Rain had stopped falling – at least in the paddock area – as the second practice session came to an end, but the clouds were heavy, grey and low and it was pretty inconceivable that the four qualifying sessions that would follow over the next hour and a half would be run in the dry. The running order would be GTC, GT, PC and P1/P2, with each class getting 15 minutes.
GTC
Spencer Pumpelly led the seven GTC cars out at the scheduled start time, but it was immediately clear that there was no evidence of a dry, or even a drying, line. But it was Damien Faulkner who headed the times at the end of the first flying lap, with a 2:27.816 in the #66 TRG Porsche. Sean Edwards went second in the #30 NGT MOMO-liveried car – 2:27.880 – while Jeroen Bleekemolen was pushing hard in the #22 WeatherTech Porsche, but unable to improve on his 2:28.452 on the very slippery track.
Andy Lally, however, was rising up the standings, going from seventh to fourth to land second with two minutes to go; 2:27.840 being just 0.22s off pole. However, the car was then pushed back down to fourth, which indicated that his time had been disallowed.
The session ended with 66 on pole from 30, 22, 27, 44, 11 and 45. The top six were separated by less than nine-tenths and the top three by just over a tenth after Bleekemolen improved to 2:27.920.
Damien Faulkner
“This is TRG’s first pole of the season and it’s been a long toe coming so I’m pleased to give something back for the hard work of everyone on the TRG team.
“I’m pleased too that it gives Ben Keating a pole here in his home race.”
GT
Five minutes later it was the turn of the main GT class to qualify, and this time it was Pat Long in the #06 CORE Porsche RSR that led the field out onto the wet track. Most of the cars followed out, but Antonio Garcia (#3 Corvette) and Bryan Sellers (Team Falken Porsche) hung back to give themselves a clear track.
John Edwards set the first flying lap, but his 2:18.002 was immediately bettered by BMW teammate Joey Hand with a 2:17.178 in the #55. Long was third, but the #93 Viper of Jonathan Bomarito took that place, before both Corvettes split the BMWs; Gavin ahead of Garcia with a 2:17.594 in the #4. Long was up to fifth – 2:19.167 – at the midway point of the session. Eight cars were under 2:20 at this stage.
Marco Holzer and Bryan Sellers both improved their times with three minutes to go, but neither the #48 Paul Miller Racing Porsche, nor the Falken RSR, improved their positions (seventh and tenth). But we did see an improvement from the #3 Corvette, as Garcia swapped places with Gavin after a 2:17.442.
Edwards had a final attempt at snatching pole from Hand, but fell 1.1s short. The order was thus 55, 3, 4, 56, 06, 93, 48, 62, 91, 17 and 23.
Joey Hand:
“It’s great to be back with the team, especially because I really didn’t expect to be here at all this weekend. And being back with Bill (Auberlen) too, we’re really putting the band back together.
“Pole is a real good result for us because we certainly aren’t the fastest in the dry, we’re down on the straightaway in the dry and in the wet so the car’s strength in the handling must be playing a big part.
PC
The session clock reset itself as soon as the 15 minutes were up for the GTs, meaning half of the ten-minute gap until the PC session had expired by the time all of the GTs had pitted. The slightly extended gap did, however, allow DSC the opportunity to nip out of the cavernous but windowless media centre to check on the weather – it wasn’t raining and there were signs of dry patches appearing on the paddock floor.
Once again, the cars left the pitlane en masse as soon as the lights went green. It wasn’t a great start for Bruno Junqueira, as he looped the #9 RSR Oreca, but he didn’t hit anything and got going again. Renger van der Zande was a man in a hurry, however, and passed the #52 of Dane Cameron before setting the first flying lap of 2:23.112 in the #81 DragonSpeed car.
Tom Kimber-Smith was second in the #05 CORE FLM, with Tristan Nunez in the #18 Performance Tech a thousandth of a second further back in third.
Van der Zande improved his time to 2:20.114 and was into the top ten, but still behind nine GTs, and was followed through by Ryan Dalziel in the #5 Starworks car on 2:21.003 and Kyle Marcelli in the #8 BAR1 Oreca on a 2:21.099; both leapfrogging an improvement from TK-S. On the next lap, the #81 was up to 2:19.121, while Junqueira briefly went second before Dalziel retook that spot. Nunez was fourth, these being the only cars under 2:21 with four minutes to go.
The Dutchman improved again to 2:18.812 and would have enough time for two more laps, while Junqueira went second on 2:20.018; second in class, but still separated from the DragonSpeed car by five grid spots. Tom Kimber-Smith improved to fourth behind Dalziel with a 2:20.620.
There was no improvement from #81 next time around, but there was a much-quicker lap from Dalziel; a 2:18.929 putting him second in class and sixth overall. Marcelli briefly took fourth, before TK-S went 61- thousandths quicker. Van der Zande crossed the line with just a few seconds still on the clock and his last lap was quicker still – 2:17.865; fourth overall. Marcelli also improved to third with a 2:19.782. The final order was 81, 5, 8, 9, 05, 52, 18 and 7.
“My first pole and I’m really excited to be here. We knew we had the speed in the wet after free practice but we need to do some work on the dry set up too.”
P1 & P2
The final session got underway in unfortunate style for Ryan Briscoe when the rear-left wheel of the #551 Level 5 HPD parted company at Turn 5. The Australian driver managed to get the car home, but the team signalled for him to climb out and it was clear that it would be taking no further part.
For those cars running with the correct number of wheels, the session continued and Lucas Luhr kicked things off with a 2:10.145 in the #6 Muscle Milk HPD, followed through by Marino Franchitti in the #552 HPD with a 2:13.727. However, the Scot’s time was bettered by Anthony Lazzaro in the #01 ESM HPD with a 2:12.100. The Dyson Lola was fourth, with a 2:15.909, but only until Johannes van Overbeek went second in the #02 HPD with 2:11.869.
Luhr lowered his time to a 2:09.049 with eight minutes remaining, and Franchitti went back to second with a 2:10.849 – a full second quicker than JvO. McMurry improved by a couple of seconds in the #16 P1 Lola, but stayed fifth, while neither of the ESM cars improved on their third fliers.
The DeltaWing Coupe finally put in an appearance with five minutes to go, with Andy Meyrick’s first effort being a 2:16.839. Franchitti improved to 2:10.573, but stayed second, while Luhr improved to 2:07.851. The Dyson Lola stayed fifth despite dropping into the 2:12s, while the DeltaWing took a second off its time.
Alas for Meyrick, however, the DeltaWing slowed suddenly as it rounded the final corner and crossed the line, apparently with no drive, as time ran out on the session.
The final order was 6, 552, 02, 01, 16 and 0, while the 551 didn’t set a time; a snapped hub being the cause of the errant wheel.
Marino Franchitti and Lucas Luhr agreed that the conditions were getting tricky out there as the track dried:
Marino Franchitti:
“There was definitely a better time out there but the tricky part was getting the time and not killing the tyres doing it.
“I was surprised by the weather, we were testing here earlier in the year and it was 105 degrees.
“As things stand today it’s more like Scotland, only warm! I hope it dries out, not for us but for the fans, it would be good to encourage them to come out.”
Lucas Luhr
“There’s a point when the track is drying when it gets greasy and starts to overheat the tyres and we had certainly got there. I was pushing then lifting off for a lap and lettig the tyres cool down a little before pushing again.
MH/GG
