Track action resumed today under a cloudy but dry track here at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.
GTD:
With only 15 minutes for the GTD cars to set their times, the entire field headed out on to the track right away. The first car in the train of the GTD machines was the #48 Paul Miller Racing Audi R8 LMS of Dion Von Motlke. Von Moltke has been performing excellently all summer in the Tudor United Sports Car Championship. His Audi R8 LMS climbed up the hill at Road America and posted a session best of 2:12.924. The #23 Team Seattle/Alex Job Racing Porsche 911 GT of Ian James had posted a second fastest time of 2:13.866, but was quickly beaten by the #33 Riley Motorsports Dodge Viper SRT GT3-R with Ben Keating at the wheel. As the session went past the halfway mark, the top 3 positions were filled by the #33 Viper of Keating, the #73 Park Place Motorsports Porsche 911 GT of Patrick Lindsey and the #48 Audi R8 of Von Moltke. 4th position was filled by the #007 TRG-AMR Aston Martin Vantage V12 of Christina Nielsen with a time of 2:11.532. Rounding out the top 5 at halfway through the session was the #22 Alex Job Racing Porsche 911 GT of Cooper MacNeil.
As the session came to close however, times were re-shuffled for the top 5 runners. Pole position was set by the #73 Porsche driven by Patrick Lindsey with a time of 2:09.370, who had been asked by his teammate Spencer Pumpelly to “make him happy out there today.” Pumpelly, who also runs in the Continental Tires Sports Car Championship, had a win slip through his fingers just minutes before the GTD qualifying session started. Pumpelly’s car ran out of fuel while in the lead of the race with only 2 corners remaining on the last lap. Lindsey surely eased Pumpelly’s disappointment from earlier in the afternoon. 2nd place was set by the very popular #33 Viper at the hands of Ben Keating with a time of 2:09.448. Christina Nielsen’s #007 Aston Martin will fill the 3rd spot on the starting grid for tomorrow’s race with a qualifying best time of 2:09.947. The #48 Von Moltke Audi R8 will start in 4th position for the race with a time of 2:10.125 being set. The 5th place starting position for the race will be filled by the #63 Scuderia Corse Ferrari 458 Italia of Bill Sweedler with a time of 2:11.116.
GTLM
With another 15 minutes reset on the clock for the second round of qualifying today, the GTLM field headed out onto the track to continue setting times for tomorrow’s race. the #912 Porsche of Earl Bamber sets the early pace for the qualifying session with a time of 2:02.384. With more cars running through the laps, nobody could get close to the gap set by Bamber. Ferrari Ace Giancarlo Fisichella in the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 458 Italia set second fastest time on his third lap with a 2:03.449. Bamber, so confident of his time, pulled into the pit lane, parked it, and got out of his car. He was seemingly confident that his pole position time will be untouched over the remaining minutes of the session. All of the GTLM runners chased after the leading Porsche’s time, but continued to come up short. With the session coming to a close, Earl Bamber’s confidence was well placed as his compatriots came up short. The #3 Corvette Racing C7.R of Antonio Garcia set the second fastest time of the day with a 2:02.08. The third fastest time was set by the #62 Ferrari of Fisichella with a 2:02.721. The fourth starting position tomorrow is occupied by the #24 BMW Team RLL of John Edwards, with a time set of 2:03.262. The #4 Corvette Racing C7.R of Tommy Milner will start in fifth position with a time of 2:03.689.
LMPC
Another 15 minutes and another class took to the track today in qualifying. 3rd up this afternoon is the LMPC class; a class that is in truly uncharted waters now with many options going forward for how the series will take the class forward. LMPC saw many of the drivers stay out for the entire session as they each keot going faster and faster. John Hindaugh of IMSA Radio filled the airwaves saying, “it’s almost like a little qualifying race isn’t it for LMPC.” The initial pace was seen set by the #54 CORE Autosport car of Jon Bennett, with a 2:04.889. Other strong times were seen set early on in the session by the #38 Performance Tech Motorsports with a 2:04.163, and the #52 BAR1/Mathiasen Motorsports of Mike Guasch setting top 5 pace with a 2:02.530.
As the session came to a close it looked as though the #11 RSR Racing machine driven by Chris Cumming would take the pole with a 1:59.710, but after the clock had run out, the #38 Performance Tech Motorsports car of James French flashed across the timing line one last time, and snatched pole position with a time 1:59.658! So the #38 on pole position with #11 in second place. Third position will be started by the #85 JDC/Miller Motorsports car driven by Chris Miller, who put in a time of 2:00.749 having completed 8 laps in the session. The #52 of Guasch will start 4th tomorrow with a best time of 2:01.304. 5th place is filled by the #54 CORE Autosport Oreca FLM-09 of Jon Bennett, who ran 8 laps as well, with a best time of 2:01.727.
P
The clock was reset one final time for the top class in the Tudor United Sports Car Championship to set their qualifying times. First across the line was the #90 VisitFlorida.com Racing Corvette DP of Michael Valiante, with a time of 2:00.365. Moments later though, the #0 Ciaro/TracFone DeltaWing Racing entry topped the sheets for the first time this weekend, posting a 2:00.034 in the hands of Memo Rojas. The DeltaWing would drop down the order however as the session went on. The #01 Chip Ganassi Riley Daytona Prototype with Ford Ecoboost power went to the top of the time sheets halfway through the session, with Joey Hand setting a time of 1:56.531. The #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP of Ricky Taylor set a 1:57.617, which was good enough for 4th in the session. The only diesel powered #07 SpeedSource Mazda Skyactiv Prototype ran throughout the session but couldn’t find anymore time than a 2:01.929, nearly 5.5 seconds behind the pole position time.
The checkered flag flew for the final time for today’s Qualifying session with the #01 of Hand in pole position. Half a second behind in second place is the #5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP of Christian Fittipaldi, who set a time of 1:57.020. The #90 DP of Valiante will start the race in third position with a time of 1:57.173. The Ace team of Jordan and Ricky Taylor will start the race in 4th place, with Ricky Taylor setting a time of 1:57.437. The fastest of the LMP2 machines, the #60 Michael Shank Racing Ligier JS P2-Honda, will start the race in fifth place, with John Pew setting a time of 1:57.502.
The race starts at 2pm local time with full live coverage on IMSA Radio
Paul Marquardt
