For Albuquerque, the pole is its own reward; for Hyett it’s a chance to make amends

Admittedly, Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti did not have his best season; however, Filipe Albuquerque’s pole celebration for today’s race felt particularly jubilant. Albuquerque offered an explanation:

“It doesn’t matter how many races you win, or championships or pole positions. I think we’re in the sport because we love it – and I’m in the sport to win,” he said. “And when I do that… you know, it’s a long road — working, taking a lot of flights, being away from family. There is a lot of giving. So when we succeed, we must enjoy life. I really feel that way – I have to be happy with small gains. These small wins help me be more motivated for the next challenge and life is better.

“Pol means nothing… yes, maybe. But I’m just happy and that will keep a smile on my face all day long. That doesn’t mean I won’t work tonight and go again. We lose much more than we win. So if we don’t enjoy the little highs and the victories, then life is just miserable. I’m a happy person, so I always like to see the positive aspects of it.”

Of course, it was a double celebration as both WTRAndretti Acura ARX-06s will start on the front row today. But Albuquerque’s quarter-second margin over teammate Jordan Taylor was still impressive.

“I love qualifying because the car is never going to be better — low fuel, new tires, clean track, you know the sunset is going a little bit … the car is never going to be faster,” Albuquerque said. “That feeling for me is always so special, to drive a fast car in the prime of life. I just love him.”

PJ Hyett has four consecutive LMP2 poles but is still trying to turn a P1 start into victory for the No. 99 AO Racing ORECA. Part of that is the starting penalties in the last two races – drive-throughs for having too much of a gap to the GTP field at Watkins Glen and for changing lanes before the start/stop at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park. So how is he expected to do with today’s start?

“I won’t get a penalty, one. I think we got them all now,” he said. “So now that we got that out of the way…

“The difficult thing about pole starts in LMP2 is that GTPs are difficult on cold tyres, so we’re right behind them when there’s no gap. Honestly that’s why I left the goal at Watkins; unfortunately I left too big a gap. So yes, not messing up is step one. And then to stop is the second step and then I’d like to keep the car in front for the whole race.”

Another record crowd?

Road America has yet to announce any attendance numbers, but the crowd for the IMSA SportsCar Weekend looks bigger than last year, which was a record.

Very large for BMW no. 24

Jesse Krohn had a wild ride on Saturday when the BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8 no. 24 slid into The Kink, an area of ​​the track that seems to have had a higher number of incidents than usual this weekend. While Krohn appeared to avoid contact with the wall, the grass drive was rough enough to send Krohn to the groundskeeping center for evaluation. The team missed out on qualification, while number 24 had a new back.

Tire allocation

GTP and LMP2 teams have three sets of hard compound Michelin tires to use during qualifying and the race in an allocated six-set event. GTD PRO and GTD teams also have a maximum of six sets of tires for the weekend.

Driving time

The minimum driving time for LMP2 is 60 minutes, while the minimum for GTD is 45 minutes. GTP and GTD PRO have minimum driving times of 10 minutes.

How to track

The 2:40 race will be broadcast live on Peacock beginning at 3:00 PM ET. Outside the US, it can be seen on IMSA.tv and YouTube.com/IMSAOfficial. Audio commentary is available on IMSA.com and RadioLeMans.com. SiriusXM live race coverage begins at 3:00 PM (XM 206, Web/App 996).