After two straight days of cold and rain at Road America, the sun finally came out for IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship qualifying. CORE autosport qualified 13th for Sunday’s Continental Tire Road Race Showcase.
IMSA teams were greeted by thunderstorms at Road America on Thursday, followed by more rain and blustery winds for Friday’s two practice sessions. Saturday’s conditions were the complete opposite, with the track temperature hitting its highest in time for qualifying. Thankfully, the team had a final practice session prior to qualifying to get the No. 54 Flex-Box / Composite Resources Porsche 911 GT3 R dialed in for the dry circuit.
Jon Bennett was behind the wheel for the 15-minute qualifying session. The long 4.048-mile track only allows for a handful of laps, during which Bennett was able to qualify the car 13th on the GT Daytona grid.
It’s unclear whether the IMSA field will start on slick or rain tires tomorrow with a 60 percent chance of rain in the forecast. This may bode well for CORE, who set the fastest GTD practice time in the wet with Colin Braun behind the wheel.
The Continental Tire Road Race Showcase will go green at 2:35pm ET and be broadcast live on FS1, or IMSA.com for viewers outside the U.S.
Jon Bennett
Driver: No. 54 Porsche 911 GT3 R
“I love coming to Road America. It’s a beautiful and fun track to drive. If you’re not on the pole, you always wish you had gone a little faster, but we’ll continue to chew on it. I’ll go back and look at the data and see where I can get more speed for tomorrow.
“We’ve had varying weather conditions here this weekend. When the conditions are changing, you have to be smart and drive the car at its limit. It’s not too hard, but conditions certainly affect the overall lap time, even with the same amount of effort.
“I’m happy with the result. Of course, there’s always room for improvement, and I’m looking forward to a good race tomorrow. It may not be such a bad thing if it rains tomorrow. As I often say – chaos creates opportunity.”
