Austin USC: Alex Brundle claims pole on Ligier LMP2's debut
Alex Brundle claimed pole position on the debut of OAK Racing's Ligier LMP2 in the United SportsCar Championship at Austin
Brundle notched up his second USC pole of the season with the HPD-engined Ligier JSP2 by more than eight tenths of a second.
His time of 1m57.809s compared with the 1m58.643s of second-placed Ricky Taylor in the Wayne Taylor Racing Dallara-Chevrolet Corvette DP.
Brundle said: "We were struggling in FP1; we had a problems early on with the turbos and the downshift.
"But I was impressed with the way OAK and HPD have worked, especially since this is the first time that we have run the car on the Continental tyre."
Third place went to Memo Rojas in the Chip Ganassi Racing Riley-Ford with a 1m58.928s
Joao Barbosa was fourth fastest in the Action Express Coyote-Chevrolet Corvette DP on a 1m59.072s.
VIPER ELEVATED TO GT POLE
GT Le Mans honours were initially taken by Patrick Pilet in the additional Porsche 911 RSR entered for this event in the German manufacturer's bid to retain its lead in the manufacturers' points.
Pilet, who shares the car with Frederic Makowiecki, claimed the class pole with a 2m03.302s until the car lost its time because it was not running the mandatory roof-mounted camera pod.
The promoted the best of the Dodge Viper SRT GTS-Rs driven by Jonathan Bomarito, who set a 2m03.539s, to the top of the GTLM pack.
The regular Porsche USC entries from the factory CORE Autosport squad ended up second and third respectively in the hands of Nick Tandy and Patrick Long.
8Star driver Sean Rayhall was over half a second clear of nearest rival Colin Braun in the Prototype Challenge class for the one-make ORECA-Chevrolet.
Qualifying honours in GT Daytona went for the third race in a row to Australian James Davison in The Racers Group Aston Martin V12 Vantage.
STARTING GRID:
Pos | Class | Driver | Team | Car | Time |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | P | G.Yacaman, A.Brundle | Oak Racing | Ligier/HPD | 1m57.809s |
2 | P | J.Taylor, R.Taylor | Wayne Taylor Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m58.643s |
3 | P | S.Pruett, M.Rojas | Chip Ganassi Racing | Riley/Ford | 1m58.928s |
4 | P | J.Barbosa, C.Fittipaldi | Action Express Racing | Corvette/Chevrolet | 1m59.072s |
5 | P | E.Brown, J.van Overbeek | Extreme Speed Motorsports | HPD | 1m59.074s |
6 | P | R.Westbrook, M.Valiante | Spirit Of Daytona | Corvette/Chevrolet | 1m59.498s |
7 | P | O.Negri, J.Pew | Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian | Riley/Ford | 2m00.042s |
8 | PC | L.Diaz, S.Rayhall | 8Star Motorsports | ORECA/Chevrolet | 2m00.528s |
9 | P | E.Curran, B.Said | Marsh Racing | Corvette/Chevrolet | 2m00.972s |
10 | PC | J.Bennett, C.Braun | CORE Autosport | ORECA/Chevrolet | 2m01.085s |
11 | PC | D.Ende, B.Junqueira | RSR Racing | ORECA/Chevrolet | 2m01.260s |
12 | PC | M.Fuentes, J.Martin, A.Popow | Starworks Motorsport | ORECA/Chevrolet | 2m01.321s |
13 | PC | M.Schultis, R.van der Zande | Starworks Motorsport | ORECA/Chevrolet | 2m01.734s |
14 | PC | F.Montecalvo, G.Jeannette | PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports | ORECA/Chevrolet | 2m01.982s |
15 | PC | M.Plowman, M.Drumwright | BAR1 Motorsports | ORECA/Chevrolet | 2m02.596s |
16 | P | J.Miller, T.Nunez | Speedsource | Mazda | 2m02.960s |
17 | GTLM | J.Bomarito, K.Wittmer | SRT Motorsports | SRT/Viper | 2m03.539s |
18 | GTLM | N.Tandy, J.Bergmeister | Porsche North America | Porsche | 2m03.649s |
19 | P | S.Tremblay, T.Long | Speedsource | Mazda | 2m03.719s |
20 | GTLM | P.Long, M.Christensen | Porsche North America | Porsche | 2m03.900s |
21 | GTLM | D.Farnbacher, M.Goossens | SRT Motorsports | SRT/Viper | 2m04.003s |
22 | GTLM | J.M.Edwards, D.Muller | BMW Team RLL | BMW | 2m04.253s |
23 | PC | C.Miller, S.Simpson | JDC-Miller Motorsports | ORECA/Chevrolet | 2m04.380s |
24 | GTLM | B.Auberlen, A.Priaulx | BMW Team RLL | BMW | 2m04.495s |
25 | PC | T.Papadopoulos, J.Mowlem | BAR1 Motorsports | ORECA/Chevrolet | 2m04.726s |
26 | GTLM | J.Magnussen, A.Garcia | Corvette Racing | Chevrolet | 2m04.847s |
27 | GTLM | W.Henzler, B.Sellers | Team Falken Tire | Porsche | 2m04.936s |
28 | GTLM | O.Gavin, T.Milner | Corvette Racing | Chevrolet | 2m05.093s |
29 | GTLM | G.Fisichella, P.Kaffer | Risi Competizione | Ferrari | 2m05.348s |
30 | GTD | A.Carter, J.Davison | TRG-AMR | Aston Martin | 2m08.502s |
31 | GTD | J.Bleekemolen, B.Keating | Riley Motorsports | SRT/Viper | 2m08.814s |
32 | GTD | D.Cameron, M.Palttala | Turner Motorsport | BMW | 2m08.826s |
33 | GTD | M.Vess, M.Skeen | Park Place Motorsports | Porsche | 2m08.984s |
34 | GTD | H.Cisneros, K.Giermaziak | MOMO / NGT Motorsport | Porsche | 2m09.007s |
35 | GTD | B.Barker, D.Faulkner | GB Autosport | Porsche | 2m09.040s |
36 | GTD | J.Potter, A.Lally | Magnus Racing | Porsche | 2m09.113s |
37 | GTD | M.Snow, J.Heylen | Snow Racing | Porsche | 2m09.130s |
38 | GTD | P.Dempsey, A.Davis | Dempsey Racing | Porsche | 2m09.291s |
39 | GTD | N.Canache, S.Pumpelly | Flying Lizard Motorsports | Audi | 2m09.337s |
40 | GTD | P.Lindsey, N.Siedler | Park Place Motorsports | Porsche | 2m09.504s |
41 | GTD | I.James, M.Farnbacher | Team Seattle/Alex Job Racing | Porsche | 2m09.537s |
42 | GTD | S.Neiman, D.von Moltke, S.Pumpelly | Flying Lizard Motorsports | Audi | 2m09.664s |
43 | GTD | C.Haase, B.Miller | Paul Miller Racing | Audi | 2m09.772s |
44 | GTD | B.Sweedler, T.Bell | AIM Autosport | Ferrari | 2m09.914s |
45 | GTD | A.Balzan, J.Westphal | Scuderia Corsa | Ferrari | 2m10.184s |
46 | GTD | K.Al Qubaisi, L.Pegram | Muehlner Motorsports America | Porsche | 2m13.725s |
47 | PC | J.Hawksworth, C.Cumming | RSR Racing | ORECA/Chevrolet | - |
48 | PC | D.Ostella, J.French | Performance Tech Motorsports | ORECA/Chevrolet | - |
49 | GTD | M.Klenin, A.Udell | Muehlner Motorsports America | Porsche | - |
50 | GTLM | F.Makowiecki, P.Pilet | CORE Autosport | Porsche | - |
51 | GTD | C.MacNeil, L.Keen | Alex Job Racing | Porsche | 2m10.140s |
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