Cadillac and Corvette front-row sweep at home

Earl Bamber, with the #31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R, in GTP and Alexander Sims with the #3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R in GTD PRO locked out the front row qualifying ahead of the Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic on the city’s downtown street circuit.

Left: 📷 © Cadillac Racing at Detroit.. #31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R at Sebring. Right: Corvette Racing at Detroit,

Earl Bamber’s first pole since 2015

Earl Bamber, driver of the #31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R, won the pole for the Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic with an IMSA GTP track-record lap of 1 minute 5.313 seconds (90.670 mph).

It’s the first pole in Detroit for Cadillac since the 2022 IMSA race on Belle Isle. The last pole for the #31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R was in March at Sebring. It’s the second straight Cadillac sweep of the front row as they also did so last month at Laguna Seca.

Bamber’s last pole was in 2015 in the Petit Le Mans in Road Atlanta. The last pole for Action Express Racing in Detroit was in 2016.

📷 © Cadillac Racing at Detroit. #31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R

Earl Bamber, #31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R run by Action Express Racing: “The car has been amazing. We had a great car last year too. Did some good sim work. This 31 Cadillac Whelen team has done some amazing stuff. When they give you a great Cadillac, it makes your job easier. Can’t wait for it.”

How do you avoid the chaos of this race? “Run away and hide at the front! There’s so much that can happen. We have a great team in the pit lane, they never lose a spot in pit lane touch wood. It’s great for Cadillac, GM and the Corvettes (in GTD) on the front row as well.”

Cadillac Racing swept front row

Cadillac, in its hometown of Detroit, swept the front row as Louis Delétraz and the #40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R was second at 1 minute 5.635 seconds (90.226 mph).

📷 © Cadillac Racing at Detroit. Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R #40

Louis Delétraz, #40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R: "“I'm very happy with qualifying. One-two for Cadillac at home, so it's really great. Good job for everyone. I think we improved the car well from FP1 to FP2 to qualifying. So that's positive, gives us confidence for the race tomorrow. Obviously, a straight track that is a bit bumpy, it's hard to pass here. So starting up front will be good. Now we need to execute during the race and hopefully have a trophy tomorrow.” Source: Cadillac Racing

The Corvette Z06 GT3.R and Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports locked out the front row in GTD PRO

Alexander Sims put the #3 Corvette on pole position with a lap of 1:09.354 (85.387 mph), his second of the year, and narrowly beat out fellow Corvette factory driver and teammate Tommy Milner. 

The pair of yellow Corvettes will start side-by-side out front for the second time in three Detroit appearances.

Sims and Antoino Garcia will try to improve on their runner-up class finish from last year, a result that helped them to the GTD PRO Drivers Championship at the end of the season. Garcia was the pole-winner two years ago in the Z06 GT3.Rs first race in Detroit, and Sims set the fastest race lap in 2025.

📷 © Corvette Racing at Detroit: #3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R

ALEXANDER SIMS, #3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R – GTD PRO POLE-WINNER: “Firstly, it's fantastic to get both Corvettes on the front row. The cars are working really quite well around here in Detroit. It's awesome to be driving around these awesome bumpy, fun streets around the RenCen and in GM’s home city. It has a nice home race feel about it with Pratt Miller just down the road, as well. We worked pretty hard through practice to get our Corvettes working better and better, particularly over the bumps, and get the balance there. It seems like on our car, we really needed until qualifying to put it together. Just toward the end of FP2, it started to work, and then, yeah, the car was working really nicely and qualifying. Great credit to Pratt Miller for keeping on tuning on our Corvette.”

(On improvements from practice to qualifying) “For us on the 3 car, it was really just balance. I was struggling with the front axle and scrubbing through most of the corners through practice. I just couldn't hook a lap together very well. That was our main focus; we kept trying to improve the front but then the rear would bounce around more and we couldn't quite access the right setup changes in session. But between FP2 and qualifying but thankfully, between FP towards the end of FP2 and between that and qualifying, we made some other changes which seem to bring the car a bit more life.” 

Milner, only 0.043 seconds off Sims’ pole-winning time, continued his strong form on the city street circuit. He was the fastest GTD PRO driver in the 2024 race, and he and teammate Nicky Catsburg arrived in Detroit with the Drivers Championship lead. The pairing hasn’t finished lower than fourth in any race this year and have led Chevrolet’s charge to the top of the GTD PRO Manufacturers Championship standings.

The two Corvettes flexed their muscle early and often. Catsburg was the fastest driver in Friday morning’s opening practice, and Sims set the fastest GTD PRO practice time in the afternoon session. Corvette drivers set the three best times across the two practices, aided by recent Driver-in-the-Loop simulator sessions as part of the team’s Detroit prep.

📷 © Corvette Racing at Detroit: #4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R

TOMMY MILNER, #4 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R – QUALIFIED SECOND IN GTD PRO: “Great to put it all together, obviously, when it matters a little bit and qualifying there. Great for the team, for Corvette Racing and for everyone at GM here. I’m really happy for both cars to be on the front row. We've had fast cars in practice all day. So glad we're able to put it up front. That's big for the race, no question about it. Being upfront is going to be huge. Obviously having our teammates there with us is big and hopefully makes our life a little bit easier for the race tomorrow. The pace of these Corvettes is good, but there are other cars that have more top speed than us. So being out front is going to be huge to hopefully stay there.”

Schedule

The Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic is scheduled for 4:10 p.m. ET on Saturday. It will air live on NBC at 4 p.m. ET with streaming coverage on Peacock in the U.S., and IMSA’s YouTube channel internationally. IMSA Radio will provide audio coverage at IMSA.com along XM 206, SiriusXM Online 996.

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