For all its IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship success, the Porsche GT Team hasn’t encountered much recently in GT Le Mans (GTLM) qualifying at historic Road America.

Laurens Vanthoor put an end to that drought Saturday, taking the class pole position with an on-the-edge lap of 2 minutes, 0.590 seconds (120.845 mph) in the No. 912 Porsche 911 RSR-19.

It’s the first time a Porsche has qualified atop the chart in hotly contested GTLM in five years.
That came compliments of Vanthoor’s teammate, Earl Bamber, in 2015.
"I think qualifying here is always joyful for the drivers," said Vanthoor, who racked up his third career IMSA pole.
"Everyone knows the track and it’s always challenging.
"We weren’t really happy with how things were going with FP2 and the qualifying sims, so we did a little bit of brainstorming after that.
Obviously, it shows our engineering did the right decisions. The car was good.

We were struggling a little bit in the first couple of laps with the brake bias that I had to adjust with the track conditions. Luckily, I was able to get it sorted and managed to pull a good lap, and was able to get on pole."

The GTLM field is tightly packed again, with the six entries separated by just over seven-tenths of a second.

Corvette Racing’s C8.Rs qualified second and third, with Jordan Taylor in the No. 3 (2:00.854, 120.581 mph) a tick of the watch quicker than Oliver Gavin in the No. 4 (2:00.904, 120.531 mph).

The BMW Team RLL duo came next. Bruno Spengler qualified fourth in the No. 25 BMW M8 GTE at 2:01.155 (120.281 mph) and Jesse Krohn was fifth in the No. 24 BMW at 2:01.202 (120.235 mph). Fred Makowiecki put the No. 911 Porsche in sixth with a best lap of 2:01.305 (120.133 mph).

GTLM polesitter Vanthoor now turns his sights to ending another five-year drought for Porsche at Road America – getting to victory lane. With the new Porsche 911 RSR-19 under them, Vanthoor believes he and Bamber can make it happen.

"This car is a new car compared to the old one," Vanthoor said.
"It asks as well for a slightly different driving style. Earl and myself thought it would suit this track; apparently it does.
We know that Road America is hard on the tires, so that will be another crucial part that, honestly, I think we’ll be good (at managing).
"The race seems to be a lot more in the ballpark than we have in the last couple of years."