Dyson grab Portland front row
Dyson Racing upstaged the works Audis and Porsches by putting their Lolas on the front row for the Portland round of the American Le Mans Series
A superb battle saw Audi drivers Rinaldo Capello and Emanuele Pirro trying and failing to beat Butch Leitzinger and Guy Smith, with all four taking turns on provisional pole.
Eventually it was Leitzinger who came through to secure first position, beating teammate Smith by 0.132 seconds at the end of the session.
"The Dyson tam has done a wonderful job to get the car up to speed," said Leitzinger. "The car's been good ever since we took it off the truck.
"We still have an endurance race to go, but we definitely have the speed - the car's been quick all weekend."
The Penske Porsches also popped up into contention late in the session, with Romain Dumas taking LMP2 class pole and splitting the LMP1 Audis with fourth on the overall grid.
In the class battles, the Chevrolet Corvettes reclaimed the GT1 advantage from arch-rivals Aston Martin, as Olivier Beretta and Johnny O'Connell earned a one-two for the American cars.
Jaime Melo put the Risi Ferrari on GT2 pole, with the Petersen/White Lightning and Alex Job Racing Porsches completing the top three. Bill Auberlen's BMW was 'best of the rest' in fourth.
Qualifying times:
Pos Cl Driver Make Time 1. P1 Butch Leitzinger Lola B06/10 AER 1:03.102 2. P1 Guy Smith Lola B06/10 AER 1:03.233 + 0.131 3. P1 Rinaldo Capello Audi R10 TDI 1:03.421 + 0.319 4. P2 Romain Dumas Porsche RS Spyder 1:03.702 + 0.600 5. P1 Emanuele Pirro Audi R10 TDI 1:03.814 + 0.712 6. P2 Sascha Maassen Porsche RS Spyder 1:03.870 + 0.768 7. P1 Andy Wallace Lola EX257 AER 1:03.997 + 0.895 8. P2 Jon Field Lola B05/40 AER 1:04.885 + 1.783 9. P1 Chris McMurry Lola EX257 AER 1:05.221 + 2.119 10. GT1 Olivier Beretta Corvette C6-R 1:09.399 + 6.297 11. GT1 Johnny O`Connell Corvette C6-R 1:09.524 + 6.422 12. GT1 Darren Turner Aston Martin DB9 1:10.016 + 6.914 13. GT1 Stephane Sarrazin Aston Martin DB9 1:10.070 + 6.968 14. GT2 Jaime Melo Ferrari 430 GT 1:12.769 + 9.667 15. GT2 Joerg Bergmeister Porsche 911 GT3 1:13.235 + 10.133 16. GT2 Mike Rockenfeller Porsche 911 GT3 1:13.312 + 10.210 17. GT2 Bill Auberlen BMW E46 M3 1:13.376 + 10.274 18. GT2 Scott Maxwell Panoz Esperante 1:13.828 + 10.726 19. GT2 Tom Milner Panoz Esperante 1:13.970 + 10.868 20. GT2 Darren Law Porsche 911 GT3 1:14.008 + 10.906 21. GT2 Bryan Sellers BMW E46 M3 1:14.011 + 10.909 22. GT2 Johannes van Overbeek Porsche 911 GT3 1:14.254 + 11.152
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