The No. 28 RS1 Porsche Has Qualified in the Top Three in All Five 2022 Races
By John Oreovicz
Eric Filgueiras claimed overall and Grand Sport (GS) pole position for Saturday’s IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge race at Watkins Glen, the Tioga Downs Casino Resort 120, by turning a lap timed at 1 minute, 54.499 seconds (106.900 mph) in the No. 28 RS1 Porsche 718 GT4 RS Clubsport that he will share in the two-hour race with Steven McAleer. That edged Alfredo Najri in the No. 14 Riley Motorsports Toyota Supra GT4 (1:54.711/106.702 mph) and Ken Murillo in the No. 72 Murillo Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT GT4 (1:54.760/106.657 mph) for the Motul Pole Award.
The No. 28 Porsche has qualified in the top three for all five Michelin Pilot Challenge races in 2022, including a pole-to-checkered victory in the season opener at Daytona International Speedway. McAleer is also a previous winner at Watkins Glen, triumphing in a 4-hour IMPC race in 2021.
“Steven and I did a lot of video and data research figuring out exactly where I needed to extract the best moments from the car and the track,” said Filgueiras. “I had a little bit of traffic in front of me initially, but it only took the one lap. Then we were biting our nails and sweating at the end there, waiting and waiting and waiting.
“Really happy with where we’re starting,” he added. “Pole position is great, but we want to make sure that we’re closing tomorrow as well.”
In the Touring Car (TCR) class, Mason Filippi claimed the Motul Pole Award with a lap of 1:56.955 (104.655 mph) in the No. 77 Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb-Agajanian Hyundai Elantra N TCR. The pole was the third in five races in 2022 for the pairing of Filippi and 17-year-old Tyler Maxson.
“It was a good lap,” Filippi recounted. “I kind of messed up the first turn; I think I just under-drove it trying to save the tires for the rest of the lap. We were looking to do another lap, but once we got a good time in there, we knew our Hyundai was awesome. I think we left some on the table.”
Saturday’s race is available on Peacock and IMSA Radio starting at 3:45 p.m. ET.