King and Wadoux Secure Historic Poles at Road America for IMSA Endurance Grand Prix

ELKHART LAKE, Wis. — It was a day of historic firsts at Road America during qualifying for the Motul SportsCar Endurance Grand Prix, as two drivers etched their names into the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship record books.

Harry King earned his first-ever Motul Pole Award in the Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) class, piloting the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R that he shares with Nick Tandy. Meanwhile, in the GTD class, Lilou Wadoux achieved a similar milestone, securing pole position in the No. 21 Af Corse USA Ferrari 296 GT3 EVO. Wadoux’s achievement is particularly significant: she is the first female driver to start from pole in the WeatherTech Championship since Katherine Legge qualified for the top spot in the same class at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in 2018. Wadoux will share the drive with teammates Simon Mann and Antonio Fuoco.

A Dramatic Finish in GTD PRO

The session for GTD PRO was defined by late-session drama and razor-thin margins. Klaus Bachler set the early pace in the No. 911 Manthey-prepared Porsche, but his benchmark lap of 2 minutes, 4.283 seconds was deleted due to a track limits infringement violation, leaving the top spot vacant.

With under three minutes remaining in the 15-minute session, the pressure mounted. Just before Harry King crossed the line to take provisional pole, Neil Verhagen briefly jumped to the top with a 2:04.182 effort (117.350 mph) in the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO. However, King responded immediately. After clocking a 2:04.265 to take the lead, he improved on his next flyer, setting the pole-winning lap of 2:04.042, corresponding to an average speed of 117.482 miles per hour.

Alexander Sims also found speed at the very end, moving up to third in the No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R with a 2:04.264 (117.272 mph). The top six qualifiers were clustered within half a second, promising intense wheel-to-wheel racing in Sunday’s six-hour endurance test.

For AO Racing, this marked their 10th pole in IMSA competition, but only their third in the GTD PRO class. The Chicago-based team considers Road America its home track, adding emotional weight to the achievement. The team’s famous ‘Rexy’-liveried Porsche previously won the GTD PRO championship in 2024 with Laurin Heinrich, who has since moved up to the GTP class.

“It’s a great emotion and a great feeling, because we came so close last time out in Canada and finished second,” said King, who has secured two runner-up finishes with Tandy in 2026 but is still seeking his first victory. “We started from the front row at Watkins Glen, but to get that pole position here in the home race for AO is really special. The lap was well put together, and the team worked incredibly hard leading up to this weekend. They always do, but this weekend they really put in that extra bit of effort. I could really sense that.”

King believes the momentum is shifting in their favor. Currently third in the GTD PRO standings, 144 points behind leaders Verhagen and Connor De Phillippi, King sees this as a potential breakthrough moment. “The team has been doing a very good job all season,” he noted. “That last little bit has clicked for us this weekend. We’ve been collecting the points, and we’re certainly not missing anything. There’s a lot of points on the table, and we’re going to try to collect as many as possible and try to enter the last half of the season with the most possible momentum.”

Wadoux Makes History in GTD

In the GTD class, 25-year-old Frenchman Lilou Wadoux continued her impressive ascent in motorsport. Signed as a Ferrari factory driver in 2023, Wadoux was the first woman to win a race in the FIA World Endurance Championship. She has already claimed three wins in WeatherTech Championship competition, including the 2025 Motul Petit Le Mans and this year’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.

On her first competitive trip to Road America, widely regarded as one of the most exhilarating and challenging circuits in the world Wadoux produced a pole-winning effort with about three-and-a-half minutes remaining in the session. Her performance comes after a rainy Practice 2 left some uncertainty about the car’s setup.

“Last week was my first time here in a test, and to be honest, it is an exquisite track,” Wadoux remarked. “We know when you come here in the U.S., you will find nice tracks, a little bit old school. I enjoy every moment at this track because it’s so special compared to Europe.”

Wadoux’s pole also highlights a growing trend of female excellence in IMSA. She is the second woman to win a pole at Road America this weekend, joining Hannah Grisham, who started the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge race from the top spot earlier Saturday. Grisham and her co-driver Hannah Greenemeier are currently on a three-race pole-winning streak in that series.

“I have to give credit to the other girls who showed we are able to do the same,” Wadoux added. “It’s good, but I am quite happy as a driver to earn pole position. I hope we will see more and more in the next years, that it will continue this way.”

She praised the Af Corse team, which is competing selectively in the five IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup races in 2026. “We have a new car here, and the team did an amazing job to prepare everything and give us a good car. For sure it was not easy after Practice 2 was in the rain. I wasn’t sure we were ready for the quali, but at the end, we did a pretty good job, I think. Now we will see what we can do tomorrow.”

With poles secured in both GT classes, Sunday’s Motul SportsCar Endurance Grand Prix promises to be a showcase of precision, strategy, and history in the making.