On Sunday morning at VIRginia International Raceway, Russell Ward scored his first career Motul Pole Award ahead of the fourth race of the season for the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge.
In the No. 4 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4, Ward was at the top of the leaderboard for much of the 15-minute qualifying session but was overtaken in the final five minutes by Nate Stacy in the No. 60 KohR Motorsports Aston Martin Vantage GT4. However, Ward – who will co-drive with Indy Dontje – doubled down shortly thereafter with a time of one minute, 53.369 seconds (103.837 mph) to claim the position for good.
Although Stacy was not successful in capturing his second consecutive Motul Pole Award, he will start outside of Ward before handing over the reins to Kyle Marcelli.
Less than 24 hours after being part of a historic IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship victory, Robby Foley qualified the No. 95 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 in third. Foley co-drove on Saturday afternoon to victory in the WeatherTech Championship GTD class with Bill Auberlen who became the winningest driver in IMSA history with 61 premier series wins.
In the TCR class, it’ll be an identical front row to what it was three weeks ago at Road America. Max Faulkner earned his second career Motul Pole Award in the No. 23 FAST MD Racing with Speed Syndicate Audi RS3 LMS with a flying time of 1:57.260. He’ll lead the 12-car field to green and share co-driving duties with James Vance, who was fastest in both Pilot Challenge practices of the weekend on Saturday.
Faulkner will start alongside the No. 54 JDC-Miller Motorsports Audi of Michael Johnson, who was only .153 seconds shy of the pole-winning time. Three Bryan Herta Autosport Hyundai Veloster TCR Ns round out the top five starting order.
The Virginia Is For Racing Lovers Grand Prix closes out the Michelin GT Challenge weekend at VIR. The green flag is scheduled to fly on Sunday at 2:55 p.m. ET. The race can be streamed live, flag-to-flag on TrackPass on NBC Sports Gold.