Nick Yelloly claimed a landmark pole for the 2025 IMSA Detroit GP as MSR Acura and Ford Multimatic sealed a double GTP and GTD Pro front row sweep in qualifying.
Driving the No. 93 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 Yelloly clocked an impressive lap time of 1m5.762s marking his first career pole in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and the first pole for Honda Racing Corporation USA’s expanded engineering effort this season.
The qualifying format for IMSA’s Chevrolet Sports Car Classic included a 20-minute session for GTP and a 15-minute window for GTD Pro both of which tested drivers’ skills on the tight 1.7-mile Detroit street circuit.
The qualifying session unfolded on a notoriously slippery track surface which had been a challenge throughout the weekend for both IMSA and IndyCar competitors.
Despite the tricky conditions Nick Yelloly managed to deliver two flawless laps, improving his time on each successive attempt and even lightly brushing the wall without compromising his pace.
His MSR Acura teammate Tom Blomqvist also impressed by securing the second spot on the grid with a lap time of 1:05.908, just 0.146 seconds behind Yelloly.
This achievement gave Meyer Shank Racing a coveted front-row lockout, a feat the team has only accomplished twice before in its IMSA history—once in 2019 at Watkins Glen and previously in 2008 at the Rolex 24 Hours.
Behind the Acura duo, BMW M Team RLL continued to show strong form, placing two cars in the second row. The No. 25 BMW M Hybrid V8 driven by Marco Wittmann qualified third followed closely by Dries Vanthoor in the No. 24 BMW who had dominated the first four poles of the season but was edged out this time.
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Porsche Penske Motorsport who had remained undefeated in the Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) category earlier in the season settled for the third row with the No. 6 and No. 7 entries qualifying fifth and sixth respectively.
The Cadillac V-Series.R entries were led by the No. 31 Action Express Racing in seventh in the hands of Jack Aitken. The Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillacs took eighth and ninth with Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque in the No. 10 coming before Jordan Taylor and Louis Deletraz in the No. 40.
Gianmaria Bruni rounded out the top ten in the No. 85 JDC Miller Porsche 963, while Roman de Angelis in the No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Valkyrie took 11th, almost two seconds off Yelloly.
The GTD Pro category delivered its own share of intrigue and excitement with the Ford Multimatic Motorsports Mustang GT3s sweeping the front row for the 2025 IMSA Detroit GP.
Seb Priaulx driving the No. 64 Ford Mustang GT3 secured the class pole position with a lap of 1m10.922s, edging out teammate Christopher Mies by 0.329 seconds. The Ford team’s performance was a highlight, showcasing the fierce intra-team battle between Priaulx and Mies.
Elsewhere in GTD Pro, Corvette Racing’s Antonio Garcia and Tommy Milner were in the thick of the fight, with Garcia ultimately securing the third starting spot in class after a spirited battle for pole.
Jack Hawksworth in the Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F was best of the rest, over half a second off Garcia’s while Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 Evos rounded out the top-five
Tommy Milner marked the first Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R in sixth while the championship-leading No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R took eighth in class.
The 2025 Detroit Grand Prix – Chevrolet Sports Car Classic gets underway on Saturday at 3:30 p.m.
