IMSA Detroit Saturday Pre-Race Notebook

The No. 5 Corvette DP will start from pole

DETROIT – Driving the innovative DeltaWing has, no doubt, given Katherine Legge plenty of experience racing in the Prototype class of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, but taking her first laps at the tight, bumpy, 2.3-mile Belle Isle Street Course at the Chevrolet Sports Car Classic Presented by Metro Detroit Chevy Dealers in the Michael Shank Racing Honda HPD Ligier JS P2 was baptism by fire.

The DeltaWing took the weekend off, freeing Legge for the race, so Shank, his crew divided by the race in Detroit and practice for the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France, asked Legge to fill in for regular driver John Pew. And she ended up qualifying a solid fifth.

“Parachuting someone into this place who has never been to the track or in the car is really tough and I thought Katherine did a really good job," said Shank. “She’s doing exactly what we’ve asked from her. I’m just pleased because the car is quite a bit better here than it was last year. From the team side, we need to keep gaining on the street circuit events so that part of it is really good."

Still, the top four qualifiers were all Corvette Daytona Prototypes, so it will likely take some race strategy for the Shank P2 car to win the race – which they did at the last event at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

“The track is very challenging to learn and it’s challenging to be learning a new car and a new track at the same time," she said. “My goal tomorrow is to stay out of trouble, keep up with the lead pack and then hand it over to [co-driver Ozz Negri] and let him do the hard work!"

SPEAKING OF STRATEGY: In an unusual move, several of the GT Daytona teams decided to use their professional drivers to qualify for Saturday’s Sports Car Classic Presented by Metro Detroit Chevy Dealers, round five of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

The driver who qualifies the car starts the race, and somewhere around midway through, turns the car over to the team driver. The GT Daytona class requires that one driver be an experienced professional, while the other is a typically less-experienced Pro-Am driver. And in almost every race, the Pro-Am starts the race, and turns the car over to the professional for the finish, essentially make the pro the “closer."

“About half the teams out there qualified with their pros which is really strange in a 100-minute race," said Ben Keating, the Pro-Am half of the No. 33 Gas Monkey Garage Dodge Viper, which he shares with Jeroen Bleekemolen. “I'll be shocked if we don't have a yellow and it’s really hard for me to understand why they would do that strategy. If I had it to do all over again we would do the same thing. I still think that we ran the right strategy."

Keating qualified sixth in class. On the pole is the No. 48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 of Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow. Sellers, the more experienced driver, qualified the car.

Drivers are rated as Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze, with the latter two categories considered to be Pro-Am drivers. Requiring teams to have no more than one professional helps maintain some parity, preventing deep-pocketed teams from hiring a roster of all-professional drivers – which they can do in the Prototype and GT Le Mans classes if they want.

QUALIFYING DISAPPOINTMENT: Judging from practice times, the No. 23 Team Seattle/Alex Job Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Mario Farnbacher and Alex Riberas would have been the team to beat on qualifying, but Farnbacher qualified a disappointing 11th.

The reason? He managed only two laps before the driveline failed on the Porsche. “I drove out of Turn 10 and all of a sudden I lost drive," Farnbacher said. “I think it's a driveshaft. At this race, qualifying is really important because it is hard to pass here. We won here last year so we will put a plan together tonight to get the car up to the front where we belong."

The race airs live today on FS1 at 12:30 p.m. ET. Steven Cole Smith reporting from Detroit