John Edwards knew he had a strong BMW this weekend at Circuit of The Americas, but admits Friday’s TOTAL USA Pole Award in IMSA SportsCar Championship qualifying came as a surprise.

Still, the driver of the No. 24 BMW Team RLL BMW M6 posted an impressive lap of two minutes, 2.833 seconds, good enough for the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class record at Circuit of The Americas.

I have to say it was a little bit of surprise,” said Edwards, who recorded his 11th career pole and first since 2014. “I expected people to keep getting quicker, but they didn’t so we waited it out and I stayed on top.”

In the always-competitive GTLM class, all nine cars were within 0.9 seconds of the pole-winning time, with the top seven within just 0.252 seconds. Giancarlo Fisichella qualified second in the Houston-based No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE, just 0.032 seconds behind Edwards.

It wasn’t just the BMW of Edwards that was fast. BMW Team RLL’s second car, the No. 25 driven in qualifying by Alexander Sims qualified third at 2:02.990.

“The conditions will be a bit cooler than we’re used to at COTA, but starting first and third for BMW should be to our advantage,” said Edwards. “It’s going to be very tight, but we’re at the right place to start.”

The points-leading No. 66 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT of Dirk Mueller qualified fifth, one spot behind teammate Ryan Briscoe in the No. 67 Ford GT.

Jaminet Scores GTD TOTAL Pole Award For First WeatherTech Championship Race

One week ago, Mathieu Jaminet had not met anyone on the Alegra Motorsports team, or even his co-driver Daniel Morad. But that hasn’t slowed down the young Frenchman who scored the TOTAL Pole Award Friday for the Advance Auto Parts Sportscar Showdown at Circuit of The Americas, his first WeatherTech Championship start.

Jaminet, filling in for Michael Christensen who had a conflicting race in Belgium, turned in the pole-winning lap of two minutes, 6.531 seconds in Alegra Motorsports’ No. 28 Porsche 911 GT3 R.

“I didn’t know the team, my teammate, or how racing in the U.S. and IMSA would be,” said Jaminet. “I’ve raced this car in Europe, so not everything is new. I adapted myself very easily to the team. I came here last year with Porsche Supercup during the F1 weekend and won both pole positions and both wins as a rookie in the series, so I knew I would be very comfortable with this track here.”

The Lexus of Jack Hawksworth qualified second, but was moved to the back of the GT category after a violation of the ground clearance rule was found in post-qualifying technical inspections.

That penalty moved the No. 48 TOTAL Lubricants Lamborghini Huracan GT3 of Madison Snow to the front row. Snow’s lap of 2:07.724 was 1.193 seconds behind the pole-winning time of Jaminet. Corey Lewis will now start third tomorrow in the No. 16 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 for Change Racing.

The No. 50 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG team played its race strategy to perfection in the BUBBA burger Sports Car Grand Prix at Long Beach, enabling co-drivers Cooper MacNeil and Gunnar Jeannette to earn their first victories in WeatherTech Championship competition in the GT Daytona (GTD) class.

After a 13th-place class qualifying performance on Friday, the team elected to start the race on fresh tires, moving the No. 50 Mercedes-AMG GT3 to the back of the field. When the second of the race’s five full-course cautions came out after 18 minutes, MacNeil brought the car into the pits for service and handed over the controls to Jeannette.

Jeannette then inched his way forward through the field as others made their stops, making his way to the head of the GTD field at the 47-minute mark in the race. He stayed there for the rest of the way, winning by 7.492 seconds over teammate Jeroen Bleekemolen in the No. 33 Mercedes-AMG entry.

“We qualified pretty far toward the back but times were tight,” MacNeil said. “We made the strategy call to change to four fresh tires and to go absolutely last. So, it’s pretty good to go from last to first.”

MacNeil had five previous victories in ALMS competition, while Jeannette won six ALMS races and one GRAND-AM race previously. It was the second consecutive WeatherTech Championship win for Mercedes-AMG, which earned its first victory in the series last month at Sebring, and was the manufacturer’s first 1-2 sweep.

“I kind of blacked out for a minute and the next thing I know the checkered flag is out and I’m crossing the finish line,” Jeannette said playfully in the post-race press conference. “A lot of things can happen if you roll the dice and take a risk and taking a chance was the only card we had to play.

“I knew my job was to go back out and go as fast as I could and not use any fuel. We might have had to take one more splash but with enough yellows we didn’t have to. With 35 cars going around we kind of lucked out and we didn’t have to risk it and it worked out our way.”

The runner-up result for Bleekemolen and co-driver Ben Keating allowed them to extend their lead in the GTD point standings to 21 points, 98-77, over No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3 co-drivers and defending GTD champions Christina Nielsen and Alessandro Balzan, who finished third in the race.

The next round for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship is the Advance Auto Parts Sports Car Showdown at Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas on Saturday, May 6.

The iconic hairpin turn at the Long Beach street circuit played a central role in the fate of the No. 4 Corvette Racing team and co-drivers Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner two years in a row.

Last year, this was the turn where Milner was spun out of the lead late in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race by Porsche driver Frederic Makowiecki, enabling Makowiecki’s Porsche teammate, Nick Tandy, to sneak past for the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class victory. This year, the hairpin gave one back to the No. 4 teammates.

A multi-car incident in the hairpin on the final lap of Saturday’s 100-minute BUBBA burger Sports Car Grand Prix at Long Beach had the entire racetrack blocked as race-leading Antonio Garcia approached the turn in the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R ahead of Milner and Richard Westbrook in the No. 67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT. Garcia attempted to maneuver around the outside of the incident, while Milner opted for the inside lane.

Moments later, the No. 52 Prototype managed to get going and drive away after the incident, opening the inside lane. With Garcia still blocked by cars on the outside, Milner passed through the incident scene and headed for the checkered flag, with Westbrook following close behind.

“I tried going to the outside in the same situation last time and lost spots,” Milner said. “This time I went on the inside. I wasn’t even full speed (after the incident); I was cruising thinking we were under caution. Then I saw the green flags and the guys on the radio said we were P1.

“Racing is a lot about luck in a lot of cases. I don’t think I’ve seen it play out this way for me or for anyone else. It’s good to just get some points for me and for Chevrolet and Corvette.”

When all was said and done, Milner and Gavin were standing atop the victory podium, with Westbrook and co-driver Briscoe in second and the No. 912 Porsche GT Team of Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor in third. It was the fourth consecutive race in which the GTLM podium featured three different manufacturers.

Garcia and co-driver Jan Magnussen – who qualified on the GTLM class pole fell to fifth at the finish, behind the No. 25 BMW Team RLL co-drivers Bill Auberlen and Alexander Sims.

Milner and Gavin, the 2016 WeatherTech Championship GTLM champions, picked up their first victory of the season, but it was the second in a row for Corvette Racing, which won last month’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida with the No. 3 team. Overall, Corvette Racing now has 104 victories.

Milner now has won 15 times in major U.S. sports car racing between the WeatherTech Championship, American Le Mans Series and GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series, and it’s the 47th victory for Gavin.

Vanthoor led the first 42 minutes of the race in the No. 912 Porsche 911 RSR before pitting to turn the car over to Estre. That handed the GTLM lead to Martin Tomczyk in the No. 24 BMW M6 GTLM, and a few laps later, the former DTM champion found himself in the overall lead when the Prototype class made their final pit stops of the race.

With less than 15 minutes remaining, the No. 24 car slowed dramatically with an apparent mechanical problem, handing the lead to Garcia. The No. 24 ultimately wound up seventh in class.

An opening-lap crash ruined the day for both the No. 66 Ford GT co-driven by Joey Hand and Dirk Mueller and the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE of Toni Vilander and Giancarlo Fisichella.  

Prior to Friday, Corvette Racing driver Jan Magnussen had qualified on pole twice for IMSA sports car races on the streets of Long Beach, taking the American Le Mans Series GT1 class pole in 2008 and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GT Le Mans (GTLM) class pole in 2014.

In both cases, the Dane went on to win the next day. He’s hoping that trend will continue in Saturday’s BUBBA burger Sports Car Grand Prix at Long Beach – which will be televised live on FOX at 4 p.m. ET – as Magnussen found success again in GTLM qualifying Friday night.

Driving the No. 3 Corvette C7.R, Magnussen turned a best lap of 1 minute, 16.909 seconds, establishing a new GTLM track record on the 1.968-mile, 11-turn Long Beach street circuit to take the class pole. It was his 19th in major U.S. sports car competition, and if he and co-driver Antonio Garcia are able to convert the pole to victory on Saturday, it will be their second in a row, having also won last month in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida.

“Qualifying here is a fantastic experience,” Magnussen said. “I love this place. It’s one of my favorite tracks. Qualifying on street tracks is always so much fun. You can scrape the walls a bit but as long as you bring it back in one piece, you won’t get in trouble. We found a few areas where we could make some changes after the first session that could give us the extra bit we needed for this qualifying session.”

Magnussen snapped a four-race pole streak for Ford, but joining him on the GTLM front row will be current class points co-leader Joey Hand in the No. 66 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT. Hand posted a best time of 1:17.001 and shares his ride with German Dirk Mueller.

Qualifying third in GTLM – despite a spin into the tire barrier at the end of the back straight – was Finnish driver Toni Vilander in the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE. Vilander’s best time was 1:17.043 in the car he shares with ex-Formula 1 racer Giancarlo Fisichella.

The entire, eight-car GTLM field was covered by just over half a second, setting the stage for a close battle throughout the 100-minute race. The qualifying session ended a minute and a half early when Richard Westbrook crashed the No. 67 Ford GT, removing the car’s rear wing and damaging the right rear after contact with the barrier coming onto the backstretch.

GTD Qualifying

Bryan Sellers used the entire racetrack, and maybe even a little bit more, on a last-lap flyer to take the GT Daytona (GTD) class TOTAL Pole Award in the No. 48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3.

Sellers clocked a best lap of 1:19.243 to score the fourth major U.S. sports car racing pole of his careerand knocking former IndyCar racer Jack Hawksworth’s Lexus to second on the class grid for the BUBBA burger Sports Car Grand Prix, the Saturday headliner at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. To get the position, however, Sellers admitted multiple brushes with the concrete barriers that line the Long Beach street circuit.

“It’s really exciting,” Sellers said. “To get on pole at Long Beach is really cool. I’ve been close a couple times and have never been able to get there. It’s a little extra special for us, having TOTAL on board as a team partner, and get the TOTAL Pole Award makes it even cooler. To represent them on both ends is pretty neat.

“The guys did a good job,” Sellers added. “It was a lot of work. I’m sure Jack Hawksworth is in the same position I was, where you’re rubbing the walls a little bit. That’s what makes qualifying on street courses amazing. It’s all or nothing, and today we were on the plus side of that.”

Hawksworth will start second in GTD thanks to a best lap of 1:19.276 in the No. 15 3GT Racing Lexus RC F GT3 he co-drives with Los Angeles native Robert Alon. It’s the strongest starting position to date for the new-for-2017 Lexus program and provided a bright spot for the team after its other entry, the No. 14 shared by Scott Pruett and Sage Karam, was substantially damaged in a crash during practice Friday morning with Pruett at the wheel.

He was not injured, but the car was unable to partake in practice or qualifying Friday afternoon, and the team has a long night of work ahead if the No. 14 will make the starting grid for the 1 p.m. green flag Saturday.

The Rolex 24 At Daytona-winning No. 28 Alegra Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R qualified third in GTD with Canadian Daniel Morad at the wheel. Morad and co-driver Michael Christensen were late additions to the Long Beach field, entering the race last week only after another car was withdrawn, but the 2016 Ultra 94 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada by Yokohama champion managed a best qualifying lap of 1:19.375.

The top 12 cars in the GTD field were covered by less than one second.