Justin Bell fastest in qualifying

Bell set a fastest lap of 1m49.394s in his Derhaag Motorsport Chevrolet Corvette, ahead of the 1m50.512s that Maxwell set in his new Multimatic Ford Focus Daytona Prototype. However, Grand American rules state that the new Daytona Prototypes will automatically start at the front of the grid.

Bell, who will team with father Derek for this weekend's race, said: "We are a little bit confused because these guys [Daytona Prototype teams] are kind of getting slower every time we go out onto the track. They were running 47s at the beginning in December, 48s at the test and 50s today, but we were running exactly what we did during the test weekend. I don't know why they're sandbagging me!"

Porsche factory driver Marc Lieb claimed the provisional pole position in the GT class, with a best lap of 1m53.386s, whilst the Nissan-powered Essex Racing Lola claimed the pole in the SportsRacing Prototype class.

Andy Wallace will start in tenth position in his GTS class Mosler MT900R, Johnny Mowlem will start 17th in his Risi Ferrari 360 GT class car, whilst Justin Keen will start 23rd, also in a Ferrari 360.

Yesterday's (Thursday) qualifying session set positions one to 36 of the grid for the race. The remaining slots will be filled in today's second qualifying session.


Scott Maxwell, David Brabham, David Empringham DP Multimatic Motorsports Ford Multimatic 1:50.512
David Donohue, Mike Borkowski, Chris Bye, Randy Pobst DP Brumos Racing Porsche Fabcar 1:50.775
Hurley Haywood, Scott Goodyear, Scott Sharp DP Brumos Racing Porsche Fabcar 1:52.843
Darius Grala, Joshua Rehm, Oswaldo Negri Jr, Guy Cosmo DP Cegwa Sport Toyota Fabcar 1:55.981
Boris Said, Darren Law, Dieter Quester, Luca Riccitelli DP G&W Motorsports BMW Picchio DP2 no time
Didier Theys, Christian Fittipaldi, Terry Borcheller, Forest Barber DP Bell Motorsports Chevrolet Doran no time
Justin Bell, Derek Bell, Simon Gregg, Kenny Wilden GTS Derhaag Motorsports Corvette 1:49.394
Tommy Riggins, David Machavern, Kevin Lepage, Scott Lagasse GTS Heritage Motorsports Mustang 1:50.163
Craig Conway, Rick Carelli, Davy Liniger, John Metcalf GTS Team Re/Max Racing Corvette 1:50.892
Jerome Policand, Michel Neugarten, Andy Wallace GTS Perspective Racing Mosler MT900R 1:51.944