Banner qualified mid-pack in GT
Lexus
GM Racing
Banner
Farnbacher Loles
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Lexus
LEXINGTON, Ohio (June 20, 2008) -- Memo Rojas qualified fourth, while fellow Lexus driver Shane Lewis was 10th as both Lexus-powered cars in the field qualified in the top-10 for Saturday's Rolex Sports Car Series EMCO Gears Classic at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio.
Rojas will co-drive the #01 Telmex Lexus with Scott Pruett tomorrow as the team looks for a fifth win in the season's first seven races. Pruett is not scheduled to arrive into Ohio until approximately 3 a.m. tonight after qualifying for the Toyota/Savemart 300 Sprint Cup race this afternoon in Sonoma, Calif. The Ganassi duo will take a 36-point championship lead into Saturday's race.
"I struggled with the tires coming in right away," said Rojas. "It wasn't until the end of the stint (jumping from sixth to fourth) that the tires were working with me. I'm looking forward to tomorrow's race. We have a strong Lexus engine and we're in a good consistent starting position."
Lewis' 10th-place showing marks the sixth consecutive race that he's qualified the #3 Southard Lexus in the top-10. Lewis, who will team with Bill Lester on Saturday, certainly knows his way around the track having served as an instructor at the Mid-Ohio School earlier in the week.
-- Both Lexus-powered teams have heavy Ohio connections. Southard Motorsports is based in nearby Powell Ohio, with team principle Steve Southard having begun his racing career at Mid-Ohio in the 1970s. Chip Ganassi Racing's Scott Pruett raced for the Mid-Ohio-based Truesports Indy car team from 1989 through 1992.
- Scott Pruett and Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Memo Rojas bring a record 25 consecutive top-10 finishes into this weekend's action in the #01 Telmex Lexus -- the last time they finished outside of the top-10 was here at Mid-Ohio in 2006 -- a full two years ago.
GM Racing
Autohaus Pontiac GXP.R on Pole at Mid-Ohio
GAINSCO Pontiac on front row in DP
Lexington, Ohio, June 20, 2008 -- The Autohaus Pontiac GXP.R of Lawson Aschenbach and Tim Lewis Jr. will start from pole position in GT for tomorrow's round seven of the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16 to be run at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. The GAINSCO Pontiac Riley will start on the front row in the Daytona Prototype (DP) category.
Aschenbach and the No. 72 Autohaus Pontiac team were able to hit on the right setup to secure the pole position for the tomorrow's two-hour-and-forty-five minute race. Aschenbach ran a time of 1:25.627 good for the team's second pole on the year. Lewis had the pole for the Lime Rock Park race on Memorial Day.
"The car was good right from the out lap," Aschenbach said. "The track had become greasy since this morning. It took me a few laps to figure out the pace and then I was able to do a couple of solid laps and get our second pole of the year. I was able to back up the pole time within a few tenths. The Pontiac was flawless in qualifying and the Autohaus guys put a good car under me."
Andrew Davis in the No. 57 Stevenson Motorsports Pontiac GXP.R will start behind the No. 72 for tomorrow's 5:00 p.m. ET start. Davis put in a time of 1:25.785. The team struggled in practice but got the Pontiac right for qualifying. Davis and teammate Robin Liddell will be looking for their third win on the season.
"I am quite pleased with our qualifying effort," Davis said. "We struggled this morning. The guys really worked hard all day to the car right for qualifying. The car was good during the short run, now we have to prove it out in the two sessions tomorrow. We will focus on the race setup with our time on the track in the tomorrow's two sessions."
Kelly Collins will start his No. 07 Banner Pontiac from the fourth row. Collins posted a time of 1:26.070 good for seventh on the grid. Collins will hand over to Paul Edwards. The duo are the current GT points leaders.
"There wasn't anything magical about the car," Collins said. "We have a keep-up car right now. The last four laps of the session the car was really sliding around in the rear. We have to work on the setup more tomorrow and get the car better for the race. We have two more sessions; the guys will get the car right for the race."
Mike Forest had the qualifying duties in the No. 32 PR1 Motorsports GXP.R. Forest put in a time of 1:26.382 and will start 11th. Forest is partnered this weekend with recent high school graduate Patrick Barrett.
"It is a tight field," Forest said. "The weekend really started out good for us. The guys had the car pretty close on the setup and we could spend maximum time on the track. The car is really pretty good, we still have some understeer. I am having a little struggle getting the car down to the apex. The Pontiac is real stable in the brake zone and through the back section of the track."
Marc Bunting is partnered with Jan Magnussen this weekend in the No. 06 Banner Pontiac. Bunting put in a qualifying time of 1:26.902 and will start from the seventh row.
"The qualifying session was not what I was hoping for," Bunting said. "I was able to get one good lap. The car is really good through the technical session. We are starting kind of far back so I will be looking forward to passing some people."
In the Daytona Prototypes, Jon Fogarty had the pole until he was eclipsed in the waning moments of the session relegating him to the number two starting position. Fogarty put in a time of 1:17.885 and will start from the outside of the front row. Fogarty and teammate Alex Gurney are the defending race winners from 2007.
""With the resurfacing recently of the track it takes a long time for the pace to come so I knew it was going to be important for us to be around at the end of qualifying," Fogarty said. "On my fourth flying lap I completely destroyed my right front tire when I locked it up on the back straightaway. I feel bad about that but I think there is more potential in the car than what we saw in qualifying. But good job for the Brumos guys. I didn't realize it was their third of the year. That's enough for them."
Nic Jonsson will start fifth behind the wheel of the Krohn Racing Pontiac Lola. Jonsson put in a time of 1:18.612. Jonsson is teamed with Ricardo Zonta.
"We can't run a lot of downforce on this car," Jonsson said. "If we were to run the amount of downforce we want we end up being quite a bit slower down the straights. The car is definitely getting better. This is the best we have qualified so far this year. The car is confidence inspiring in the technical section and in traffic which important for the race."
Michael Valiante was at the wheel of the No. 10 SunTrust Pontiac and put in a time of 1:18.789 that will have him starting from the sixth position. Valiante will turn over the Riley to teammate Max Angelelli.
"We've just got to keep on improving the car," Valiante said. "That was everything the car had for qualifying today. But we've been making gains over the course of the weekend, so I think we'll have a really good race car even though the qualifying pace wasn't the quickest. It hasn't really mattered this year where people have started. You can start from the back and win. Most important is to make sure we have a good-handling car that's going to last us the whole race. And you never know what's going to happen because we'll have GT cars out there with us, as well. With traffic in the mix, there's going to be a lot going on tomorrow."
Eric van de Poele in the team No. 75 Krohn Racing Pontiac qualified 13th with a time of 1:19.627. Van de Poele is partnered with team owner Tracy Krohn.
"It was ok," van de Poele said. "Like usual we are little behind on the getting the setup right on this new car. Every track is new for this Lola. We have a little bit of oversteer we need to fix. We are closing the gap every weekend to the front cars. We have two sessions tomorrow to do some work. We lose some time down the straight and we are pretty good in the turns. We will use tomorrow on having a good car for the race."
Jim Matthews qualified the Riley-Matthews Pontiac in 16th with a time of 1:20.158. Matthews and teammate Marc Goossens are currently second in the DP points championship.
"I took my regular qualifying approach," Matthews said. "It takes me a few laps to get up to speed on the balance of the car qualifying. The car was a little pushy and it took me a few circuits to be able to drive around it. The car just had less grip upfront in the corners. We are getting off of the turns fast, but just can't turn in that well."
Banner
Kelly Collins and Marc Bunting qualified their Banner Engineering Pontiac GXP.Rs in 7th and 14th positions for Saturday's race.
Lexington, Ohio (June 20, 2008): Kelly Collins turned a 1:26.070 on his third lap of the Mid-Ohio track in the No. 07 Banner Engineering Pontiac GXP.R which will put the championship leading duo of Collins and Paul Edwards on the 4th row of the GT field for Saturday's Round 8 of the Rolex Grand-Am Championships Presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16 the EMCO Gears Classic.
Marc Bunting qualified the No 06 Banner Pontiac GXP.R in the 14th position with a time of 1:26.678. Bunting will share the car with Danish driver Jan Magnussen who is fresh from his 2nd place finish at Le Mans last weekend in a Chevrolet Corvette C6.R.
"Right now we are missing out by only a couple of tenths but that is enough to keep us from being one of the front runners," said Kelly Collins. "I was getting on the brakes a little too soon early on in the session and later when I started using the brakes harder the track had gone away so I couldn't improve my time."
"We might have misread the track conditions a bit because both Kelly and Marc duplicated their fastest practice laps and usually you are a second or so faster in qualifying," said Leighton Reese of the changing conditions here in central Ohio. "We needed to find a couple of tenths because that was all we needed to move up quite a bit in the order. But it is that tough out there in Grand-Am GT. A couple of tenths of a second mean a lot!"
The Banner team continued to search for the optimum setup for both Pontiacs after recent competition adjustments by Grand-Am added weight to the Pontiac GXP.Rs and altered weight distribution.
"I am happier with the way the car is working compared to the first two sessions today," Collins said on the positive side. "There are some handling and instability issues with our car right now because of the weight penalties that have been put on us. As is stands right now Chuck (team race engineer Houghton) is going over the data and we are going to make more changes for tomorrow."
The pole position was won by Lawson Aschenbach in the #72 Autohaus Pontiac GXP with a time of 1:25.627. Mid-Ohio is the 8th race of the season for the GT cars and Aschenbach was the 8th pole winner.
"While we aren't thrilled that the customer cars are beating us right now our goal is to win a championship for Pontiac so we are happy for that," said Reese.
"We'll get a handle on this and we will grind them down in the race," said Reese of tomorrow's race. "I have a lot of confidence in this Banner team and in the world class talent we have in our Banner Engineering Pontiac GXP.Rs!"
Farnbacher Loles
Farnbacher Loles Racing will start three cars from the top 10 positions on the GT grid for Saturday's Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio. The team led two of the three practice sessions on Friday, with 2007 Rolex Series GT champion Dirk Werner of Kissenbruck, Germany, posting the fastest class practice time.
Eric Lux of Jacksonville, Fla., led the Farnbacher Loles contingent in qualifying, putting the No. 86 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car fifth in class with a lap of one minute 26.018 seconds at an average speed of 94.501 mph on the 2.258-mile road course. He will drive the first stint on Saturday, followed by Leh Keen of Charleston, S.C.
"Today's qualifying was all right, but we're struggling with these Pirelli tires," Lux said. "Porsche has stepped up to the plate and helped us out, which is nice. Even though we have the car lower now, it's not enough because we're still lacking overall grip. We're forced to run higher pressures and less camber than what we should be running -- the camber's equal to street cars! I think we need to do more research and tire tests to improve the car right now. Hopefully, we can keep the tires underneath us and have a good podium finish."
Bryce Miller of Summit, N.J., was right behind Lux with a sixth-place effort of 1:26.027 (94.491 mph). Miller returns to Farnbacher Loles for the rest of the season, sharing the No. 87 Porsche with Werner. The two drove the No. 87 Porsche to the Rolex Series GT team championship last year.
"The car demonstrated really good consistency at a good pace and we were able to manage the tires a little bit better than what we have in the past on the Porsches," Miller said. "The front tires came in a little bit late and I could have used the front [sway] bar to bring them in a little faster. When the tires were ideal, I got caught up in traffic a little bit, but I was able to break free at the end of the session and do one better. There seemed to be a lot of swapping of positions -- I think the tires were just coming in at different moments for everyone."
Dave Lacey of Toronto was quick throughout the 15-minute qualifying session in the No. 88 Porsche, ultimately setting the ninth-fastest GT time (1:26.146, 94.361 mph). His co-driver, Steve Johnson of Bristol, Va., will follow Lacey's opening stint on Saturday.
"The car felt pretty good," Lacey said. "We've got a bit of oversteer that we need to dial out overnight, because I don't think that's a good place to start with the car. We were close, but it's deceiving because it's a short track, so the [lap] times look a lot closer than they are on a percentage basis. We have a few ideas to change the car to make it into a better race car for Saturday. We'll have different temperatures and likely different weather, so we're going to plan for that. We look forward to another top-10 finish."