Pole Roll Continues for Acura Team Penske, Cameron and Kelly at Motul Petit Le Mans

BRASELTON, Ga. – When it comes to IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship qualifying lately, Acura Team Penske, Dane Cameron and Patrick Kelly must be butter, because they’re definitely on a roll.

In qualifying for Saturday’s 10-hour Motul Petit Le Mans, Acura Team Penske picked up its fourth consecutive Motul Pole Award – and Cameron’s second straight – in the Daytona Prototype international (DPi) class, while Kelly picked up his fourth consecutive Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class pole.

Driving the No. 6 Acura ARX-05, Cameron edged teammate Ricky Taylor by 0.094 seconds, scoring the top starting spot Friday with a best lap of 1 minute, 8.412 seconds (133.660 mph). In the process, Cameron claimed the track record around the 2.54-mile, 12-turn Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta circuit, besting Felipe Nasr’s previous record of 1:08.457 set last year.

"We’re very pleased," said Cameron, who is co-driving with Juan Pablo Montoya and Simon Pagenaud. "I was a little disappointed when we came here for the six-hour run a few weeks back. Usually we are pretty aggressive with our stuff for qualifying and I thought we did a really good job, but we missed a little bit. I told the engineers, ‘Let’s really put the thing on the limit this time and see.’ I’m happy with what we ended up with, happy to get pole after missing out here the last time we showed up and the last couple of years here at Petit."

It’s also the second consecutive front-row lockout for Acura Team Penske after Taylor claimed the outside spot with a lap of 1:08.506 (133.042 mph) in the No. 7 machine. He and co-driver Helio Castroneves will be going for their fourth consecutive victory on Saturday and are joined for the endurance race by Alexander Rossi.