Olivier Pla put the Michael Shank Racing Honda Ligier JS P2 on the pole for Saturday’s Twelve Hours of Sebring. Photo by Richard Dole LAT Photo USA
Hard work by the Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian team to rebuild the No. 60 Tire Kingdom Honda Ligier JS P2 after a pair of incidents paid off on Friday, with Olivier Pla capturing the TOTAL Pole Award for Saturday’s 64th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh from Florida.
Pla ran a lap of 1:51.217 (121.061 mph) to capture his second consecutive pole Sebring pole in IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competition. The team worked until 3 am repairing major damage to three corners of the car following an incident by John Pew in Thursday’s night practice. Then in Friday morning’s final practice, Pla had a brake issue and impacted a barrier, escaping with broken front-end bodywork.
“It was tough in many ways,” said Pla, who co-drives with Pew and Ozz Negri. “First, because yesterday the crew had to repair the car overnight, and things were a bit crazy. Then today we changed the setup because we were struggling. It paid off. We knew we had to push, because qualifying and the race were going to be tough. I love this track. I know this one is difficult, but the team gave me a great car.”
Rolex 24 At Daytona winner Pipo Derani will start second, running a best lap of 1:51.391 (120.872 mph) in the No. 2 Tequila Patrón ESM Honda Ligier JS P2 co-driven by Ed Brown, Scott Sharp and Johannes van Overbeek.
While Action Express Racing dominated the weekend’s four practice sessions, the two-car team had to settle for sharing the second row following the 15-minute session. Dane Cameron was third fastest with a lap of 1:51.943 (120.275 mph) in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering/Team Fox Corvette DP co-driven by Eric Curran and Scott Pruett. Christian Fittipaldi qualified fourth with a lap of 1:52.205 (119.995 mph). He will be joined by fellow defending Sebring winner Joao Barbosa plus Filipe Albuquerque in the 2015-winning No. 5 Mustang Sampling Corvette DP.
Rare Qualifying Attempt Results In PC Pole For Braun, CORE Autosport
Making a rare qualifying attempt in the No. 54 CORE autosport Flex-Box/Composite Resources ORECA FLM09, Colin Braun went to the top of the charts and stayed there, capturing the TOTAL Pole Award in Prototype Challenge (PC) with a lap of 1:54.910 (117.170 mph).
Braun recorded his fourth career WeatherTech Championship pole but first since Indianapolis in 2014. His lone qualifying attempt since then was at Daytona in 2015, after a rule change to mandate that the qualifying driver also must start the race.
“It’s nice to get the chance to qualify,” said Braun, who scored his 13th career pole in major American sports car competition. “We’ve been quick all week and we have a nice race car. We’ve always run well here. Tomorrow we’re going to have variable conditions including some rain, so that will play into things. I think you have to have a little luck to get through the first 10 hours, and then you really need to work things out in the last two hours.”
Defending Sebring class winner Tom Kimber-Smith qualified second in the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports entry with a lap of 1:55.843 (116.226 mph). Qualifying in the second row were Daytona pole winner Johnny Mowlem, 1:56.661 (115.441 mph) in the No. 20 BAR1 Motorsports ORECA, and James French, 1:57.189 (114.891 mph) in the No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports entry.
BMW Team RLL Sweeps GTLM Front Row
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Last year, Bill Auberlen desperately wanted to give BMW another trophy to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the manufacturer’s first victory in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh from Florida. However, that race didn’t quite go according to plan.
Fast forward to 2016, and the famed driver is making good on his promise to honor BMW during a milestone year. Auberlen captured his 42nd career pole on Friday – his second in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship – running a track-record lap of 1:58.402 (113.714 mph) in the No. 25 BMW Team RLL IHG Rewards Club BMW M6 GTLM co-driven by Dirk Werner and Bruno Spengler.
“Today was a picture-perfect day,” said Auberlen. “I’ve been racing here since the Eighties, when you would see people win by 15 to 20 laps. Today, the days of winning by even 15-20 seconds are gone. These manufacturers are making cars that are so strong that the weakest link is now the driver. You keep beating on these cars for hours and they just keep turning laps. It’s going to be a dogfight – let’s get through 10 hours and when we get to the last we hours we’re going to see what this M6 has left.”
BMW Team RLL teammate John Edwards completed the front row with a lap of 1:58.592 (113.532 mph) in the No. 100 IHG Rewards Club BMW M6 GTLM co-driven by Lucas Luhr and Kuno Wittmer. He was followed by Daniel Serra in the No. 68 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GTE and Richard Westbrook in the No. 67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT.
The entire 10-car GTLM field was covered by 0.768 seconds.
Segal Captures GTD Pole In Debut Of Ferrari 488 GT3
Scuderia Corsa made a triumphant debut of the Ferrari 488 GT3 in GT Daytona (GTD) competition, as Jeff Segal captured his first career WeatherTech Championship TOTAL Pole Award with a track record lap of 2:02.350 (110.045 mph) in the No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3.
“It’s a little more special this weekend with Ferrari’s 60th anniversary of its first win here,” said Segal, who will co-drive with Christina Nielsen and Alessandro Balzan. “We’re going against all new cars; the GTD class is crazy in that sense. You don’t really know who is going to be fast. Our strength is that while our car is different, it’s based on the Ferrari 458, which basically won anything it ever entered. For us, it’s a little less new than some of the other cars, so that is a bit of an advantage for us.”
Jeroen Bleekemolen qualified second in the No. 33 Riley Motorsports Dodge Viper GT3-R with a lap of 2:02.386 (110.013 mph).
The No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M6 GT3 with Jens Klingmann and defending race-winning No. 23 Team Seattle Porsche 911 GT3 R with Mario Farnbacher will start from the second row, with Porsche also sweeping the third row.
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