The Porsche Penske Motorsport works team’s two Porsche 963s will start the eighth race of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season from positions two and seven. In qualifying at Road America in the state of Wisconsin, Matt Campbell drove a sensational lap in the No. 7 hybrid prototype: The Australian lapped the 6.515-kilometre circuit in 1:47.798 minutes and missed pole position by just 0.068 seconds. Briton Nick Tandy qualified seventh in the sister car. The Porsche 963 cars of the customer teams JDC-Miller MotorSports and Proton Competition will start the race from positions nine and ten.

Qualifying for round eight of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season took place under cloudy skies and pleasant temperatures of around 22 degrees Celsius. On asphalt that was only slightly warmer, the drivers needed several warm-up laps to bring the tyres into the optimum operating window for their pole position attempt. Matt Campbell waited patiently behind the wheel of the #7 Porsche 963 and only launched his attack with three minutes left on the clock. With some significant improvements in all three sectors of the track, the Australian works driver managed to catapult from eighth to second place. Nick Tandy from the UK also improved in his final laps and finished seventh in 1:48.332 minutes.

“Second place on the grid is a positive surprise for us. We hadn’t expected that,” comments a pleased Urs Kuratle, Director Factory Motorsport LMDh. “It probably helped us that the temperatures didn’t rise too high in qualifying. It’s also supposed to be cloudy and cool on race day. Those are promising conditions for us. Matt turned a very good lap. We expect to be in a good position for the race. I’m looking forward to it – not least due to the fact that four Porsche 963s are racing at the same time in the GTP class for the first time.”

“It was clear for all to see that we were not yet at our best on the first day at Road America. But our team did an excellent job after the practice sessions,” Jonathan Diuguid sums up. The Managing Director Porsche Penske Motorsport adds: “With the help of our colleagues from Weissach, we’ve made significant progress and the car is now running much better. Matt put in a great lap. Theoretically, even pole position would have been possible, as the sum of his best sector times shows. Nick was a bit further back, but I’m sure we’ll see both cars putting in a strong performance in the race.”

At the helm of the No. 5 car from customer team JDC-Miller Motorsports, German Mike Rockenfeller finished ninth in qualifying. The identical Porsche 963 campaigned by Proton Competition with the starting number 59, which celebrates its debut in the IMSA series at Road America, finished tenth with works driver Gianmaria Bruni from Italy.

GTD classes: Porsche customer teams without a chance in qualifying
In the two GT classes, the customer teams had a tough run with their up to 415 kW (565 PS) Porsche 911 GT3 R. In the GTD-Pro category, Klaus Bachler qualified the No. 9 car from Pfaff Motorsports on the fifth grid spot. In the race, the Austrian shares driving duties with the experienced Frenchman Patrick Pilet. In the GTD class, the identical cars from AO Racing, Kellymoss with Riley and Wright Motorsports will lined up in positions twelve, 13, 14 and 15.

The eighth round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in Elkhart Lake in the state of Wisconsin will start on Sunday, 6. August at 10:10 a.m. local time (5:10 p.m. CEST). Outside the USA and Canada, the 2:40 hour race can be watched on a free livestream on imsa.tv.

Drivers’ comments on qualifying
Matt Campbell (Porsche 963 #7): “On Friday we didn’t find our rhythm, especially in the first two sectors. Before qualifying, we made extensive changes to the setup – that definitely paid off. Many thanks to everyone involved in that process. I gave everything in the hunt for top times and was really pushing the limit. It’s a shame that I missed out on pole by such a narrow margin. But from second on the grid, anything is possible in the race.”

Nick Tandy (Porsche 963 #6): “I’m feel positive about the qualifying. We’ve made considerable progress compared to the practice sessions on Friday, the gap to the top is now much smaller. But personally, I’m not completely satisfied. When my tyres were just in the optimal operating window, I encountered a lot of traffic on the track. Overall, we’ve learned a lot today. We’ll now use these insights to prepare for the race.”

Mike Rockenfeller (Porsche 963 #5): “It was a disappointing qualifying for me. We’d made some changes to the car before the session – that backfired. That’s what happens when you don’t have the experience yet. We always have to try a lot of things. We should’ve left the car as it was on Friday. Suddenly, we had a lot of understeer and a twitchy front axle in qualifying. It was very difficult for me to get a clean lap under those conditions. I had hoped for more, but a lot can still happen in the 2-hour 40-minute race.”

Gianmaria Bruni (Porsche 963 #59): “Our starting position is completely fine. We mustn’t forget one thing: After our debut in the FIA WEC in Monza, we transported the car to the USA and are now starting in the IMSA series without any testing – that’s anything but a walk in the park. On the first day at Road America, we encountered some problems, which caused us to lose critical practice time. We’re making steady progress and want to have a clean race.”

Klaus Bachler (Porsche 911 GT3 R #9): “We worked systematically in the practice sessions and came up with a really good setup for our car. I managed a mega lap in qualifying – I couldn’t squeeze any more out of the car. Now we’re focused on the race. It’s over 160 minutes, so a lot can happen. We’re well prepared and have an extremely strong team. Hopefully, we can still get far ahead. I expect a lot of spectacles with four different car classes in the race. Besides, there might be some rain on Sunday, which would reshuffle the cards again.”

Qualifying results
GTP class:
1. Derani/Sims (BR/UK), Cadillac #31, 1:47.730 minutes
2. Campbell/Nasr (AUS/BR), Porsche 963 #7, 1:47.798 minutes
3. Bourdais/van der Zande (F/NL), Cadillac #01, 1:48.036 minutes
7. Tandy/Jaminet (UK/F), Porsche 963 #6, 1:48.332 minutes
9. Rockenfeller/van der Helm (D/NL), Porsche 963 #5, 1:49.212 minutes
10. Bruni/Tincknell (I/UK), Porsche 963 #59, 1:49.460 minutes

GTD Pro class:
1. Gunn/Riberas (UK/E), Aston Martin #23, 2:02.918 minutes
2. Gounon/Juncadella (F/E), Mercedes-AMG #79, 2:02.975 minutes
3. Taylor/Garcia (USA/E), Corvette #3, 2:03.143 minutes
5. Bachler/Pilet (A/F), Porsche 911 GT3 R #9, 2:03.634 minutes

GTD class:
1. Snow/Sellers (USA/USA), BMW #1, 2:03.291 minutes
2. Iribe/Schandorff (USA/DK), McLaren #70, 2:03.382 minutes
3. Montecalvo/Telitz (USA/USA), Lexus #12, 2:03.950 minutes
12. Metni/van Berlo (USA/NL), Porsche 911 GT3 R #91, 2:06.496 minutes
13. Hyett/Priaulx (USA/UK), Porsche 911 GT3 R #80, 2:06.776 minutes
14. Brynjolfsson/Hindman (USA/USA), Porsche 911 GT3 R #77, 2:07.372 minutes
15. Brule/Udell (USA/USA), Porsche 911 GT3 R #92, 2:08.001 minutes