INDIANAPOLIS — The IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship returns to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday, Sept. 22 for a six-hour endurance race. Almost fittingly, 4-time IndyCar champion Sebastien Bourdais has scored the pole for the event.
Bourdais whipped around the IMS road course in his No. 01 Cadillac in a time of 1 minute, 14.592 seconds to put the car on the front row for Sunday's race. Bourdais and co-driver Renger van der Zande will be joined on the front row by the No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura piloted by Louis Deletraz and Jordan Taylor.
“It was a weird run,” Bourdais said. “The Porsche never got going and was holding up the No. 31, and I backed up into some traffic and kind of let everybody go. But at the end of the day, I got a banker lap and one lap, and that was it. Very happy for Cadillac and Chip Ganassi Racing."
Bourdais' pole on Saturday harps back to 2017, when the French driver appeared to be the favorite for the Indianapolis 500 pole position until a devastating crash during his qualifying run forced him to sit out the 500 as well as the next eight races due to injury.
“I’ve been hit a few times around here, so I know what that feels like,” Bourdais said. “This place has not always been very gentle with me, so it’s always good to get back on good terms.”
Mathieu Jaminet, last year's winner of the "Battle on the Bricks," qualified third for Porsche Penske.
In the LMP2 class, PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports went quickest in class with Nick Boulle behind the wheel. AO Racing took pole in the GTD Pro class while the Korthoff/Preston Motorsports' Mercedes was quickest in GTD qualifying.
The race can be viewed in its entirety on Peacock with coverage starting at 11:30 a.m. Sunday. Those without the streaming service can catch the final three hours of the race live on WTHR starting at 3 p.m.
