Aitken, Cadillac Take Sebring Pole

Brandon Badraoui/Lumen Digital Agency/IMSA

By Dennis Krause

Jack Aitken showed once again why he’s one of the fastest drivers in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The driver of the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen Cadillac V-Series R from Action Express Racing earned the Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) and overall pole position for Saturday’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring with a lap of 1 minute, 46.153 seconds around the historic 3.74-mile, 17-turn circuit.

While it was the third career Motul Pole Award for the 2023 Sebring winner, Aitken doesn’t believe it means very much in the grand scheme of a 12-hour endurance race.

“No, I think it's going to be fairly inconsequential. It's lovely to be on pole. It's nice to show how the team is working, putting out a good car, to get the bragging rights on some points.

“At the end of the day, we started last in '25 because of an issue, and we were into the lead in less than two hours with the help of yellows and stuff. It's kind of neither here nor there. We saw a lot of cars further down the grid were very quick in night practice and over longer runs yesterday. Fully expect they're going to make their way through, as well.”

Aitken, who’ll team with co-drivers Earl Bamber and Fredrik Vesti, was referring to the two Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963’s, that’ll start 4th and 6th Saturday.

“Definitely we're aware of how strong some of the other cars are, like the ones you mentioned. They don't show any signs of dropping out of the fight. If anything, they tend to somehow get quicker as the weekend goes on. I'm not taking much stock from what we've just seen in qualifying. I believe they'll be right there from quite early in the race.

“We've got some homework to do still I think to find what we need to win this thing. That's all we can do.”

The 12-car LeMans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class field will be led to the green by Misha Goikhberg. His lap of 1:51.181 was the second best of the session in the No. 52 Bryan Herta Autosport with PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA LMP2 07, but was elevated to pole when A.J. Hyett’s No. 99 AO Racing ORECA LMP2 07 lost his fastest lap due to a penalty for causing a red flag in an earlier practice session.

It was the first career IMSA pole for Goikhberg.

“It's very exciting,” said Goikhberg, who will team with Parker Thompson and Harry Tincknell. “It’s my first qualifying attempt in a Prototype for this team. We didn't have the smoothest of weekends. The team did a lot of work overnight. Yeah, it's a great, great place to start the race.

“I think we know where we need to adjust to have an even better race car for tomorrow.”

In Grand Touring Daytona PRO (GTD PRO), Jack Hawksworth marked his 100th IMSA start with Lexus by taking pole, lowering his GT record in the process. Given how relatively uncompetitive the Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3 was at Daytona, Hawksworth was understandably a little surprised at his pace at Sebring, with a time of 1:58.480.

“Yeah, was super happy with it. After a tough Daytona to kind of bounce back, the team has done a really, really good job. Phenomenal car in qualifying.

“Get to start from the best place on the grid tomorrow. Last time I had a pole was at this race and we went on to win (in 2024). Hopefully we can try to do the same tomorrow.

“It's going to be super tough, a super competitive class, a lot of good cars. Excited to go racing.”

“I think we were surprised at how competitive we've been,” Hawksworth added. “We came off the back of really being uncompetitive at Daytona. We knew we were going to be better at this race. But we're more in the mix than we thought we were.”

Hawksworth’s co-drivers are Ben Barnicoat and INDYCAR points leader Kyle Kirkwood.

Four drivers traded the top spot in the 15-minute qualifying session for Grand Touring Daytona (GTD), with second generation driver Dudu Barrichello coming out on top. After the becoming the first driver to do a lap in under two minutes, the son of 11-time Formula 1 winner Rubens Barrichello went on to claim his first career pole in his first IMSA qualifying session with a lap of 1:58.856.

“It was a great session for us,” said Barrichello, who will share the No. 27 The Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo with Zacharie Robichon and Tom Gamble. “I was a bit nervous because it was my first qualifying in IMSA – new team, new championship – so there were a lot of firsts. But it was good fun. I think the car was good; we had a good balance and really hit the ground running from Free Practice 1. Happy I did a decent job. We showed our qualifying pace is good and hopefully our race pace is as well.

“This track makes it so much fun,” he added. “We had the car dialed in, though it’s a very different setup for qualifying and the race, where you have to do long stints. I’m just so thankful to be here. It’s a super great opportunity and such a privilege to be at Sebring. I just have to enjoy it.”

A total of 55 cars in four classes will take the green flag, Saturday, for the 74th running of America’s oldest sports car race.

Dennis Krause has spent decades covering all forms of motorsports, including over 40 Indianapolis 500s, with stints at WIBA Radio, PIT PASS - Radio’s Premier Motorsports Magazine and Motorsports Minute. Follow him on X @DennisKrause500 or motorsportsminute.bluesky.social or motorsportsminute on Threads or MotorsportsMinute+ on Facebook.

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