Guy Smith wins Lime Rock pole battle for Dyson as American Le Mans Series resumes
Dyson's Guy Smith fended off Pickett Racing rival Lucas Luhr in a tight pole battle as the American Le Mans Series resumed at Lime Rock following its Le Mans 24 Hours break
Smith grabbed provisional pole early with a 44.113-second lap in the #16 Lola-Mazda he shares with Chris Dyson. Luhr started out with a 44.330s in his and Klaus Graf's HPD, then edged ever closer to Smith - cutting the gap to first 0.012s, then 0.006s. But Smith had more to come, and improved to 44.017s to secure the top spot for Dyson, which is yet to win in 2012.
Christophe Bouchut kept Level 5 on top in LMP2, qualifying third overall.
Kyle Marcelli put Merchant Services' #8 car on pole in the increasingly competitive LMPC class field, ahead of RSR's Bruno Junqueira. This segment was red-flagged for a while after Tom Kimber-Smith spun championship leader Alex Popow's #06 CORE Autosport car into the chicane barriers. Kimber-Smith's time was still good enough for fourth in class, behind Butch Leitzinger (PR1/Mathiason).
Bill Auberlen claimed GT pole for BMW by the relatively large margin of 0.379s in the #55 car.
Marco Holzer put Flying Lizard's usually-overshadowed #44 Porsche up in second place, on an equal time to Oliver Gavin's #4 Corvette, but was subsequently demoted for a ride-height infringement.
The second entries from Rahal Letterman Lanigan BMW, Flying Lizard and Corvette completed the GT top five.
Leh Keen took GTC pole for Alex Job Racing, ahead of TRG's Spencer Pumpelly and Green Hornet's Damien Faulkner.
Pos Cl Drivers Team/Car Time 1. P1 Dyson/Smith Dyson Lola-Mazda 44.017s 2. P1 Luhr/Graf Pickett HPD 44.119s 3. P2 Tucker/Bouchut Level 5 HPD 46.539s 4. P1 Marsal/Lux Dyson Lola-Mazda 46.552s 5. P2 Tucker/Diaz Level 5 HPD 47.007s 6. P2 Plowman/Heinemeier Hansson Conquest Morgan-Nissan 47.072s 7. PC Marcelli/Downs Merchant FLM 47.249s 8. PC Junqueira/Drissi RSR FLM 47.482s 9. P2 Dempsey/Foster Dempsey Lola-Judd 47.992s 10. PC Leitzinger/Dobson PR1 Mathiasen FLM 48.033s 11. PC Popow/Kimber-Smith CORE FLM 48.134s 12. PC Bennett/Braun CORE FLM 48.137s 13. PC Richard/Ende Dempsey FLM 48.726s 14. GT Muller/Auberlen RLL BMW 50.920s 15. GT Gavin/Milner Corvette 51.299s 16. GT Hand/Muller RLL BMW 51.334s 17. GT Bergmeister/Long Flying Lizard Porsche 51.483s 18. GT Magnussen/Garcia Corvette 51.505s 19. GT Sharp/van Overbeek Extreme Speed Ferrari 51.525s 20. GT Henzler/Sellers Falken Porsche 51.957s 21. GT Miller/Maassen Miller Porsche 52.259s 22. GT Sweedler/Bell Alex Job Lotus 52.458s 23. GTC MacNeil/Keen Alex Job Porsche 55.195s 24. GTC Piera/Pumpelly TRG Porsche 55.396s 25. GTC Sofronas/Welch GMG Porsche 55.825s 26. GTC LeSaffre/Lazzaro Green Hornet Porsche 56.379s 27. GT Neiman/Holzer Flying Lizard Porsche 28. GTC LeSaffre/Faulkner Green Hornet Porsche 29. GTC Cumming/Valiante JDX Porsche 30. GT Brown/Cosmo Extreme Speed Ferrari
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