By John Oreovicz
IMSA NewsWire
ELKHART LAKE, Wis. – It’s only Friday, but Nick Yelloly looked like he enjoyed a ‘Sunday drive’ around Road America as practice opened for the Motul SportsCar Endurance Grand Prix. It’s the eighth race of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season and the fourth of five races in the 2026 IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup.
Yelloly ran a series of quick laps around the 4.048-mile circuit in the No. 93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06, culminating in a 1 minute, 51.008-second effort (131.276 mph) that paced the 90-minute session.
The time was a full 0.697 seconds quicker than Tom Blomqvist managed in the sister No. 60 Meyer Shank entry he shares with Colin Braun at 1:51.705 (130.457 mph) as Acura put itself in prime early position to contend for the win in Sunday’s 6-hour WeatherTech Championship race.
Yelloly, who earned the Motul Pole Award for Acura last year at Road America, set an early benchmark of 1:52.197 after just 18 minutes, then returned to the car to complete the session with a pair of laps faster than Blomqvist’s best.
Yelloly and co-driver Renger van der Zande are looking for their second Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) win of the season (the other came at the Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic) as they attempt to close a 245-point deficit in the GTP standings to leader Jack Aitken, who was seventh fastest in Friday’s practice on 1:52.416 (129.632 mph) in the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R. Aitken’s co-drivers are Earl Bamber and Frederik Vesti.
Cadillac’s other GTP entries prepared by Wayne Taylor Racing were encouraged after finishing third and fifth in the session. The No. 40 Cadillac V-Series.R was the quicker of the pair at 1:52.131 (129.961 mph) despite missing more than 30 minutes of practice time with what was suspected to be a power steering issue.
“Thank goodness we have two cars at Wayne Taylor Racing, because the No. 10 car was able to do the work while our car was being looked at,” said Jordan Taylor, who shares the No. 40 with Louis Deletraz. “It’s unfortunate to lose the track time, but we tested here a couple weeks ago along with a lot of other guys. The car doesn’t feel quite as good as it did, but you look at the times, and at least we’re in the hunt.
“It’s probably the same for everyone,” he added. “It’s a lot cooler than a lot of people anticipated coming here (it was 77 degrees and cloudy for Friday’s practice), and that maybe threw a wrench in everyone’s plans, but I think we’re adapting well.”
Paul Di Resta turned an early lap of 1:54.166 (127.645 mph) in the No. 22 United Autosports USA ORECA LMP2 07 (co-drivers Daniel Goldburg and Rasmus Lindh) to lead the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class as the top three cars were separated by just 0.336 seconds. Dane Cameron was second fastest in the No. 99 AO Racing ORECA, followed by Mikkel Jensen in United Autosport’s No. 2 entry.
International racing force Manthey Racing continued its impressive run in the Michelin Endurance Cup, which was most recently highlighted by the team’s No. 912 Porsche 911 GT3.R winning the Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) class in the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen.
At Road America, Thomas Preining was fastest Friday in the GTD PRO class in the No. 911 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R (992). Preining, whose co-driver is Klaus Bachler, clocked 2:05.384 (116.225 mph) to edge Ricardo Agostini (No. 033 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo) by just 0.034 seconds.
GTD was similarly close as the No. 068 Car Blanche Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo, that has made such an impressive IMSA debut starting with Watkins Glen this year, was quickest in the hands of Valentin Hasse Clot (co-drivers Marius Fossard and Trenton Estep). His 2:05.491 (116.125 mph) effort was 0.074 seconds quicker than Philip Ellis in the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 that he shares with two-time defending GTD class champion Russell Ward and endurance driver Indy Dontje.
While the race day forecast is currently dry, there’s a possibility of rain on Saturday, when WeatherTech Championship qualifying is set to take place starting at 4:25 p.m. ET, 3:25 p.m. CT and local time. The prospect of a wet track at some point in the day is positive for some competitors.
“I love driving in the rain,” said Wisconsin native Aaron Telitz, who shares the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3 with Benjamin Pedersen and Frankie Montecalvo in the GTD class. “It’s a different challenge in the car; it’s more enjoyable in sports cars because you’re not getting soaked the whole time like you would be an open wheel car. And Road America is such a fun track in the wet. There’s a lot of different lines you can take in different parts of the racetrack, so it makes some really fun racing.”
The Motul SportsCar Endurance Grand Prix runs from 11:40 a.m.-5:40 p.m. ET on Sunday, Aug. 3. Flag-to-flag live coverage will be streamed on Peacock in the U.S., and via IMSA.TV and the official IMSA YouTube channel internationally.