Laguna Seca United SportsCar: ESM gets first pole for an LMP2 car
Johannes van Overbeek stole the show in a fantastic United SportsCar qualifying battle at Laguna Seca, taking the first pole for an LMP2 car in the new series
Extreme Speed HPD driver van Overbeek battled early pacesetter Richard Westbrook's Spirit of Daytona Corvette DP right down to the wire, with the American producing a 1m18.561s to oust the Brit with only seconds to spare.
Despite topping the session early on, van Overbeek's team-mate Ryan Dalziel could only manage third after a fierce battle with Gustavo Yacaman's OAK Racing Morgan. Christian Fittipaldi's Action Express Corvette rounded out the top five.
The winner of the last two races, the #01 Ganassi Riley-Ford, only managed seventh in the hands of Scott Pruett.
The GTLM category was topped by Corvette Racing's Antonio Garcia, winner of the preceding Long Beach round along with Jan Magnussen.
Garcia laid down a 1m22.373s that remained unbeaten through the session, as drivers looked to preserve the tyres they will start on in Sunday's race.
Works BMW driver Jon Edwards in second led Brits Nick Tandy, Oliver Gavin and Andy Priaulx with the top five covered by less than six tenths of a second.
Bruno Junqueira was the only man under 1m20s with a stunning time for RSR on his last lap of the PC session. The CART race winner, who took pole last time out at Long Beach, was a class apart as he topped Renger van der Zande and Sean Rayhill with a lap of 1m19.723.
In the GTD category, Spencer Pumpelly produced a stunning lap in the Flying Lizard Audi to overturn Leh Keen's banker time set at the start of the session.
Keen had led before the #51 Spirit of Race Ferrari had forced the session to be shortened after a trip into the gravel.
With over 50 cars in the entry at the 2.2-mile circuit, the event will be split into a pair of two-hour races on Sunday, with the PC and GTD categories running first before the P and GTLM classes have a separate event later in the afternoon.
Leading qualifying times (all P class): Pos Drivers Team/Car Time Gap 1. Brown/van Overbeek Extreme Speed HPD 1m18.561s 2. Westbrook/Valiante Spirit Corvette DP 1m18.788s +0.227s 3. Sharp/Dalziel Extreme Speed HPD 1m18.970s +0.409s 4. Yacaman/Brundle OAK Morgan-Nissan 1m19.076s +0.515s 5. Barbosa/Fittipaldi Action Express Corvette DP 1m19.175s +0.614s 6. Taylor/Taylor Taylor Corvette DP 1m19.504s +0.943s 7. Pruett/Rojas Ganassi Riley-Ford 1m19.962s +1.401s 8. Pew/Negri Shank Riley-Ford 1m20.107s +1.546s 9. Meyrick/Legge DeltaWing 1m20.327s +1.766s 10. Curran/Said Marsh Corvette DP 1m21.393s +2.832s PC pole: Ende/Junqueira RSR FLM 1m19.723s GTLM pole: Magnussen/Garcia Corvette 1m22.373s GTD pole: Canache/Pumpelly Flying Lizard Audi 1m26.695s
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