Indianapolis United SportsCar: Ryan Dalziel puts ESM HPD on pole
Ryan Dalziel came out on top in the battle for pole position at the Indianapolis round of the United SportsCar Championship
The Extreme Speed Motorsports HPD driver took command of proceedings early on, gradually improving to a time of 1m17.603s by the middle of the 15-minute Prototype session.
Dalziel's team-mate Johannes von Overbeek will join him on the front row having set a time 0.276 seconds slower, with the OAK Morgan of Mosport Park winner Gustavo Yacaman just a further 0.029s back in an all-LMP2 top three.
Action Express Racing's Christian Fittipaldi made a jump up to fourth place in the dying moments of the session to become the best of the DP entries, pushing fellow Corvette driver Richard Westbrook down to fifth.
Chip Ganassi driver Scott Pruett rounded out the top half-dozen, and has a new partner this weekend as Indy Lights champion Sage Karam gets another sportscar outing while Memo Rojas recovers from a back injury.
CORE Autosport driver Colin Braun will start from the Prototype Challenge pole after beating Bruno Junqueira and Luis Diaz to class honours.
The Risi Ferrari of Giancarlo Fisichella set the pace in the GT LM session by a slim margin, the ex-Formula 1 star's early benchmark remaining unchallenged until the end.
John Edwards' BMW proved Fisichella's closest rival, falling 0.064s short, with Jonathan Bomarito and Marc Goossens making it an all-SRT Viper second row in class.
The battle for pole in the GTD class was almost as close, Turner BMW driver Dane Cameron coming out on top after setting a lap time just 0.091s clear of Jeroen Bleekemolen's Viper.
Townsend Bell's Ferrari and Spencer Pumpelly's Audi were also both within two tenths of Cameron's pace and will start third and fourth in class respectively.
Pos Cl Drivers Team/Car Time 1. P Sharp/Dalziel Extreme Speed HPD 1m17.603s 2. P Brown/van Overbeek Extreme Speed HPD 1m17.879s 3. P Yacaman/Tung OAK Morgan-Nissan 1m17.908s 4. P Barbosa/Fittipaldi Action Express Corvette DP 1m18.102s 5. P Westbrook/Valiante SDR Corvette DP 1m18.188s 6. P Pruett/Karam Ganassi Riley-Ford 1m18.436s 7. P Taylor/Taylor Taylor Corvette DP 1m18.592s 8. P Pew/Negri Shank Riley-Ford 1m19.555s 9. P Curran/Frisselle Marsh Corvette DP 1m19.714s 10. PC Bennett/Braun CORE FLM 1m19.849s Other class polesitters: 22. GTLM Fisichella/Kaffer Risi Ferrari 1m22.378s 32. GTD Cameron/Dalla Lana Turner BMW 1m26.058s
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