Pagenaud puts De Ferran on Utah pole
A week after taking pole for Peugeot in the Spa Le Mans Series race, Simon Pagenaud returned to his 'day job' with De Ferran Acura in the American Le Mans Series and set the fastest time in qualifying at Miller Motorsports Park in Utah
The rival Highcroft Acura topped most of the session in David Brabham's hands, but Pagenaud managed to overcome the Australian with a late 1m30.645s lap. Despite improving his own time, Brabham could not get within 0.7 seconds of Pagenaud's pace.
Luis Diaz maintained Fernandez Acura's class pole run in LMP2, beating the evenly-matched Dyson Lola-Mazdas by a comfortable 0.7s.
The new hybrid Ginetta-Zytek run by Corsa Motorsports will start its first race from sixth on the overall grid, Johnny Mowlem having lapped 4.3s off the LMP1 Acuras' pace on his car's debut.
Jorg Bergmeister took a remarkable GT2 pole, requiring just one flying lap to plant his Flying Lizard Porsche on the top spot.
Risi Ferrari's Jaime Melo and Farnbacher Loles Porsche's Wolf Henzler tried hard but had to settle for second and third, with Vici Porsche driver Nicky Pastorelli splitting the Rahal Letterman BMWs by taking fifth on the class grid.
The Utah event sees the debut of the new Challenge class for GT3 Porsches, designed to fill out the field while entries are down amid the economic crisis. Carl Skerlong was the fastest of the newcomers, beating Martin Snow to class pole by just 0.006s, and third-placed Bob Faleta by a similarly scant 0.082s.
Pos Cl Drivers Car Time 1. P1 De Ferran/Pagenaud Acura ARX-02a 1m30.645s 2. P1 Brabham/Sharp Acura ARX-02a 1m31.381s 3. P2 Fernandez/Diaz Acura ARX-01b 1m32.749s 4. P2 Leitzinger/Franchitti Mazda Lola B09 86 1m33.513s 5. P2 Dyson/Smith Mazda Lola B09 86 1m33.685s 6. P1 Mowlem/Johansson Ginetta-Zytek 09SH 1m34.957s 7. P1 Field/Field/Ducote Lola B06/10 AER 1m35.471s 8. P1 Willman/Lewis Lola B06/10 AER 1m36.401s 9. GT2 Bergmeister/Long Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 1m47.120s 10. GT2 Melo/Kaffer Ferrari 430 GT 1m47.265s 11. GT2 Werner/Henzler Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 1m47.319s 12. GT2 Mueller/Milner BMW M3 E92 1m48.314s 13. GT2 Stuck/Pastorelli Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 1m48.599s 14. GT2 Auberlen/Hand BMW M3 E92 1m48.628s 15. GT2 Farnbacher/James Panoz Esperante 1m49.084s 16. GT2 Robertson/Murry/Robertson Doran Ford GT Mk 7 1m49.888s 17. GT2 Neiman/van Overbeek Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 1m52.709s 18. GT2 Feinberg/Hall Dodge Viper Comp 1m53.032s 19. CS Parker/Skerlong Porsche 911 GT3 Cup 1m56.166s 20. CS Snow/Snow Porsche 911 GT3 Cup 1m56.172s 21. CS Hoaglund/Faieta Porsche 911 GT3 Cup 1m56.248s 22. CS Brown/Sweedler Porsche 911 GT3 Cup 1m57.500s 23. CS Baker/Cosmo Porsche 911 GT3 Cup 2m00.085s
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