Aitken puts Cadillac on pole for IMSA 6 Hours of the Glen

Credit: Jake Galstad

Jack Aitken has continued his great run of form in 2026, giving Cadillac Whelen Engineering and the No.31 crew pole position with an early flyer. Tom Blomqvist in the No.60 Meyer Shank Acura will join him on the front row.

In LMP2 Jeremy Clarke gave the No.43 Inter Europol crew pole, continuing the teams good form after their win in Le Mans. Jack Hawksworth took pole in the No.14 Lexus, while the GTD session was cancelled after a crash for Russell Ward in the No.57 car, and will be decided by championship order.

As it happened

GTD

It was a delayed qualifying session for the IMSA Sportscar Championship, as the kerbing at the bus stop chicane came loose during an earlier support race. We eventually did get going however, with the GTD cars taking to the track for their 15 minutes of qualifying.

Antonio Fuoco was starting to go quickly after the first five minutes in his Sebring winning No.21 AF Corse Ferrari, which was bettered by Zachaire Robichon in the No.27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin and Frankie Montecalvo in the No.12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus.

No one else would get a chance to improve yet though, as Russell Ward lost it at the chicane and hit the wall in his No.57 Winward Mercedes, bringing out the red flag.

The session was not restarted, and the GTD cars never properly got to go fully flat out before the race. The grid will be set by championship points.

The No.27 Heart of Racing will start on pole position, ahead of the No.96 Turner BMW and the No.12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus in third place.

GTD Pro

After the cancelled GTD session, the GTD Pro field took to the track to set their own grid. They too had 15 minutes to try set their best times.

Christopher Mies in the No.65 Ford Mustang was the quickest early on in this session, but he was quickly jumped by Harry King in the No.77 and Neil Verhagen in the No.1 Paul Miller BMW.

Verhagen had set two purple sectors on his next lap, but at the end he pulled into the pits to take a fresh set of tyres, thinking he can go even quicker than he was set to go before pitting.

Jack Hawksworth was the first man in the 1:43s, going three tenths quicker than Verhagen with a 1:43.8. He backed that up on his next lap with a purple sector one and two. It wasn't a quicker sector three, but his work earlier in the lap was enough to drop him down to a 1:43.7 with three minutes to go.

King broke into the 43's too with a great final sector, but it was just a 43.9, good enough for the front row though. Verhagen also found another tenth, but he stayed in third.

King improved ever so slightly on his final lap, but still not enough to get pole. None one else could improve, so Hawksworth gave Lexus pole, ahead of the AO Porsche and Verhagen in the BMW. Mies was fourth, with James Calado in the No.033 Ferrari finishing the top five.

LMP2

The Bronze drivers came out in their Oreca 07 LMP2 machines right after, they were also given 15 minutes to set the grid for tomorrows race.

Daniel Goldburg was top early on in the No.22 United Autosports car, but was beaten by Jeremy Clarke in the No.43 InterEuropol car. Then came PJ Hyett in the No.99 AO Racing car to better both of them by a second, on a 1:35.7.

The American driving for his own team went half a second quicker his next time, and he needed them. He would lose his best lap time for causing a red flag in an earlier practice session.

Clarke jumped up to second, four tenths off Hyett and four tenths ahead of Goldburg. Clarke found another tenth and bit next time around, which had him second at the time, but it would be good enough for pole due to Hyett's time deletion.

But Hyett did a 35.3 next time around, not a PB, but enough to keep him on pole for the moment as his second best lap. Clarke was flying though with two purple sectors. It was a 35.1, taking pole on the leaderboards.

No one else could improve before the checkered flag came out, so Clarke secured pole, with Hyett filling in the front row despite his lap time deletion. Goldburg gave United Autosports third, with George Kurtz fourth in the No.04 Crowdstrike car and Misha Goikhburg in the No.52 Bryan Herta car in fifth.

GTP

Last but certainly not least, it was the 11 GTPs to have their 15 minutes to set the overall grid for the race.

Jack Aitken set the pace early on with a very quick lap, a 1:32.0, and he was going quicker again on his next lap in the No.31 Whelen Cadillac. His next one was a 31.2, eight tenths better than his first time. The championship leader was absolutely flying.

At that time, Felipe Nasr in the No.7 Porsche was second, on a 1:33.1. Laurin Heinrich came in with a 1:32.0 to second, but like Hyett in the last session, he would lose his best time at the end of qualifying.

Louis Deletraz in the No.40 Cadillac was next into the 31s, with a 31.6 slotting into second. Renger van der Zande and Heinrich in the Nos 93 and 5 respectively both did a 31.7, as did Blomqvist in the sister Acura to van der Zande. It was the No.5 ahead of the 60 and 93, but Heinrich was still set to lose his best lap.

Both Acuras improved by two tenths, but this time van der Zande was quicker than Blomqvist. The No.60 driver went quicker on his next lap though as van der Zande pit, the Briton went up to second place.