IMSA Wire Service
German driver Moritz Kranz maintained his perfect record in 2021, scoring his second consecutive IMSA Prototype Challenge pole position this morning in qualifying for this afternoon’s one-hour, 45-minute race at Sebring International Raceway.
Kranz piloted the No. 21 Muehlner Motorsports America Duqueine D08 to a best lap of one minute, 54.467 seconds (111.962 mph) to earn the P3-1 class pole. Kranz also earned the P3-1 pole for January’s IMSA Prototype Challenge Scouts of America 145 season opener at Daytona and was the fastest qualifier in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship LMP3 class for January’s Motul Pole Award 100.
He also combined with co-driver Laurents Hoerr to win the Motul Pole Award 100. In short, he’s on quite a hot streak when it comes to qualifying. This morning’s 15-minute session was abbreviated due to red flag for an incident in Turn 7 involving Mel Johnson in the No. 81 One Motorsports Ligier JS P320, but Kranz made the most of the available time.
“It was a strange session,” said Kranz. “I didn’t get the radio call that there was only three minutes left, so I was a little bit surprised when I came to the start-finish and saw the checkered flag. Fortunately, it worked out in the end.”
Kranz and Hoerr are hoping everything works out again in this afternoon’s race, the same way it did in January’s Scouts of America 145, which they won.
“I’ll try to run away from the pack in the first stint,” Hoerr said. “I hope I can give an advantage to Laurents that he can finish the race in P1, but I think it’s going to be an eventful race, so we’ve got to see.”
Dan Goldburg qualified second in the Motel 6-liveried No. 6 Performance Tech Motorsports Ligier he shares with co-driver Rasmus Lindh. Goldburg’s best lap was 1:57.732 (114.361 mph). Josh Sarchet qualified third in the No. 54 MLT Motorsports Ligier at 1:58.550 (113.572 mph). Sarchet’s co-driver is Dakota Dickerson.
Danny Kok earned the P3-2 class pole at 2:03.207 (109.279 mph) in the No. 61 Conquest Racing Norma M30 that he co-drives with George Staikos.
The green flag falls this afternoon shortly after 3 p.m. ET. Live Timing & Scoring is available on imsa.com/scoring.
