After a great showing during the practice sessions, Olivier Pla put the Krohn Racing on pole for the 63rd running of the 12 Hours of Sebring in the team’s Ligier Judd. The Frenchman’s lap of 1:51.152 was enough to edge out the other prototype runners by just over three tenths.
Ryan Dalziel handed Extreme Speed Motorsport a surprise second spot for the race, with Joao Barbosa ending up the quickest DP runner, putting the #5 Action Express Corvette DP third with a lap of 1:52.128. It was a great performance from the Scotsman to put the ageing HPD ARX so high up on the grid.
Pla set some strong times early in the session, and kept bettering his personal best. His banker lap was a 1:51.511, a tour which he would better twice before the end of the session.
“I’m very happy. It’s always nice to do the pole, and especially in Sebring. The team did a great job and the car did a great job,” said Pla after the session. “It will be a difficult race with a lot of strategy and it will be tough to beat the Corvettes.”
The Michael Shank Racing crew had to perform an engine change during the afternoon after it expired during practice, but managed to get their Ligier ready to go out for the session without cutting it too fine. A fine job by the team from Ohio. The team qualified strong, but after finishing in the top three during each of the four practice sessions, the Oswaldo Negri could only manage fourth fastest with a 1:52.170.
Rounding out the top five was the #31 Action Express Racing Corvette of Dane Cameron, whose best time was a 1:52.490.
Martin Plowman continued his impressive showing at this year’s event, by dominating the qualifying session from the get-go in PC. Eventually securing the pole spot in the class by posting a 1:55.257 for BAR1 Motorsports late in the session.
It was by no means a straight forward affair though, and in fact, it was extremely tight at the top. Colin Braun and Tom Kimber-Smith for CORE Autosport and PR1 Mathisien Motorsport ended up second and third in the class respectively, and within two tenths of Plowman.
Fred Mackoweicki smashed the former GTLM lap record of Sebring by over three tenths to take pole in the top brass GT class, after a stellar lap of 1:58.587. It turned out to be a Porsche Motorsports 1-2 after all was said and done, with the #912 leading the #911. But, it was still as close throughout the class during Qualifying, just as it was in Free Practice.
“We have a good base for the race,” said the Frenchman. “It’s one of my favorite tracks; I like to be on the limit here. It isn’t easy. I’m sure we can do a really good race.”
Risi Competitizione looked to be sitting pretty early in the session after some solid laps by Pierre Kaffer, but they would end up a lowly fifth in the class, though just four tenths off Fred Macko. Antonio Garcia put Corvette Racing in the mix, by placing the #3 C7.R third in class. Meanwhile, Dirk Werner came home with a lap of 1:58.842 which was good enough to place the #25 Team RLL BMW Z4 fourth.
Riley Motorsports snatched pole in GTD, which after suffering a setback during Free Practice with mechanical troubles, was an exceptional result for the team. Jeroen Bleekemolen was on fine form in the #33 Viper, posting a 2:03.485 to deny a Porsche team pole.
Second in the class was the #23 Team Seattle/Alex Job Racing Porsche of Mario Farnbacher and third ended up being filled by Spencer Pumpelly’s #73 Park Place Motorsports 911.
The big race starts tomorrow at 10:40am local time (ET). DSC will be covering the race live with tweets throughout, and reports which will be posted periodically throughout the day and into the night.
Stephen Kilbey
