ESM’s pair of HPD P2s swept the front row at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Thursday with Ryan Dalziel and Johannes van Overbeek heading the field in qualifying for today’s Brickyard Grand Prix.
Defending Brickyard Grand Prix winner Dalziel piloted the #1 HPD ARX-03b/Honda to a best lap of 1 minute, 17.603 seconds (113.145 mph) to take his first TOTAL Pole Award of the year.
Extreme Speed Motorsports teammate Van Overbeek, who gave the team its first TUDOR Championship pole and teamed with Ed Brown for their first win at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in the #2 HPD, qualified second at 1:17.879 (112.744 mph).
“We’ve been close to the pole a few times,” Dalziel said. “We’ve had a couple of poles until the last man crossed the line and took it from us. This is great.
“Track conditions changed a lot, so we’ll have to be smart and predict what tomorrow night is going to be like. We’re going to be racing in conditions we didn’t test in. This is a great start. National Patrón Tequila Day, we got the pole, we’ve got the front row, so it was a perfect day.”
Gustavo Yacaman qualified third in the #42 OAK Racing Morgan Nissan with a lap of 1:17.908 (112.702 mph). Yacaman is joined this weekend by co-driver Ho-Pin Tung.
Christian Fittipaldi qualified fourth in the #5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP with a lap of 1:18.102 (112.422 mph), followed by Richard Westbrook in the #90 Spirit of Daytona Corvette DP at 1:18.188 (112.299 mph).
In GTLM it was a delighted Risi Competizione blowing away the dark clouds of their early season as Giancarlo Fisichella captured Ferrari’s first TUSC GT LM pole.
Fisichella lapped the newly reconfigured 14-turn, 2.439-mile circuit in one minute, 22.378 seconds (106.587 mph) in the #62 Risi Competizione entry.
In the always competitive GTLM class, the top-seven qualifiers were separated by less than 0.4 seconds.
“It’s a great day! I’m so happy for everyone at Risi Competizione, the mechanics, the team, Giuseppe Risi and for all our partners. It was very important for us to get the new Balance of Performance for here, and everyone’s done a great job. The car is much better and I was so comfortable and confident in the car that I think I drove well. Pierre is really strong and on the pace too so I think we can do well for the race tomorrow. That, of course, will be the real test and it might not be quite so easy but we have got a good start for the weekend.”
Three makes took the first three positions with the #56 BMW Z4 GTE of John Edwards qualifying second at 1:22.442 (106.504 mph). The #93 SRT Motorsports Dodge Viper GTS-R will roll off third with Jonathan Bomarito posting a qualifying lap of 1:22.491 (106.441 mph). Bomarito and co-driver Kuno Wittmer are coming off of back-to-back podium finishes at Watkins Glen International and Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
Prototype Challenge points leader Colin Braun picked up his third TOTAL Pole Award of the season in the #54 CORE autosport ORECA FLM09 he shares with co-driver and team owner Jon Bennett. Braun posted a best lap of 1:19.849 (109.963 mph). The duo are going for their fifth class victory in six PC races this season.
“It’d be huge to win tomorrow,” Braun said. “We want to do as good as we can at any event, whether it’s Kansas or Indy, but winning here would be really cool. It’s a cool place and we’re going to keep our heads down and keep working.
“I was surprised how close we were to the Prototypes during the last practice. It looked like the front half of the class was pretty quick and the back half wasn’t so quick. So I’m sure all those guys will get quicker. It was tough with all of the traffic to get a clean lap. We were able to do a clean one in practice and put a big time up on the board. It’s going to be a good race.”
Bruno Junqueira, who qualified on the pole for the 2002 Indianapolis 500, qualified second in PC with a lap of 1:20.076 (109.651 mph) in the #09 RSR Racing car.
Luis Diaz qualified third in PC at 1:20.111 (109.603 mph) in the #25 8Star machine.
Six manufacturers made up the top six positions in GT Daytona (GTD) qualifying Thursday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but it was the Turner Motorsports BMW Z4 of Dane Cameron that earned the top spot. Cameron clocked a best lap of 1:26.058 (102.029 mph) to take the class pole 0.091 seconds ahead of the Dodge Viper SRT GT3-R of Jeroen Bleekemolen.
“We came without any expectations and not really sure what to expect and we were pleasantly surprised with what the new layout brought for us and how the car felt,” said Cameron, who is co-driving with Paul Dalla Lana. “It was there and we capitalized on it.”
Bleekemolen’s lap of 1:26.149 (101.921 mph) was good enough for the front row in the #33 Riley Motorsports Dodge Viper SRT GT3-R he shares with co-driver Ben Keating. Bleekemolen and Keating are looking for their second consecutive victory, having won two weeks ago at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
Townsend Bell qualified the GTD class-leading #555 REVO/Robert Graham/Royal Purple Ferrari 458 Italia third for him and co-driver Bill Sweedler, 1:26.220 (101.837 mph). Bell ran in his eighth Indy 500 in May, and ran competitively until a late-race incident led to a 25th-place finish.
