to top spot by 0.114s, while 2023 pole winner Laurin Heinrich (Wright Motorsports) completed the first three.

It was the second time in as many years that a Pro-Am entry featuring Antares Au – who leads the Intercontinental GT Challenge Independent Cup standings – beat the IGTC and Fanatec GT World Challenge America Powered by AWS Pro entries in qualifying.

It was made possible by the #10 911 GT3 R progressing to the 10-car Shootout from Friday afternoon’s three-part qualifying session – an impressive achievement on its own given the Pro entries should have enjoyed a natural advantage.

That difference was negated in the 15-minute Shootout when nine factory drivers representing Porsche, Mercedes-AMG and BMW contended for pole.

In previous years P1 was only settled after a back-and-forth scrap. But Niederhauser’s early effort, which was 0.4s faster than anyone else at the time, left the rest playing catch up.

His advantage was whittled away by both Palou – who outqualified Arjun Maini and Maro Engel on debut in the same machinery – and Heinrich who’d earlier set fastest time in qualifying, but never bettered.

The latter finished 0.189s down on pole but 0.059s ahead of Dries Vanthoor (Team WRT) in the best placed of four BMWs that made the Shootout. His co-driver Charles Weerts therefore starts two places behind fellow Intercontinental title contender Luca Stolz.

Maini was next up in Triple Eight JMR’s Mercedes-AMG featuring Prince Jefri Ibrahim, which ensured that both IGTC Independent Cup contenders will start in the overall top five tomorrow.

His factory colleague Engel lines up alongside in the GruppeM machine that topped Qualifying earlier today, while last year’s Indy winner Philipp Eng slotted ST Racing’s M4 into seventh.

Further BMWs entered by WRT – whose second car includes championship protagonists Dan Harper and Max Hesse – and Random Vandals plus the RS1 Porsche completed the Pole Shootout positions.

Three of IGTC’s four title contenders made the Shootout. The exception was championship leader Ayhancan Guven who has work to do from 14th if he’s to beat the likes of Weerts, Stolz and Harper/Hesse to 2024’s drivers’ crown tomorrow.

Results are HERE