Aitken Inherits Motul Pole Award At Indianapolis in No. 31 Cadillac Whelen GTP

SEPTEMBER 20, 2025

IMSA Wire Service

By John Oreovicz and Mark Robinson

INDIANAPOLIS – Cadillac Whelen will lead the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship field to green for Sunday’s six-hour TireRack.com Battle On The Bricks from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, as part of a 1-2-3 lineup in Grand Touring Prototype (GTP).

As Cadillac is in search of its first win in 2025, it appeared as though the trio of its cars – the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R and the Nos. 40 and 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillacs – were poised to start second, third and fourth behind the No. 60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb-Agajanian Acura ARX-06, which unofficially took the Motul Pole Award.

However, in post-qualifying technical inspection, it was discovered that the No. 60 car failed to comply within LMDh bodywork tolerances. With the penalty, it will lose its qualifying times and drop to the rear of the GTP class for Sunday’s race.

It’s the first pole for Cadillac in 2025 and the first for the brand since the 2024 Motul Petit Le Mans, where Jack Aitken scored his first WeatherTech Championship pole. Aitken, who’d unofficially qualified second, will move to the front of the field with a best time of 1 minute, 14.610 seconds (117.683 mph). Aitken will share the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen entry with Earl Bamber and Frederik Vesti, as one of only two GTP entries to run three drivers in Sunday’s race.

“I’m pretty pleased. I think all the Cadillacs showed pretty well,” Aitken said. “We had an OK practice, but it wasn’t entirely smooth. The nature of having so many cars on track here means getting clean laps, which was quite difficult. I think we’re in a good place. I’m pleased that we’ve come out today with a strong car and clean qualifying session, and I think a strong car for tomorrow.”

The No. 40 WTR Cadillac of Jordan Taylor and Louis Deletraz will start second ahead of the No. 10 WTR Cadillac of Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque.

The championship-leading No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 of Mathieu Jaminet and Matt Campbell will roll off from fourth, with the second Acura – the No. 93 Acura ARX-06 of Renger van der Zande, Nick Yelloly and Kaku Ohta – completing the top five.