Fast from the drop of the green flag, Christian Fittipaldi kept improving to give the Action Express Corvette DP its first pole position of the season in Friday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Qualifying at Long Beach.
Fittipaldi improved his best lap four times before posting a time of 1:14.962 in Action Express Racing’s #5 Mustang Sampling Corvette DP co-driven by Joao Barbosa. Fittipaldi edged out defending Long Beach-winner Ricky Taylor by 0.171 seconds.
“There’s definitely a lot of history at Long Beach for myself and my family,” said Fittipaldi, who joined Barbosa in capturing the Prototype championship in both 2014 and 2015. “I’ve been coming here since ’95. (Uncle) Emerson has had success here. His last Formula One podium was here in 1980 in our own car (owned by Christian’s father Wilson Fittipaldi), and he’s had success here in Indy Cars. The California track in Fontana has been very good for me, but Long Beach has been hard for me and Action Express Racing. To stick a pole here at Long Beach is very important for me and my team.”
It was Fittipaldi’s third career pole position, and first since winning the 2015 pole at Belle Isle in Detroit, the only other temporary circuit on the schedule.
“Starting on a pole on a street race definitely makes your life less hard,” Fittipaldi said. “I think we have a shot here – but it definitely won’t be easy.”
Taylor saved his best lap for last in the interrupted session, running 1:15.133 in the No. 10 Konica Minolta Corvette DP co-driven by his brother Jordan. Third fastest was Tom Long, turning in the best qualifying effort for the Mazda Prototype with a lap of 1:15.641 (93.663 mph) in the No. 70 Castrol/ModSpace Mazda co-driven by Joel Miller.
The session was red flagged with 6:50 remaining when Marc Goossens spun in the hairpin in the No. 90 Visit Florida Racing Corvette DP and was hit by the No. 55 Mazda Prototype of Tristan Nunez. Qualifying resumed with 3:50 remaining, with Taylor’s fastest lap coming just before the checkered flag.
In GTLM, it was Bull Auberlen who stole the show on the Californian streets, seeing the #25 RLL BMW M6 to pole position after a time of 1:17.272. It’s his second consecutive pole after Sebring.
“I just heaved one out, as hard as I could,” said Auberlen regarding his pole-winning lap on his fifth trip around the circuit. “You have to sort of contain yourself here because if you stand on it too hard, you can kick the car sideways and sort of screw up your lap. Which I did four times.”
A late run by Earl Bamber in the #912 Porsche North America Porsche 911 RSR nearly unseated Auberlen atop the time chart, as he came just 0.003 seconds short with a lap of 1:17.275. Bamber and Frederic Makowiecki will round out the front row with teammates Patrick Pilet and Nick Tandy starting in third after Pilet’s lap of 1:17.458.
The car that has won both races thus far in the 2016 season, the #4 Corvette Racing Corvette C7.R driven by Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner, will start fourth. Gavin turned a lap of 1:17.573 to start ahead of the #3 Corvette C7.R, which Jan Magnussen qualified at 1:17.676. Antonio Garcia joins Magnussen behind the wheel of the #3, which finished atop the podium in this race in 2014.
Misha Goikhberg was awarded the pole for the WeatherTech Championship debut of the Prototype Challenge (PC) class at Long Beach following an abbreviated session in the #85 JDC-Miller Motorsports ORECA FLM09.
