Smith gives Dyson Laguna Seca pole
A superb lap from Guy Smith gave Dyson Racing's Lola-Mazda its first outright pole in American Le Mans Series qualifying at Laguna Seca
David Brabham had looked set to start first again in the Highcroft HPD car as he dominated the early stages of prototype qualifying, but then Smith's late 1m12.338s earned Dyson the top spot by 0.671 seconds at the track backed by its engine partner Mazda.
Smith will share the pole-sitting car with Chris Dyson and Andy Meyrick in tomorrow's race, which will be a six-hour event for the first time.
Klaus Graf was third in the CytoSport Porsche, while Paul Drayson took on qualifying duties in his team's Lola-Judd, which suffered gearbox problems in practice, and was back in sixth behind the Intersport and Autocon cars.
Ferrari will start first and second in the GT class. Jaime Melo put Risi up front early on and stayed there, and was backed up by Johannes van Overbeek taking second for the new Extreme Speed team.
The Corvettes were next up ahead of the Rahal Letterman BMWs, while the best of the Porsches - Jorg Bergmeister's Flying Lizards car - was back in eighth behind the second Extreme Speed Ferrari.
LMPC saw a tight battle between Level 5's Christophe Bouchut, Green Earth Gunnar's Gunnar Jeanette and PR1's Johnny Mowlem, in which the latter finally edged out Jeanette by a tenth of a second.
Jeroen Bleekemolen (Black Swan Racing) took a clear GTC pole, 0.6s ahead of Butch Leitzinger in the top Alex Job Racing car.
Pos Cl Drivers Car Time 1. P Dyson/Smith/Meyrick Lola-Mazda 1m12.338s 2. P Brabham/Pagenaud/Franchitti HPD 1m13.009s 3. P Gidley/Graf/Maassen Porsche 1m13.855s 4. P Field/Field/Konstant Lola 1m15.208s 5. P Willman/Burgess/Ehret Lola 1m15.775s 6. P Drayson/Cocker/Pirro Lola 1m16.297s 7. PC Mowlem/Papadopoulos/Lewis ORECA 1m17.800s 8. PC Julian/Jeannette/Zugel ORECA 1m17.971s 9. PC Tucker/Bouchut/Wilkins ORECA 1m18.212s 10. PC Sutherland/Weickardt/Marcelli ORECA 1m18.256s 11. PC Tucker/Wallace/Frisselle ORECA 1m21.221s 12. PC Pagerey/Wong/Ducote ORECA 1m21.446s 13. GT Melo/Bruni Ferrari 1m22.752s 14. GT Sharp/van Overbeek Ferrari 1m23.067s 15. GT Beretta/Gavin Corvette 1m23.101s 16. GT Magnussen/O'Connell Corvette 1m23.201s 17. GT Auberlen/Milner BMW 1m23.350s 18. GT Mueller/Hand BMW 1m23.379s 19. GT Brown/Cosmo Ferrari 1m23.394s 20. GT Bergmeister/Long Porsche 1m23.484s 21. GT Sellers/Henzler Porsche 1m23.991s 22. GT Robertson/Robertson/Murry Doran Ford 1m24.750s 23. GT Gentilozzi/Dalziel/Goossens Jaguar 1m26.381s 24. GT Krohn/Jonsson Ferrari 1m26.708s 25. GTC Pappas/Bleekemolen/Bleekemolen Porsche 1m26.934s 26. GTC Gonzalez/Leitzinger/Junco Porsche 1m27.603s 27. GTC Richard/Villeneuve/Lally Porsche 1m27.797s 28. GTC Lewis/Aschenbach Porsche 1m27.950s 29. GTC Miller/McMullen/Hines Porsche 1m28.126s 30. GTC Curtis/Sofronas/Borcheller Porsche 1m28.171s 31. GT Law/Neiman/Bernhard Porsche 1m28.481s 32. GTC Rodriguez/Bieker/Wilson Porsche 1m28.590s 33. GTC Sweedler/Kapudija/Lueders Porsche 1m29.360s 34. GTC Gonzalez/Diaz/Junco Porsche 1m29.547s 35. GTC Beggs/Baron Porsche 1m29.701s
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