Brabham flies to superb pole in wet
David Brabham took the Highcroft HPD to a stunning American Le Mans Series pole position in very wet conditions at Lime Rock
Brabham was 2.5 seconds than the rest of the LMP1 field on their first flying laps, but CytoSport Porsche driver Klaus Graf kept closing in.
Every time Graf got within sight - even trimming the gap to 0.003s at one stage - Brabham managed to inch further ahead.
Then as conditions improved very slightly in the final minutes, Brabham raised the bar with two laps in the low 58s - 1.7s quicker than Graf's pace at the time.
Graf got within 0.6s and then made one last-ditch bid to depose the HPD, but had to abandon it after going straight on down the escape road at the first corner.
Guy Smith (Dyson Lola-Mazda) had an equally tough battle with Drayson's Jonny Cocker to earn third.
Porsche had a one-two in a GT session interrupted by Guy Cosmo crashing the #02 Extreme Speed Ferrari. Patrick Long put the #45 Flying Lizard Porsche on class pole by 0.4s over Wolf Henzler's Falken car, with the two Risi Ferraris third and fifth and the Corvettes fourth and sixth.
The Rahal Letterman BMWs struggled though, and will start ninth and 13th in class.
Christophe Bouchut took LMPC pole for Level 5, while Jeroen Bleekemolen claimed his and Black Swan's third straight pole in a GTC class depleted by Alex Job cutting back from three cars to one for the rest of the year, with ex-LMP1 men Butch Leitzinger and Luis Diaz among the drivers sidelined.
Pos Cl Drivers Car Time Gap 1. P Brabham/Pagenaud HPD 58.106s 2. P Pickett/Graf Porsche 58.746s + 0.640s 3. P Dyson/Smith Lola-Mazda 59.951s + 1.845s 4. P Drayson/Cocker Lola 1m00.092s + 1.986s 5. P Field/Field Lola 1m02.922s + 4.816s 6. PC Tucker/Bouchut ORECA 1m03.020s + 4.914s 7. PC Marcelli/Wong ORECA 1m03.587s + 5.481s 8. GT Bergmeister/Long Porsche 1m03.904s + 5.798s 9. PC Figge/Papadopoulos ORECA 1m04.082s + 5.976s 10. GT Sellers/Henzler Porsche 1m04.378s + 6.272s 11. GT Melo/Bruni Ferrari 1m04.391s + 6.285s 12. GT Magnussen/O'Connell Corvette 1m04.563s + 6.457s 13. GT Salo/Kaffer Ferrari 1m04.929s + 6.823s 14. GT Beretta/Gavin Corvette 1m05.011s + 6.905s 15. GT Sharp/van Overbeek Ferrari 1m05.064s + 6.958s 16. GT Brown/Cosmo Ferrari 1m05.346s + 7.240s 17. PC Tucker/Wallace ORECA 1m05.617s + 7.511s 18. GT Auberlen/Milner BMW 1m06.907s + 8.801s 19. GT Murry/Robertson Doran 1m07.005s + 8.899s 20. PC Sedivy/Zugel ORECA 1m07.584s + 9.478s 21. GT Dalziel/Goossens Jaguar 1m07.661s + 9.555s 22. GT Law/Neiman Porsche 1m07.892s + 9.786s 23. GTC Pappas/Bleekemolen Porsche 1m08.129s + 10.023s 24. GTC Richard/Lally Porsche 1m08.733s + 10.627s 25. GT Muller/Hand BMW 1m08.876s + 10.770s 26. GTC Lewis/Vento Porsche 1m09.689s + 11.583s 27. GTC Curtis/Sofronas Porsche 1m09.837s + 11.731s 28. GTC Sweedler/Kapudija Porsche 1m11.135s + 13.029s 29. GTC Miller/Hines Porsche 1m11.648s + 13.542s 30. PC Jeannette/Julian ORECA 1m18.455s + 20.349s
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