Brabham takes Long Beach ALMS pole

Fresh from winning in St Petersburg two weeks ago, Brabham set a new qualifying record with his time of 1m11.627s, which came in response to being pushed back to a provisional third on the grid by the De Ferran and Fernandez Acuras.

Brabham's pole lap initially put him nearly a second clear of de Ferran, whose eponymous team had started on pole for both the preceding rounds. De Ferran then steadily narrowed the gap, eventually lapping just 0.072 seconds slower than the Highcroft car, only to then spin and tap the wall at Turn 1 moments after setting the time.

Fernandez Racing's LMP2 Acura took third overall and class pole, although Guy Smith showed the Dyson Lola-Mazda's improved form by getting to within 0.2s of Adrian Fernandez's pace.

Long Beach marks the final ALMS appearance of the factory GT1 Corvettes, which will race for the last time at the Le Mans 24 Hours before Chevrolet introduces its new GT2 car later in the season. Olivier Beretta added to his pole record as he beat team-mate Johnny O'Connell to class pole by 0.192s.

Jaime Melo put Risi Ferrari on GT2 pole after a titanic battle in the slowest but best supported class, only to be disqualified for a ride height infringement. The Brazilian dominated the first half of the GT session, before Patrick Long closed in and then edged ahead with the Flying Lizard Porsche.

After Melo's first response ended in a trip down the Turn 1 escape road, the Brazilian regrouped and snatched pole back with a 1m20.111s lap. Farnbacher Loles Porsche's then pushed the Flying Lizard car back to third, as Long's last chance to retaliate was spoiled when he was delayed by the Primetime Dodge Viper.

Risi's subsequent demotion to the back of the grid therefore put Farnbacher Loles on GT2 pole, ahead of Flying Lizard and the two Rahal Letterman BMWs.

Pos  Cl   Drivers                Car                       Time
 1.  P1   Brabham/Sharp          Acura ARX 02a             1m11.627s
 2.  P1   de Ferran/Pagenaud     Acura ARX 02a             1m11.699s
 3.  P2   Fernandez/Diaz         Acura ARX-01B             1m13.134s
 4.  P2   Dyson/Smith            Lola B0986 Mazda          1m13.378s
 5.  P2   Leitzinger/Franchitti  Lola B0986 Mazda          1m13.763s
 6.  P1   Field/Field/Ducote     Lola B06/10               1m15.303s
 7.  P1   Lewis/Willman          Lola B06/10               1m16.470s
 8.  GT1  Beretta/Gavin          Chevrolet Corvette C6R    1m17.952s
 9.  GT1  Magnussen/O'Connell    Chevrolet Corvette C6R    1m18.144s
10.  GT2  Henzler/Werner         Porsche 911 RSR           1m20.369s
11.  GT2  Bergmeister/Long       Porsche 911 RSR           1m20.577s
12.  GT2  Mueller/Milner         BMW E92 M3                1m21.300s
13.  GT2  Hand/Auberlen          BMW E92 M3                1m21.382s
14.  GT2  Westbrook/Stuck        Porsche 911 RSR           1m21.805s
15.  GT2  Murry/Robertson        Doran Ford GT-R           1m22.044s
16.  GT2  Sellers/Cicero         Porsche 911 GT3 RSR       1m22.222s
17.  GT2  Gigliotti/Said         Chevrolet Riley Corvette  1m22.334s
18.  GT2  Feinberg/Hall          Dodge Viper               1m22.519s
19.  GT2  Law/Neiman             Porsche 911 RSR           1m25.023s
20.  GT2  Farnbacher/James       Panoz Esperante           1m25.096s
21.  GT2  Melo/Kaffer            Ferrari 430               -