AGR and Acura fended off the Porsches in qualifying
Audi
Acura
Porsche
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Audi
Ingolstadt/Elkhart Lake -- Lucas Luhr has captured the pole position for Audi in the seventh round of the American Le Mans Series with a record lap at Road America. The German beat the previous track record held by Allan McNish by 0.730 seconds. With an average speed of 136.277 mph, the Audi "factory" driver also recorded the fastest ever qualifying lap in the history of the American Le Mans Series.
It is the first overall pole position for the German in the US-based sports car series and the first for him at the wheel of the over 650-hp strong Audi R10 TDI which also started from pole at Road America in 2006 and 2007. Luhr was fastest in Friday afternoon's qualifying session right from the start improving his time with each of his following three laps. The 29-year-old was the only driver to dip under 1m 47s. Second placed Franck Montagny (Acura/Honda) was 0.410 seconds slower.
Emanuele Pirro set the third fastest time with the "sister car". This means both Audi R10 TDI prototypes will start Saturday's race from the first two rows of the grid. Pirro shares the cockpit for the first time with Swiss Marcel Fassler who is driving his debut race with the diesel-powered sportscar at Road America.
The start at Road America is scheduled for Saturday at 4 p.m. local time (11 p.m. in Germany). The race-distance is four hours and thus longer than most other rounds of the American Le Mans Series. Lucas Luhr and his team-mate Marco Werner enjoy a commanding lead in the LM P1 Drivers' Championship prior the race at Road America.
Quotes after the qualifying at Road America
Lucas Luhr (Audi R10 TDI #2): "A pole is always nice. And achieving a small record makes it of course even sweeter. Personally, I don't care too much about this, I always want to be as far in front as possible. We've done that. The car was good. I made a small mistake on my quickest lap, it would have probably been possible to be one or two tenths faster. But nevertheless I am happy and satisfied. We even do not have to do much more for the race because we already have a good race set-up too."
Marco Werner (Audi R10 TDI #2): "Congratulations to our record man! Lucas (Luhr) has done a good job: pole position with a great time. I think it looks good also for the race. It will certainly be a difficult race as it is four-hours long. We are in a good shape starting from pole position, even if this is not so important in such a long race. It is critical that we are consistently fast in the race. And we should be."
Marcel Fassler (Audi R10 TDI #1): "I'm still learning but generally things are already going pretty well. I begin to feel really comfortable in the car. I still need to know the race track, the car and the team a little bit better. I need to improve for the race, but up until now I'm happy."
Emanuele Pirro (Audi R10 TDI #1): "I'm quite satisfied. We started with losing one part of the first session due to small problems and with a car quite far from a good balance. It took us a long time to catch back up. Even during the qualifying session we improved the car. I think we are 90 percent good now and we can look forward to the race. With full tanks the car is good."
Dave Maraj (Team Director Audi Sport North America): "Lucas (Luhr) did a very good lap in qualifying. Congratulations to him, to the engineers and the whole crew. Everybody did a great job today."
Acura
ELKHART LAKE, Wis. -- Franck Montagny made his first visit to the picturesque Road America circuit a memorable one by driving the No. 26 XM Satellite Radio Andretti Green Acura ARX-01b prototype sports car to the LMP2 class pole position Friday in qualifying for Saturday's Generac 500.
Montagny, a French driver with experience in both Formula One and 24 Hours of Le Mans , broke the LMP2 track record by more than one and a half seconds with a clocking of one minute, 47.345 seconds and a speed of 135.757 miles per hour, easily bettering the previous mark of 1:48.833 [133.901 m.p.h.], set last year by Romain Dumas.
Montagny, who'll team with young British driver James Rossiter in Saturday;s American Le Mans Series feature, recorded Andretti Green Racing's second American Le Mans Series pole with a solid performance Friday. Montagny quickly jumped to the top of the timing charts in the 20-minute session with a track-record at 1:48.028, followed by a 1:47.491 and then a 1:47.345.
Dario Franchitti won the first Andretti Green's ALMS pole last year at Long Beach.
Road America veteran Adrian Fernandez looked to be a strong challenger for Montagny's pole in the No. 15 Lowe's Fernandez Acura ARX-01b, but had to settle for second in the LMP2 qualifying. Fernandez, a 12-time Road America starter in open-wheel and sports car competition, notched a best lap of 1:47.639 [135.386 m.p.h.].
David Brabham, a two-time race winner in 2008, took the No. 9 Patron Highcroft Racing Acura ARX-01b to fourth on the LMP2 grid with a time of 1:47.774 [135.216 m.p.h.]. Brabham and teammate Scott Sharp will seek their third class win Saturday when the green flag drops at 5 p.m. (EDT) on the famed four-mile road course.
Former Indy 500 champion Gil de Ferran, the Mid-Ohio pole winner, took his No. 66 Panasonic ELS Surround Acura ARX-01b to fifth in LMP2 qualifying at 1:48.160 [134.734 m.p.h.]. Young Simon Pagenaud will co-drive with de Ferran in Saturday's feature event.
Saturday's Generac 500 will be televised on SPEED-TV Sunday, August 10, at 2 p.m. EDT.
ACURA QUOTES:
FRANCK MONTAGNY (#26 XM Satellite Radio AGR Acura ARX-01b): "This track is very good. It's a proper road-racing track for America. It is closer to what we race in Europe. I didn't like the Lime Rock track and I thought Mid-Ohio was better. This circuit is even better than Mid-Ohio. Our XM Acura has been improving with each race for me, and I am getting used to the car and the team. I am really enjoying racing in the American Le Mans Series. This is the most fun I have had in racing. The atmosphere is so much different than in Europe. It is a friendly place to race. The XM team has been making very good changes with the car. James [Rossiter] is given us good feedback. I think he is a good driver and will help the team. I like our position on the front row and we'll have a good chance to win on Saturday."
ADRIAN FERNANDEZ (#15 Lowe's Fernandez Acura ARX-01b): "We have been competitive from the time we unloaded the Lowe's Acura. Qualifying was good, but I wouldn't say it was perfect. I had some traffic and, through it didn't disturb me on my fast lap, I could not prepare for my out lap. The car had good balance and there was a lot of grip. This is a long race and I think we'll be in contention throughout the four hours."
DAVID BRABHAM (#9 Highcroft Racing Acura ARX-01b): "Our speed in the last practice gave us a lot of hope for qualifying. That's because we tried a lot of different things in Thursday's testing and those things just didn't work. We went with a completely different setup today and it was the right direction. Now we have time to fine-tune the car for the race. That will help us."
GIL DE FERRAN (#66 Panasonic ELS Surround Acura ARX-01b): "We have been chasing the balance of the car the last two days. We just missed a bit in qualifying. It is amazing how close this car is to my old Indy car I drove here in 2000 and 2001. It feels so much like that old CART car. This Acura does brake better. I think we'll improve the car for the race."
Porsche
ELKHART LAKE, Wisconsin - August 8 - Romain Dumas (France), who shares the #7 LMP2 Penske Racing Porsche RS Spyder with Timo Bernhard (Germany), and Jorg Bergmeister (Germany), who drives the #45 GT2 Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 RSR with Wolf Henzler (Germany), both broke the track qualifying records in their classes, but it wasn't quite enough to capture the pole for their Porsche teams for tomorrow's Generac 500 at Road America.
All is not lost for Dumas/Bernhard, who will start in third position in LMP2, as they are only one-tenth of a second out of second place and four-tenths away from the class pole. The Acuras of Montagny/Rossiter and Fernandez/Diaz have the first two LMP2 grid positions in Acura prototypes. The #6 Patrick Long (USA)/Sascha Maassen (Germany) Penske Porsche RS Spyder also broke the track qualifying record, but in this age of ultra-competitive American Le Mans Series racing, Long's qualifying time was good for sixth in class, more than a second off the pace.
"In a four-hour race, we will have four or five pit stops, several yellow flags, and other events that will ultimately determine the outcome of the race," said Long, former ALMS GT2 champion and 24 Hours of Le Mans winner.
"The Acuras are fast, but we can win if we drive smart and out-maneuver the competition," said Long, who, with co-driver Maassen, is looking for his first win of the season.
The Marino Franchitti (Scotland)/Butch Leitzinger (USA) Dyson Racing Porsche RS Spyder qualified seventh in class, while the team RS Spyder of Chris Dyson (USA)/Guy Smith (England) will start eighth.
In GT2, the #45 Flying Lizard Porsche 911 GT3 RSR of Bergmeister/Henzler qualified third, followed by the Farnbacher Loles Racing Porsche of Dirk Werner (Germany)/Richard Westbook (England)/Bryce Miller (USA) in fourth. Two Ferrari 430s occupy the first two GT2 grid positions.
Bergmeister, who has won in GT2 at Road America four times in his career, commented, In the No. 45, the car wasn't where we wanted to be for qualifying so we still have some work to do before tomorrow. Even so, we were close to the pace of the No. 71 and the No. 62 Risi Ferrari (in second); I'm optimistic that we'll have a great car for the race."
Werner, who is the defending Rolex Grand-Am champion, was optimistic about his position.
"I'm pretty confident with the lap I did. I think we did everything right - there was a short time for us to develop the car in the free practice and the track was new to Richard and me, so I don't see where I could have made any more time. I'm feeling okay for the race, although we still have to work a little bit in the morning warmup to get the race setup," Werner said.
The Flying Lizard team Porsche of Patrick Pilet (France) and Johannes van Overbeek (USA) was fifth in class, while the VICI Racing Porsche of Nicky Pastorelli/Francesco Pastorelli (both the Netherlands/Marc Basseng (Germany) were tenth and the Flying Lizard Porsche of Seth Neiman and Darren Law (both USA) was 11th.