| First Motul Pole Award for Gottsacker in Bryan Herta Autosport Hyundai September 5, 2020 Staff Report IMSA Wire Service  BRASELTON, Ga. – An IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Motul Pole Award had eluded Nate Stacy for nearly three years. But now, he’s earned two in three races. Driving the No. 60 KohR Motorsports Aston Martin Vantage GT4, Stacy whipped around the 2.54-mile Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta circuit at a time of one minute, 26.134 seconds (106.159 mph) and will lead the overall field to green in Sunday’s VP Racing Stay Frosty 240. Stacy will share co-driving duties with Kyle Marcelli, and while the two have tallied four victories in their nearly three years together, a win has not come their way in 2020. However, they’ve stayed in contention with top-six finishes in all four races, including two runner-up results. They sit second in the point standings behind Dylan Murry and James Cox, 117-115. “I was really happy with the lap today,” said Stacy, who also won the pole position at Road America. “Really happy with the car and KohR Motorsports, and Aston Martin did an outstanding job. CSJ Motorsports did a great job as well helping us out as much as they could. I was just focusing on trying to get a good, clean lap in without traffic. I caught a little bit in the last corner but it didn’t affect us too bad, obviously…I can’t wait until tomorrow for the race and hope to get a good gap to the field and just manage the race.” Trent Hindman qualified the No. 7 Archangel Motorsports Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport in second place, just .031 seconds behind Stacy, and will split stints with co-driver Alan Brynjolfsson. The No. 22 Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT4 of Seb Priaulx and Scott Maxwell will start third, with Priaulx taking the green flag. In the TCR class, Harry Gottsacker claimed his first Motul Pole Award in the No. 21 Bryan Herta Autosport Hyundai Veloster N TCR. The pole position continues his and co-driver Mark Wilkins’ momentum in Pilot Challenge, as the pair already lead the class standings, 122-115, over teammates Mason Filippi and Michael Lewis in the No. 98 Hyundai. “I’m super stoked,” said Gottsacker. “I was able to put that one altogether. It’s my first pole here in IMSA and hopefully we can pronounce on it tomorrow. We’ve been working really hard on set up and everything. I think our Hyundai Veloster N is going to be a really quick wagon for this weekend.” Gottsacker’s qualifying lap of 1:29.143 (102.576 mph), also was narrowly the quickest of the field. The time was .061 seconds ahead of Tim Lewis in the No. 5 KMW Motorsports with TMR Engineering Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR he shares with Roy Block. FASTMD Racing with Speed Syndicate co-drivers James Vance and Max Faulkner came to Michelin Raceway as winners of the last two TCR Motul Pole Awards. While they relinquish it this time around, their No. 23 Audi RS3 LMS will start third. The VP Racing Stay Frosty 240 closes out the Michelin Endurance Weekend at Michelin Raceway. The green flag flies at 12:10 p.m. ET and the race can be streamed live, flag-to-flag on TrackPass on NBC Sports Gold. |
