Virginia ALMS: Dyson's Guy Smith ends Pickett's pole streak

Smith's effort denied champion Pickett Racing a sixth straight pole position, as Klaus Graf tried in vain to get his HPD ahead of the Lola-Mazda at the top of the times.

But Briton Smith's benchmark, a 1m35.965s, proved too much for Graf, who returned to the pits with more than a minute on the clock after a big moment on his final flying lap trying to overturn the 0.20s deficit.

In the fight for LMP2 pole, Ryan Briscoe headed a Level 5 one-two, with points leader Marino Franchitti half a second slower in the second HPD.

Title challenger Scott Sharp's weekend start with difficulty, as he made an error on his out-lap, nerfing the tyre wall on the exit of the Hog Pen and requiring repairs to his Extreme Speed machine. He was able to get back out, but could only manage 10th.

LMPC title rivals Michael Guasch and Jonathan Bennett left it to their out-of-the-picture team-mates to scrap it out in qualifying.

Guasch's PR1/Mathiasen co-driver Dane Cameron edged CORE's Tom Kimber-Smith after an epic fight for the class pole that had both drivers take turns at the head of the field.

BMW ON TOP IN GT

Martin claimed the second pole of his debut ALMS season in the lead Rahal Letterman Lanigan-run BMW Z4.

He usurped Matteo Malucelli's Risi Ferrari 458 at the head of the times with his fourth lap, and was the only driver to get below 1m46s.

It was a strong session for BMW, with Dirk Muller third fastest, while Chevrolet's joint-points leader Jan Magnussen could only manage eighth.

Any chance of the #3 Corvette making a late improvement was ended when Malucelli caused the session to be cut short with a few minutes remaining.

His 458 dropped fluid at the Hog Pen, causing Tommy Milner to crash in the #4 Corvette and also Kuno Wittmer to spin his SRT Viper. That led to the Ferrari's best time being deleted, though Malucelli's second-best effort was still good enough to split the two BMWs.

TRG's Damien Faulkner was quickest of the GTC runners, ending the session 0.40s clear despite an off-track excursion just after posting his fastest time. Jeroen Bleekemolen pipped Spencer Pumpelly to second.

Pos Cl   Drivers                      Team/Car                   Time       Cl Gap
 1. P1   Smith/Mowlem                 Dyson Lola-Mazda           1m35.965s         
 2. P1   Graf/Luhr                    Pickett HPD                1m36.169s  +0.204s
 3. P2   Tucker/Briscoe               Level 5 HPD                1m39.796s         
 4. P2   Franchitti/Cosmo/Johansson   Level 5 HPD                1m40.307s  +0.511s
 5. P2   Brown/van Overbeek           Extreme Speed HPD          1m40.743s  +0.947s
 6. PC   Guasch/Cameron               PR1 Mathiasen FLM          1m41.854s         
 7. PC   Bennett/Kimber-Smith         CORE FLM                   1m42.105s  +0.251s
 8. PC   Marcelli/Cumming             BAR1 FLM                   1m42.419s  +0.565s
 9. P2   Sharp/Lazzaro                Extreme Speed HPD          1m42.497s  +2.701s
10. PC   Nunez/Booth                  Performance Tech FLM       1m42.574s  +0.720s
11. PC   Schultis/van der Zande       DragonSpeed FLM            1m42.869s  +1.015s
12. PC   Mitchell/French              BAR1 FLM                   1m43.406s  +1.552s
13. P1   Meyrick/Legge                DeltaWing                  1m43.724s  +7.759s
14. GT   Auberlen/Martin              RLL BMW                    1m45.978s         
15. GT   Beretta/Malucelli            Risi Ferrari               1m46.113s  +0.135s
16. GT   Muller/Hand                  RLL BMW                    1m46.174s  +0.196s
17. GT   Miller/Holzer                Miller Porsche             1m46.211s  +0.233s
18. GT   Bomarito/Wittmer             SRT Viper                  1m46.528s  +0.550s
19. GT   Farnbacher/Goossens          SRT Viper                  1m46.568s  +0.590s
20. GT   Long/Braun                   CORE Porsche               1m46.673s  +0.695s
21. GT   Magnussen/Garcia             Corvette                   1m46.923s  +0.945s
22. GT   Gavin/Milner                 Corvette                   1m47.038s  +1.06 s
23. GT   Henzler/Sellers              Falken Porsche             1m47.730s  +1.752s
24. GT   Sweedler/Bell                AJR/West Ferrari           1m47.761s  +1.783s
25. GTC  Keating/Faulkner             TRG Porsche                1m52.213s         
26. GTC  MacNeil/Bleekemolen          Alex Job Porsche           1m52.610s  +0.397s
27. GTC  Canache/Pumpelly             Flying Lizard Porsche      1m52.621s  +0.408s
28. GTC  Cisneros/Edwards             NGT Porsche                1m52.927s  +0.714s
29. GTC  Cisneros/Giermaziak          NGTC Porsche               1m53.286s  +1.073s
30. GTC  Hedlund/Heylen               JDX Porsche                1m53.425s  +1.212s
31. GTC  Neiman/von Moltke            Flying Lizard Porsche      1m53.507s  +1.294s
32. GTC  Dempsey/Lally                Dempsey Del Piero Porsche  1m53.571s  +1.358s