Porsche Penske Motorsport #7 starts from first row.

As Matt Campbell is the endurance driver, he’s only done two races this year and therefore isn’t in IMSA championship contention, but was given an enormous role in the team’s efforts by qualifying the car, which he'll start in Saturday's race. Campbell has scored two poles in the 963 this year in the World Endurance Championship and raced the car in IMSA more regularly last year, and he was up to the challenge asked of him at the undulating Road Atlanta track.

He was among the first four cars to break under the 1m09s barrier and only the #31 Cadillac went quicker after the final improvements, with Campbell pushing right to the chequered flag.

Nick Tandy - a legend at the Petit Le Mans after an incredible win in a GT car overall at this race in 2015 - qualified the #6 car, which starts the weekend second in the championship, and managed eighth overall. After qualifying, the #7 car leads the #6 in the championship by 133 points, with the #01 a further 35 points back. There are 350 points available, but the #7 will score 220 points even if it finishes last, so it is in a very strong position entering the race.

Porsche can also win the manufacturer championship, with a host of other class wins on offer too. In the customer racing GTP programmes, the #85 JDC-Miller MotorSports car driven by Phil Hanson was an early pacesetter and managed to take sixth.

Alessio Picariello was back behind the wheel of the #5 Proton Competition Mustang Sampling car and he managed 10th.

GTD Pro points leader takes pole.

Laurin Heinrich was one of the stars of qualifying and claimed his first GTD Pro class pole position of the season, extending his championship lead by five points to 104 in the process. An early red flag curtailed the session and meant a six-minute shootout for the pole, but the #77 AO Racing driver was up to the challenge. He went fastest with his first flying lap in the Porsche 911 GT3 R (992), and then went even quicker to take pole by 0.052s, the perfect result in a bid for the championship.

In the GTD class Adam Adelson qualified the Wright Motorsports 911 GT3 R (992) in 13th, with the MDK Motorsports car of Kerong Li 16th in class.

Porsche Penske Motorsport will push hard for the final race of the season in a bid to seal all the championship and class titles available.

The race runs from 1210-2210hrs Eastern Time.