Acura confident they can race Porsche

Penske duo Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard are battling for the title with Highcroft Acura's Scott Sharp and David Brabham, but while Dumas qualified second behind teammates Ryan Briscoe and Helio Castroneves, Brabham could only manage seventh in class.

Acura's preparations for the race have been disrupted after three of their four cars suffered massive accidents in testing and practice.

The de Ferran car suffered extensive damage when guest driver Scott Dixon crashed earlier in the week, then the Highcroft entry missed much of practice after Sharp hit the Turn 1 wall and cracked the car's tub on Thursday morning.

Finally Franck Montagny went off avoiding a spinning GT car during Friday practice, but the Andretti Green driver managed to put his repaired car fourth in LMP2 in qualifying, the best of the Acuras.

However while the crashes took the edge off Acura's qualifying performances, the teams are all optimistic about their chances in the race.

"The XM AGR team did a great job getting the car back together after this morning's crash," said Montagny. "The car was not as good as I would have liked it. We had a brake problem and the car didn't turn really well.

"But it is a good race car. We have to be patient in the race, and we know it is a long race. I thought we could qualify a little higher, but we had to repair many things. This team is very strong and I expect us to be very competitive on Saturday."

Highcroft boss Duncan Dayton said Brabham's lowly qualifying session did not reflect what the team - who built up a new car overnight - would be capable of in the race.

"Nine-tenths off of the LMP2 pole car isn't bad for a car turning its first laps," said Dayton. "We've got good straightline speed and some improvements planned for the race tomorrow. We've got a strong car and a great group of drivers, so we should have a shot."