The Penske Porsches were outpaced by the Acuras
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Acura
All Four Acura ARX-01b Prototype Sports Cars Look For Lime Rock Win
LAKEVILLE, Conn. -- David Brabham's last-lap heroics continued Friday during American Le Mans Series qualifying on the newly-paved Lime Rock Park with the Aussie star winning the pole position for Saturday's Northeast Grand Prix sports-car event .
Brabham, who won a class championship in the 24 Hours of Le Mans last month, drove the No. 9 Patron Highcroft Racing Acura ARX-01b prototype sports car to a time of 46.696 seconds (115.642 m.p.h.) on his final circuit of 1.53-mile, eight-turn road course. The 42-year-old sports car veteran, who'll co-drive with Danbury, Conn., native Scott Sharp, posted Acura's third overall pole in the manufacturer's two-year stint on the American Le Mans Series. Dario Franchitti and Brabham won Acura's poles last year, at Long Beach and Houston, respectively.
Brabham's impressive run knocked another Acura driver, Simon Pagenaud, to second in the 27-car field after the young Frenchman had driven the No. 66 Panasonic ELS Surround Acura ARX-01b machine to a time of 47.082 seconds (114.694 m.p.h.) for de Ferran Motorsports. Pagenaud, teaming with former Indy 500 champion Gil de Ferran in Saturday's two-hour, 45-minute feature, will make his second ALMS start Saturday.
Friday's qualifying will mark the first time that two Acura prototypes will comprise the front row for the Northeast Grand Prix, set for 2:05 p.m. EDT Saturday.
Adrian Fernandez looked to be solid for a potential pole run in the No. 15 Lowe's Fernandez Acura ARX-01b Friday, as the popular Mexican driver clocked a 47.264-second lap early in the 20-minute qualifying session. But he had to settle for the fifth qualifying spot. Fernandez, winner in Indy Cars, Indy Lights and sports cars during his stellar career, will team with fellow Mexican racer Luis Diaz in Saturday's main event.
Former Formula One driver and Le Mans star Franck Montagny made his driving debut in the No. 26 XM Satellite Radio Acura ARX-01b for Andretti Green Racing and took his mount to seventh on the starting grid, with a time of 47.372 (113.991 m.p.h.). Montagny will co-drive with IndyCar Series competitor Marco Andretti, the third-generation star who'll drive at Lime Rock Saturday afternoon and in the IRL event at Nashville in the evening.
DAVID BRABHAM (#9 Highcroft Racing Acura ARX-01b): "Finding a clear spot on the track is not easy. And the surface was dusting up a bit. It was easy to go off. I did it early on in qualifying. I just had to dig so deep to find that lap. I hadn't put together a real good lap early in the session. But the last two laps, the Michelin tires were coming in just right and I got a clear lap. I was pushing as hard as I could. I knew there was a fast time. I just needed to find it. And the track came to our Patron Acura today. For the race, it is much better to start on the front row here. This is a tight track. So the racing will be cramped, to say the least. I'm excited, because this is our second overall pole and it came in Patron Highcroft's backyard."
SIMON PAGENAUD (#66 Panasonic ELS Sound Acura ARX-01b): "I am quite happy with our qualifying run today. We didn't know the track before today and we had no testing here. In fact, neither Gil [de Ferran] or I had seen the track before yesterday. So a front- row spot is great for our Panasonic ELS Acura team. Lime Rock is a fun track to drive and very busy. On the next to last lap, I was able to get the top position. And I caught one of the Audis and lost a better lap. But David's [Brabham] time was very fast. It will be good to have two Acuras on the front row for the first time."
ADRIAN FERNANDEZ (#15 Lowe's Fernandez Acura ARX-01b): "This is a beautiful spot and great for the fans. The new surface is very nice, too. But the track is still pretty tight for your prototype cars. We had a good run early in qualifying, but we didn't have a lap for the top two Acura cars. Congratulations to Acura for the front row today."
FRANCK MONTAGNY (#26 XM Satellite Radio AGR Acura ARX-01b): "This is a very good team and I think Marco and I will be fast in the race. But in qualifying, we didn't perform as well as we thought we would. This track is very tight and I think the race will be pretty wild."
Porsche
LIME ROCK, Conn. - July 11 - Despite the fact that Porsche and Acura had a terrific battle for the LMP2 class - and overall - pole positions, the story of Friday's Northeast Grand Prix qualifying session for Saturday's American Le Mans Series race at Lime Rock Park was the condition of the newly-paved and rebuilt racing circuit.
The Penske Porsche RS Spyders qualified third (Sascha Maassen/Patrick Long) and fourth (Romain Dumas/Timo Bernhard) overall, and third and fourth in the LMP2 class behind the Brabham/Sharp and the de Ferran/Pagenaud Acuras, but the talk of the town was the new track, which had a role to play in the seven red flags that plagued practice and qualifying. Track management had overseen a complete repaving of the circuit between its Memorial Day event and this weekend, including the building of two new corners which completely change the characteristics of this classic road-racing venue. After two practice sessions and qualifying, the consensus was that, although the smooth surface was a welcome change from Lime Rock events of the past, the new corners were too narrow for multi-class racing, and both the slow cars and the fast cars have trouble finding track space to get out of the way and overtake respectively.
Still, when it's all said and done, everyone has to race on the same circuit, and Hartmut Kristen, head of Porsche Motorsport, expects the Porsche-Acura battle to continue to be close.
"After some rear wing adjustments this morning, the Porsche RS Spyders qualified very well, as two Acuras, two Penske Porsches, another Acura, and a Dyson Porsche RS Spyder took the top six positions, all a little more than a half-second apart," said Kristen, who noted the Audi LMP1 cars were eighth and ninth overall.
"We have known since Sebring that the Acuras are much improved this year, and we expect another close finish at Lime Rock.
In the LMP2 Manufacturers points, Porsche leads Acura by 17 points.
In the GT2 class for production-based sports car, the Farnbacher Loles Racing Porsche 911 GT3 RSR will be on the pole, for tomorrow's event as Dirk Werner (Germany) bested the Ferrari of Salo/Melo by more than a half of second in the 20-minute qualifying session. Werner, the defending Rolex Grand-Am champion, gave Farnbacher Loles its first ALMS pole, and scored the first personal ALMS pole as well. He will drive with Porsche factory driver Richard Westbrook (Great Britain), the defending Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup champion. Third was the Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche of Joerg Bergmeister and Wolf Henzler (both Germany) , who hope to increase their one-point lead in the championship over Ferrari drivers Farnbacher/Mueller, who qualified fourth.
"We have had a fast car all day, and we thought we clinched the pole position about half-way through the session, so we came in to save the tires. But then, everyone started to go faster as more rubber was laid on the new track surface, and we went back out to turn a faster lap," said Werner.
Three of the GT2 Porsches - the Werner/Westbook car, the Flying Lizard Johannes van Overbeek/Patrick Pilet Porsche - which qualified fifth, and the Bergmeister/Henzler Porsche, are all outfitted with a new 4.0 liter engine, which develops the same horsepower as the current 3.8 liter engine. The engine, still in its testing phase, is designed to improve drivability by widening the power band.
The third Flying Lizard Porsche, driven by team owner Seth Neiman and veteran Porsche driver Darren Law, qualified eighth in class.
In the manufacturer's GT2 points battle, Porsche leads Ferrari by six points.
Audi
o Lottery in qualifying at Lime Rock
o Modified track causes problems
o Fastest lap of Lucas Luhr disallowed
Ingolstadt/Lime Rock -- Following a chaotic practice day at Lime Rock (US state of Connecticut), Team Audi Sport North America must be satisfied with starting positions eight and nine for the fifth round of the American Le Mans Series.
The shortest track on the schedule of the US sportscar series (1.5 miles/2.414 kilometres) had been modified compared to last year. The two new chicanes caused numerous red flags during the two free practice sessions making a proper set-up work almost impossible. Qualifying turned into a lottery when boundary elements on the kerbs disintegrated and allowed the racing line further and further off the track in the chicanes.
As a consequence, various lap-times were disallowed which affected also the Audi Team. Lucas Luhr was hit especially hard after setting the third fastest time in 47.104 seconds just before the end of qualifying. His lap, however, was later disallowed and Luhr relegated to ninth position on the grid behind the "sister" car driven by Emanuele Pirro.
The track owners will try to modify the track overnight in order to allow a regular race on Saturday. The start is scheduled for 2:05 p.m. local time (8:05 p.m. in Germany).
Quotes after the qualifying at Lime Rock
Dindo Capello (Audi R10 TDI #1): "It's nice to be back in the American Le Mans Series. We improved the car a lot from the first to the second session. Unfortunately I did very few laps with all this red flags we had. I hope I can do some more laps in tomorrow's warm-up to be ready for the race."
Emanuele Pirro (Audi R10 TDI #1): "The race can be a big mess because of the track conditions. It reminds me of a Supermoto race: One part of the track is tarmac, the other is gravel. Personally I'm satisfied. The car is very good for these conditions. Our lap time was close to the first. Normally in such a track we are always suffering in qualifying. When we put full fuel we are better. The position on the grid is not so good, but the general situation is promising."
Lucas Luhr (Audi R10 TDI #2): "I'm happy with our team and our performance. We showed that the Audi R10 TDI, which was built for Le Mans, is also strong on such a track. In my point of view, however, this is no real race track right now. And I'm very upset about the punishment. I would like to see the TV pictures. If I was really the only one to drive through the chicane like this, then the punishment is okay. But I don't believe this was the case."
Marco Werner (Audi R10 TDI #2): "The problem on this track is the new chicanes and the kerbs. It's all about cutting: If they don't see you doing this you are in front. This is not the competition we like to have. This is lottery. We knew that this would not really be our track. But we could have had a much better starting position."
Dave Maraj (Team Director Audi Sport North America): "It was a little bit confusing because of those chicane-cuttings. But we are much closer to the LM P2 cars than we thought we would be. The simulations said a second, but now the gap is just 0.3 seconds. There are ten cars within a second. So it will be a very tough and exciting race."
Corvette again had competition in the GT1, through the Bell Motorsports Aston Martin, but are not under pressure
Corvette
Gavin Pips Magnussen for GT1 Pole in Lime Rock Qualifying
Tire Pressure Adjustment Makes the Difference on New Track Surface
LAKEVILLE, Conn., July 11, 2008 – Oliver Gavin won the GT1 pole for Saturday's American Le Mans Northeast Grand Prix in the No. 4 Compuware Corvette C6.R, edging his Corvette Racing teammate Jan Magnussen by .247 seconds on the reconfigured and repaved Lime Rock Park circuit. Magnussen had the quicker qualifying time in the No. 3 Compuware Corvette C6.R after the first five timed laps, but a tire pressure adjustment gave Gavin the edge he needed to capture the pole.
A fast lap at 52.792 seconds (102.288 mph) secured Gavin's first pole of the season and the 15th of his ALMS career. Magnussen responded with a 53.090-second lap (101.812 mph) that fell less than a quarter of a second short. The No. 009 Aston Martin DBR9 of Borcheller and Ducote suffered crash damage in the first practice session and did not run in the qualifying session.
"We've had some rough luck this year, so let's hope this is the turning point," said Gavin. "Since this track has such short laps, we ran a total of 10 laps in qualifying instead of the four or five we usually take. After the fourth or fifth hot lap, my car was really sliding around and it was very nervous. My crew chief, Steve Cole, asked on the radio, 'Does it feel like the tire pressure is too high?'"
"He made a smart call, brought me in, and the crew lowered the tire pressure," Gavin reported. "I had two more laps to set a time, and managed to get a clear lap. The Corvette C6.R was fantastic!"
Qualifying began as dark clouds gathered over the Connecticut circuit, and rain began to fall at the drop of the green flag.
"On the first lap out of the pits, I went into West Bend and thought to myself, this session isn't going to last too long," Gavin recalled. "I was waiting for the rain to arrive, but it never rained hard. The track surface stayed good and the Michelin tires stayed under us."
Magnussen also stopped for a tire pressure adjustment during his qualifying run.
"When I went back out again after the adjustment, it was difficult to know just how hard I needed to push," said the Dane. "A GT2 car went by me just as I was trying to make a gap to the other Corvette, so I couldn't do my second flying lap. Olly did a great lap; I think we might have matched him if everything was right, but that's how it is."
Magnussen was also concerned about the prospect of a wet qualifying session: "There were some big drops, and I thought, I wish somebody else was doing this!" he said. "But I couldn't feel any moisture on the track."
At 1.51 miles in length, the reconfigured layout is slightly shorter than last year's course, but it has two more turns. The two practice sessions today were interrupted frequently by red flags after accidents and off-course excursions as drivers struggled with the new configuration.
"With all of the stops for red flags, we weren't able to run long enough to test the changes we wanted to make for the race setup," Magnussen conceded. "It could take some luck to get it right in the race."
"I think it's going to be a caution-filled race, and that's a symptom of the new layout of the circuit," Gavin predicted. "The edges of the track are still so fresh that people are dragging dirt onto the track and going off. It's going to be a very challenging race."