During the IMSA SportsCar Championship qualifying at Long Beach, Pipo Derani secured the pole position for Cadillac, despite having suffered an accident on Friday. Derani clocked a time of 1m11.388s on the 1.9-mile temporary street circuit behind the wheel of the Cadillac V-Series.R operated by Action Express.
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This event marked the first time Michelin's soft compound tire was used outside of night races at Daytona. Although the times didn't match last year's, with Filipe Albuquerque's pole in Acura setting a 1m11.388s, Derani set an early pace, edging out Jordan Taylor in Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti's Acura ARX-06 by three tenths.
nnNick Yelloly, in RLL's BMW M Hybrid #25, came close with a time just 0.009s shy of Derani's, though no one else surpassed Derani's mark. Despite this, Derani attempted to improve his time but ended up crashing at turn 9. He managed to get out of the tire barrier and return to the pits with the front of the car damaged, thus avoiding a penalty for a red flag.
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On the other hand, Sebastien Bourdais, who led the second practice session, encountered traffic in his late attempt to beat Derani and ended up third, just 0.023s behind the pole time.
nnRegarding the GTD competition, Parker Thompson dominated the class with a time of 1m17.357s in the Lexus RC F #89, outpacing Frankie Montecalvo in the #12 Lexus by 0.262s. Albert Costa and his Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 #34 secured third place, followed by Roman De Angelis in Aston Martin and Danny Formal in WTRA's Lamborghini #45.
The 100-minute race is scheduled to start at 1:35 p.m. local time on Saturday.
