Yelloly tops qualifying for Meyer Shank, Wickens lands GTD pole after Lexus penalty

Nick Yelloly stormed to pole in IMSA qualifying at Long Beach in the #93 Meyer Shank Racing Acura to end Porsche’s stranglehold on top spot in 2026.

The Briton, who shares Meyer Shank Racing’s #93 Acura ARX-06 with Renger van der Zande, blitzed the field with a flying lap of 1m11.626s at Long Beach, outpacing BMW M Team WRT’s Marco Wittmann, in the #25 BMW M Hybrid V8, by 0.030s. Louis Deletraz overcame a late off to take third int he #40 Cadillac V-Series.R for Wayne Taylor Racing.

Porsche Penske Motorsport, winners of the opening two rounds at Daytona and Sebring struggled in qualifying with Julien Andlauer putting the #7 Porsche 963 fifth, with Kevin Estre ending up eighth in the #6 sister car.

Andlauer went off in the #7 Porsche at Turn 6 with just over a minute remaining, but was able to complete qualifying without further issues.

In GTD, Vasser Sullivan’s Frankie Montecalvo had delivered a last-gasp qualifying effort and nipped the top spot, delivering a 1m18.411s flying lap to take pole in the #89 Lexus RC F GT3.

However, the #89 was thrown out of qualifying for a ground clearance violation found in a post-qualifying inspection, sending the Lexus to the rear of the grid. That means DXDT Racing and Robert Wickens inherited pole position.

#36 DXDT Racing Corvette Z06 GT3.R: Mason Filippi, Robert Wickens, Danny Formal

Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Lumen via Getty Images

In his first GTD appearance of the season, Wickens had initially put the #36 DXDT Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R for DXDT Racing on pole before being pipped by Montecalvo by 0.151s before his post-qualifying penalty.

Danny Formal, who was the first driver to deliver a sub-1m19s lap in the session, will start second in class in Wayne Taylor Racing’s #45 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2.

Heart of Racing’s Spencer Pumpelly was third in the #27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo, followed Winward Racing’s Russell Ward in the #57 Mercedes-AMG GT3.

Orey Fidani crashed five minutes into the session, spinning the 13 Autosport #13 Chevrolet Corvette at the final corner, but he was able to keep it out of the wall and return to the pitlane.

However, race control deemed he drove the opposite way on the track to get to the pitlane and black flagged him, disqualifying him from the remainder of the session and leaving him to start 17th in class.