Lilou Wadoux and Robert Shwartzman will test a Le Mans-winning Ferrari 499P next month at the FIA World Endurance Championship rookie test, which will take place at Bahrain after the 8 Hours of Bahrain the day before.

Silver-rated Wadoux, and platinum-rated Shwartzman, have been associated with Ferrari for a few years, with Wadoux being the first female Ferrari factory driver. Shwartzman, meanwhile, has tested for the Ferrari F1 team this year, in addition to driving for AF Corse in the GT World Challenge Europe series.

In addition to Ferrari, young American Josh Pierson, plus Brits Jack Hawksworth and Ben Barnicoat, will test the Toyota GR010. The latter two won this year’s IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship’s GTD Pro class title in the Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3. They’ll be joined by Jose Maria Lopez, an existing GR010 race driver.

Porsche will test Thomas Preining in the Penske-run factory 963, who just last week won the DTM championship driving for Manthey, plus Pietro Fittipaldi in the JOTA-run Porsche 963, while Rene Binder and Julien Andlauer will test Proton’s 963.

Nico Varrone, who alongside Ben Keating and Nicky Catsburg won the WEC GTE drivers’ title this year, will test Cadillac’s V-Series.R. He’ll be joined by young Barbadian Kyffin Simpson, who has been making waves both in the European Le Mans Series and Indy Lights.

Over at Peugeot, current young driver for the French squad Malthe Jakobsen will test the 9X8, alongside 2024 race driver Stoffel Vandoorne. They’ll be joined by existing Peugeot race driver Mikkel Jensen.

And finally in Hypercar, Job van Uitert will test the Vanwall Vandervell 680, alongside current Vanwall driver Esteban Guerrieri.

In LMP2, PJ Hyett, Harry Tincknell, and Paul-Loup Chatin will test for Prema, with Daniel Schnieder in the United Autosports Oreca 07-Gibson, and Clement Novalak in the Inter Europol Competition machine.

Christoph Ulrich will test a Ferrari 488 GTE EVO for AF Corse, with Nicky Catsburg doing double duty as he’ll drive the Corvette C8.R he’s been racing this year, providing a benchmark for Antoine Doquin, who will also test the car. Nicola Marinangelli will test another AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE EVO, as well as Lorenzo Patrese. 

Cadillac’s Sebastien Bourdais leads the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship’s Petit Le Mans with 2 hours to go, with a close battle between all four GTP manufacturers.

Bourdais, in the #01 Cadillac V-Series.R, took over from his teammate, Indycar legend Scott Dixon. The Kiwi led the race for the large part of an hour, before losing it to Louis Deletraz in the pit stop cycle, with the Swiss driver behind the wheel of the #10 Wayne Taylor Acura ARX-06.

The two dueled for the lead amongst high levels of traffic, but Deletraz used the slower cars to his advantage to grow a lead of a couple of seconds. A full course yellow and subsequent safety car, for Laurens Vanthoor crashing the struggling #6 Porsche 963, and also the #11 TDS Oreca 07-Gibson of Mikkel Jensen — which means, due to the car’s later retirement, Jensen and co-driver Steven Thomas lose the championship — put pause on the GTP lead duel, and Deletraz lost the lead to Dixon in the ensuing pit stops.

Dixon then led the race but pitted and swapped with Bourdais. Jack Aitken, in the #31 Action Express Cadillac, sat second, with #60 Meyer Shank Acura ARX-06’s Tom Blomqvist third, before Deletraz took the position to move back into the podium positions.

The most recent yellow was called for Andy Lally’s stricken #44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3, with Lally beaching the car and needing to be pulled out by the marshals. However, Bourdais was able to retain the lead at the subsequent pit stops and restart, and has pulled out a lead of around 4 seconds over Aitken, giving Cadillac a 1-2 with 2 hours remaining.

Deletraz’s teammate Filipe Albuquerque is third in the #10 Acura, just a few tenths behind Aitken.

In LMP2, Alex Quinn leads the #52 PR1 Mathiasen Oreca 07-Gibson, with Nolan Siegel second in the #04 Crowdstrike by APR Oreca. Third is Josh Pierson, on board the #35 TDS Oreca. The #11 TDS’s retirement means Quinn’s teammates, Ben Keating and Paul-Loup Chatin, are on course to win the LMP2 IMSA championship.

Garett Grist leads LMP3 in the #30 Jr III Ligier JS P320-Nissan, with Felipe Fraga second, at the wheel of the #74 Riley Ligier. Third is the first of the Duqueines, the #13 AWA Duqueine D08-Nissan of Lars Kern.

Jordan Pepper is leading the GTD Pro class and the two classes GT overall, in the #63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2. Behind him is the leading GTD car, Mike Skeen in the #32 Korthoff Mercedes-AMG GT3, with Alex Riberas the next GTD Pro, driving the #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3.

Second in GTD and fourth GT overall is Thomas Merrill, in the #97 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3. Third in GTD Pro is #9 Pfaff Porsche 911 GT3 R’s Patrick Pilet. And third in GTD is Gunnar Jeannette in the #80 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R.

Sebastien Bourdais, behind the wheel of the #01 Cadillac V-Series.R, is leading the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship’s season finale, Petit Le Mans, after a frantic first two hours, which has included four caution periods and three safety cars.

Louis Deletraz, in the #10 Wayne Taylor Acura ARX-06, started on pole but lost the lead to Bourdais at the start. However, the race wasn’t green for long, as Ari Balogh in the #8 Tower Motorsports Oreca 07-Gibson spun and crashed his car only a few minutes into the race. A full course yellow was thrown and the rsce soon restarted again, after the car was loaded onto a flatbed.

Bourdais retained the lead and got a decent jump on Deletraz, but the race once again wasn’t green for long. Ferrari factory driver Antonio Fuoco,driving the #47 Cetilar Ferrari 296 GT3, got a pubcture while trying to pass the #32 Korthoff Mercedes-AMG GT3, meaning another full course yellow was called, followed by a safety car to bunch the field together.

Many GTPs pitted, but Bourdais and Deletraz stayed out. Meanwhile, in LMP2, Ben Keating in the #52 PR1 Mathiasen Oreca 07-Gibson, had been growing his lead but had this slashed under the safety car.

At the restart, Pipo Derani in the #31 Action Express Cadillac V-Series.R lost three places with the Brazilian getting a slow start as he had to check up behind Deletraz, who was again cautious. It was, however, the Brazilian who lost out, going from third to sixth at the first corner, with #60 Meyer Shank Acura ARX-06’s Tom Blomqvist now third.

Over in the two GT classes, GTD Pro and GTD, young Frenchwoman Doriane Pin lead overall in the GTD-entered #83 Iron Dames Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, from the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 of Jack Hawksworth. Hawksworth and his teammate Ben Barnicoat won the GTD Pro championship as soon as the green flag flew, with no one able to mathematically catch them in the points after this race.

Deletraz, meanwhile, caught Bourdais by virtue of better luck in traffic and, down the back straight, passed the veteran Frenchman on the inside into the chicane. At the first hour these two led, with Blomqvist third.

However, soon after there was yet another yellow after a 3-car incident on the way down to the chicane. Dennis Andersen, driving the #20 High Class Oreca 07-Gibson, tipped Charles Scardina in the #023 Triarsi Ferrari 296 GT3 into a spin. 

Scardina’s Ferrari subsequently collected Brendan Iribe in the #70 Inception McLaren 720s GT3 Evo and, with GTP title implications, Nick Tandy in the #6 Porsche 963. All three cars ended up in the gravel trap, but Andersen managed to get away — despite causing the whole thing. He would later get a drive through penalty plus a 120 second stop/go penalty for causing an avoidable accident.

Once the mess was cleared, many GTPs pitted, although most had with the exception of Bourdais, who was leading. Former leader Deletraz was at the back as he had pitted early. However, he retook the lead when he didn’t pit under caution. Bourdais, meanwhile, lost out as he had to do a full fuel fill, while others did not.

At the restart, Deletraz led from Blomqvist and Felipe Nasr in the #7 Porsche 963. This order was retained but soon, another caution period was called as Deletraz and Blomqvist battled for the lead. Blomqvist then pushed Corey Lewis, in the #1 Paul M<iller BMW M4 GT3, into the wall while lapping the American after the chicane.

Also under the current yellow, contact was made between Sheldon van der Linde in the #25 BMW M Hybrid V8 and Alexander Sims, who had taken over the #31 Action Express Cadillac from Derani. Both ran through the red light with van der Linde rear ending Sims as the Brit stopped suddenly at pit out.

So, with the race having just restarted, Bourdais leads from the #5 JDC Miller Porsche 963 of Mike Rockenfeller. Third is Marco Wittmann in the #24 BMW, with Nasr’s teammate Matt Campbell fourth in the #7 Porsche. Deletraz’s teammate Ricky Taylor is fifth in the #10 Waytne Taylor Acura.

In LMP2, Keating’s teammate Alex Quinn leads in the #52 PR1 Mathiasen Oreca. George Kurtz is second in the #04 Crowdstrike by APR Oreca, with Steven Thomas third in the #11 TDS Racing Oreca.

Bijoy Garg is leading LMP3, in the #30 Jr III Ligier JS P320-Nissan, with Anthony Mantella second in the #17 AWA Duqueine D08-Nissan. Josh Burdon is third in the #74 Riley Ligier.

Jules Gounon is top of GTD Pro, in the #79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3, with Kevin Estre following him in the #9 Pfaff Porsche 911 GT3 R. Kyle Kirkwood is third in the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC GT3.

Finally, in GTD, Russell Ward, behind the wheel of the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3, leads the class. Patrick Liddy, in the #78 Forte Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT£ EVO2, is second, with Kenton Koch in the #32 Korthoff Mercedes-AMG GT3 third.

Louis Deletraz has taken pole for the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship’s Petit Le Mans, in the #10 Wayne Taylor Acura ARX-06, with the Swiss driver setting a 1:15.402.

It was an incredibly hard fought GTP qualifying session, with the provisional polesitter changing almost too frequently to count. 

The 20 minute session for the top class prototypes started off raining, with most teams scrubbing in a set of dry tyres for the race, then pitting for a set of wet treaded tyres. The times were very slow for the first 10 minutes, slower even than the slowest GTD cars, which had qualified earlier in drier conditions.

However, in the second half of the session, with all cars on wets, the times came tumbling now, with Augusto Farfus in the #24 BMW M Hybrid V8 being the first driver to go under 1:20, with a 1:19.904. 

All four manufacturers subsequently had a car at the top of times at some point in the remaining 10 minutes. With around 5 minutes to go, cars started pitting to get a new set of wet tyres, as the track conditions stabilised.

With new sets of tyres, the cars started to go for their final laps. Sebastien Bourdais, onboard the #01 Cadillac V-Series.R, set a 1:15.632, but Deletraz was able to beat him by just over two tenths to take pole in the Konica Minolta-sponsored Acura.

With Deletraz on pole and Bourdais alongside him, third went to Farfus in the RLL-run BMW. Fourth was the #60 Meyer Shank Acura ARX-06 of Tom Blomqvist, just a few hundredths off Farfus. Blomqvist topped the timesheets through the session more than once, but ultimately couldn’t muster the same pace as Deletraz.

Fifth was Nick Tandy in the #6 Porsche 963, the quickest of the four cars from the German manufacturer. Tandy was on a quick final lap but lost time in the second sector, meaning he did not manage to improve. Sixth was Connor De Phillippi in the sister #25 BMW, while Felipe Nasr, in the #7 Porsche, was seventh, 

Pipo Derani in the #31 Action Express Cadillac V-Series.R was eighth after losing it at the esses on his final lap, going off track through the motorcycle chicane.

Ninth was Mike Rockenfeller in the #5 JDC Miller Porsche 963, while the #59 Proton Porsche 963 had issues and did not complete a representative lap time.

Ben Keating took his 14th IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship pole, in the #52 PR1 Mathiasen Oreca 07-Gibson, with the American setting a 1:13.859 to beat Steven Thomas, in the #11 TDS Racing Oreca 07-Gibson, by just 20 thousandths of a second.

The entire session for the LMPs was dominated by Keating and Thomas battling it out for LMP2 pole, as it as been for much of this season. As the session wore on, the tyres got up to full temperature, and the fuel burned off, they cut their times by almost two seconds. 

George Kurtz did get a brief look in, briefly putting Keating down into third — before the car dealer beat him and went faster again. Kurtz went eventually qualify fourth, behind John Falb, who went third fastest in the sister #35 TDS Racing Oreca 07-Gibson, 0.521 off Keating.

In LMP3, Glenn Van Berlo claimed class pole in the #36 Andretti Autosport Ligier JS P320-Nissan, lapping Road Atlanta in 1:16.674. Second was Rasmus Lindh in the #85 JDC Miller Duqueine D08-Nissan, 0.129 off Van Berlo. Third was Bijoy Garg, in the #30 Jr III Ligier JS P320-Nissan, a further 0.144 off.

In the two GT classes, GTD Pro and GTD, Ian James in the GTD-entered #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 was fastest overall, setting a 1:23.116. 

James was on slicks, which may explain the half a tenth gap between himself and Jack Hawksworth, in the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3, who was fastest in the GTD Pro class and second overall in GT. 

He set a 1:23.168 early on in the session, but was pipped by James for overall pole, with the Brit failing to go quicker later on. Third fastest overall was Mirko Bortolotti in the GTD Pro #63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO, but the Italian would lose all his lap times after getting out of the car before qualifying ended.

This promoted teammate Doriane Pin to third overall, and second in GTD, in the #83 Iron Dames Lamborghini, setting a 1:23.795, a few tenths slower than Bortolotti’s disallowed time.

Third in GTD, and fourth overall, was Aaron Telitz in the #12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus, just over 7 tenths slower than James.

Second in GTD Pro, seventh overall, was Antonio Garcia in the #3 Corvette C8.R. Third, and ninth overall, was Jules Gounon in the #79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3.

Lamborghini conducted three days of testing earlier this week at the Circuito de Almería in Spain, as Romain Grosjean drove his first laps in the SC63 LMDh.

He was joined by fellow Lamborghini factory driver Andrea Caldarelli, collectively driving nearly 2000 km of mileage at the 4.2 km circuit.

Technicians from Lamborghini and the Italian manufacturer’s team partner, Iron Lynx, were able to simulate full course yellow conditions and restart procedures, often implemented in endurance races to neutralise the race if there are safety concerns.

The team remain set to debut next year competitively at the FIA World Endurance Championship’s Qatar race, which will open the season in early March.

However, the team will not debut the car at the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship debut at the 24 Hours of Daytona in January, instead waiting until later in the year for its first competitive outing on American soil.

Furthermore, Lamborghini will only race in select IMSA Endurance Cup rounds, which form part of the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship. 

Grosjean said: “It was a very intense three days, but I am very happy to have been able to work the team and the car on the track for the first time. 

“The car proved to be very good from the first laps and I can’t wait to put even more kilometres on it during the next tests.

“It felt really good, and I am happy to be in Almería with the whole team and discovering all the people and the work that has been going on behind the scenes. 

“So, I am very excited to be here, the car felt really good from the beginning but obviously we still have a bit of a journey [ahead of us].

“But the work that has been done prior to my arrival has been very good and I am looking forward to learning more about the car.”

The testing programme for the SC63 LMDh will continue in Europe next week.

Additionally, the Iron Lynx test team will move to the United States to continue the homologation process by IMSA, with a series of tests across North American circuits.

Cadillac has confirmed it will run a single V-Series.R Hypercar in the 2024 season of the FIA World Championship, ending months of speculation over whether the American manufacturer would run two cars.

Mark Stielow, GM director of motorsports competition, confirmed the news on a call hosted by IMSA prior to this weekend’s Petit Le Mans, the season finale of the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship.

Cadillac currently runs a single car – courtesy of Chip Ganassi Racing – in the championship, with a driving crew of Alex Lynn, Earl Bamber, and Richard Westbrook. However, the manufacturer previously said it was considering whether it could double up for next year, with Laura Wontrop Klauser refusing to confirm or deny to MotorsportWeek.com at Le Mans whether the team would run one of two cars next year.

However, this has now been decided in favour of just one car. Cadillac also runs two cars, one for Chip Ganassi and one for Action Express, in IMSA. It has not been confirmed whether these cars will come over next year for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, as they did for this year’s centenary edition of Le Mans.

It remains to be seen whether the driving crew of Lynn, Bamber and Westbrook will remain.

United Autosports and McLaren have announced they will team up to enter the FIA World Endurance Championship’s new-for-2024 LMGT3 class next season.

The partnership will see United Autosports, which currently runs two Oreca 07-Gibsons in the LMP2 class in WEC, switch to the new LMGT3 category, running two McLaren 720s EVO GT3s.

LMP2 is being scrapped from the WEC next year, with both the existing Hypercar class and LMGT3 being oversubscribed for entries. United Autosports will also switch its LMP2 campaign to the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship.

Of course, the LMGT3 programme is subject to approval by the FIA and ACO’s selection committee, which decides and selects all WEC entries. If selected, the United Autosports/McLaren partnership may compete against the likes of Porsche and Manthey, Ford and Proton, Ferrari and AF Corse, BMW and WRT, and Lamborghini and Iron Lynx.

McLaren have notable history at Le Mans, winning the race overall in 1995 with the McLaren F1, both the car and manufacturer’s debut in the French endurance classic. United Autosports, meanwhile, have also won the race once in the LMP2, in 2020. They have also won the LMP2 WEC title once, in 2019-20, and currently sit third in the LMP2 teams standings with one race remaining this year.

“This is a very important project for McLaren on their return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans, so we are extremely proud to have been selected as the team to represent McLaren in LMGT3 at Le Mans and indeed in the WEC,” said United Autosports CEO Richard Dean.

 “United Autosports’ experience at Le Mans and in the World Endurance Championship will be invaluable but we know this is a seriously competitive place to be and we are ready for the challenge.”

Meanwhile, Michael Leiters, CEO, McLaren Automotive, said: “Motorsport remains a fundamental part of McLaren’s future of performance strategy, and we have long viewed the WEC as a natural fit for demonstrating the performance capabilities of our cars.”

“This includes a return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans that is an intrinsic part of our enduring success in motorsport and in particular, the Triple Crown which is unique to McLaren as a supercar manufacturer and racing car constructor. 

“We have selected United Autosports, who we feel shares our passion for endurance GT racing as well as the McLaren brand and, like McLaren, has a history of success in motorsport. 

“United Autosports has communicated to the Automobile Club de l’Ouest its intent to field two McLaren 720S GT3 EVOs in the 2024 WEC and we hope that their entry will be accepted. And we are looking forward to racing our rivals in the WEC from 2024.”

Aston Martin has announced it will enter the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship and IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship with ‘at least one’ car in each series, using the Valkyrie AMR Pro.

The British car manufacturer will be joined in the programme by The Heart of Racing, its endurance racing partner, for both programmes. This may mark the first time an LMH-rules car will enter IMSA.

“Performance is the lifeblood of everything that we do at Aston Martin, and motorsport is the ultimate expression of this pursuit of excellence” said Lawrence Stroll, Chairman of Aston Martin.

“We have been present at Le Mans since the earliest days, and through those glorious endeavours we succeeded in winning Le Mans in 1959 and our class 19 times over the past 95 years. Now we return to the scene of those first triumphs aiming to write new history with a racing prototype inspired by the fastest production car Aston Martin has ever built.”

The programme will be run from Aston Martin’s new Technology Campus, co-located with the Aston Martin F1 team. The car will be developed by Aston Martin Performance Technologies, using a naturally-aspirated V12 engine which will be performance-balanced for competition in WEC and IMSA. 

However, it will not feature a hybrid component like much of its competition in both series.

Isotta Fraschini is ‘evaluating if it is possible’ to have two cars in the FIA World Endurance Championship next year, ahead of the Italian manufacturer’s debut in the series, and return to motorsport after decades away.

“Since car brands can have two cars on the grid we are simply evaluating if it is possible to have a second car on the grid with another team for the whole season. There are no changes to Vector’s plan,” a spokesman for the manufacturer told MotorsportWeek.com.

This indicates that the plan for current WEC LMP2 team, Vector Sport, to run a single Isotta Fraschini car in the series, as Gary Holland told MotorsportWeek.com at Sebring earlier this year, remains.

However, it also opens up the possibility of another team entering another Isotta Fraschini Tipo 6 LMH Competizione into the championship.

Furthermore, as reported by Dailysportscar, this could be any one of LMP2 team Duqueine, or the Swiss GT squad Emil Frey Racing, which currently races in DTM. However, Dailysportscar also reported that it believes either team are unlikely to be accepted with a second Isotta Fraschini next year. MotorsportWeek.com has contacted both teams, but has not had a reply from either.

The Milanese manufacturer continues to test its car, having most recently tested at Motorland Aragon.

They completed 251 laps and 1341 km over three days – from Sunday 10 to Tuesday 12 September – in the hands of Marco Bonanomi, Matteo Malucelli and Jean Karl Vernay.

“We expected three days of intense testing, and so it was,” said Claudio Berro, motorsport director of Isotta Fraschini.

“Apart from a small electronic problem on the first day, the tests developed very well. We had very variable conditions, as you normally find in endurance racing. 

“Heat, sun, night, rain… everything needed to temper and consolidate an car studied for long distance races. We are therefore satisfied with the kilometers traveled in all these conditions, another important step for the developing the car. Great work by the team and the drivers.”

Update: we’ve heard back from Emil Frey Racing regarding the speculation. Here’s what they had to say:

“For Emil Frey Racing, involvement in LMH or LMDH is undoubtedly exciting from a technical point of view, but it also has to make sense from a financial point of view.”

Porsche have locked out the front row for tomorrow’s IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, with Matt Campbell ahead of Mathieu Jaminet.

Campbell set a 1:13.672 to claim pole in the #7 Porsche 963, with Jaminet a tenth and half behind in the sister #6 Porsche.

The two red and white were quick all session, but it was Gianmaria Bruni in the customer #99 Proton Porsche 963 who set the initial pace. However, Campbell soon beat him, and was the first driver into the 1:13s.

Jaminet soon followed through to go second, but the Frenchman couldn’t quite beat his Kiwi teammate all session. Tom Blomqvist did briefly take second with a few minutes to go, but Jaminet responded and also got into the 1:13s, following his Porsche teammate through.

Blomqvist, in the #60 Meyer Shank Acura ARX-06, had to settle for third, just under two tenths adrift of Campbell and only 0.040 slower than Jaminet.

Fourth was Sebastien Bourdais in the #01 Cadillac V-Series.R, making it three manufacturers in the top 4. The veteran Frenchman took his time to set his lap, only grabbing fourth on his penultimate lap but failing to improve by the necessary amount — under a tenth of a second — to take third away from Blomqvist.

Ricky Taylor claimed fifth, onboard the #60 Wayne Taylor Acura ARX-06, while the two BMWs, with Philip Eng and Nick Yelloly at the wheel, could only manage sixth and seventh. Eng was the faster of the two, 0.498 slower than Campbell in the #24 BMW M Hybrid V8, with his teammate just 0.003 slower in the sister #25 BMW.

Ben Keating claimed pole in LMP2, with the American car dealer setting a 1:17.950, the only driver to make it into the 1:17s.

The #52 PR1 Mathiasen Oreca 07-Gibson driver was quickest all through the session, with Keating at one point just 0.002 faster than George Kurtz in the #04 Crowdstrike by APR Oreca 07-Gibson, with Keating’s initial lap being a 1:18.388.

In LMP3, Bjorn Garg was quickest, at the wheel of the #29 Jr III Racing Ligier JS P320. The American-Indian driver set a 1:20.513, just 11 thousandths of a second faster than his teammate, Nolan Siegel, in the sister #30 Jr III car.

However, midway into the LMP2/LMP3 session, Gar Robinson, driving the #74 Riley Ligier JS P320, crashed heavily into the tyres on the road course section of the speedway. While the driver was okay and got out of the car under his own steam, this caused a halt in proceedings and a red flag while the Ligier was extracted from the tyre barriers and placed onto a flatbed truck.

When the session resumed there were 2 minutes and 20 seconds added to the clock — enough to do an outlap and a single flying lap.

Keating subsequently improved from his initial lap before the red flag to set his pole lap time, while Kurtz couldn’t improve further. This put Keating 0.440 ahead of the tech entrepreneur, with Steven Thomas third in the #11 TDS Racing Oreca 07-Gibson, a further 0.233 down.

With Jr III taking the top two spots in LMP3, third fell to Orey Fidani in the #13 AWA Duqueine D08, over 1.1 seconds away from Siegel in second.

In the two GTD classes, GTD Pro and GTD, Madison Snow took the overall pole for Paul Miller Racing, with the #1 BMW M4 GT3 driver setting a 1:23.075. 

The American set the time early on in the session, before halfway, and no one in either of the two GT3 classes could beat him. This means he not only has the most poles of anyone in the GT classes, but the most pole of anyone in the series this year.

Vasser Sullivan’s Jack Hawksworth initially held GTD Pro pole, setting a 1:23.354 by the halfway mark in the session, but Klaus Bachler pipped him in the #9 Pfaff Porsche 911 GT3 R, with the German lapping the Indianapolis road course in 1:23.140 to take class pole — although it’s only a front row start as Snow was fractionally quicker. 

Jules Gounon also went faster than Hawksworth, with the Frenchman, in the #79 WeatherTech Mercedes-AMG GT3 second in GTD Pro and third amongst both classes. He was 0.150 off Bachler at the line. Hawksworth rounded out the top 3 in the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3, 0.055 off Gounon.

Second in GTD but sixth overall in the combined GT classes was Mikael Grenier in the #32 Korthoff Mercedes-AMG GT3, while Patrick Gallagher, in the #96 Turner Motorsportr BMW M4 GT3, was third and seventh in the combined class.