Christian Fittipaldi put the No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP on the pole for Saturday’s Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta. Photo by Nigel Kinrade LAT Photo USA for IMSA
BRASELTON, GA – Action Express Racing came to Road Atlanta with a long “to do” list for Saturday’s season-ending Petit Le Mans powered by Mazda, including capturing team and driver championships for both the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship and Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup.
Winning the TOTAL Pole Award was on that list, and Christian Fittipaldi went out and accomplished that fete in Friday’s Prototype qualifying session. The Brazilian ran a lap of 1:14.508 (122.725 mph) on the 12-turn, 2.54-mile road course in the No. 5 Action Express Corvette DP co-driven by Joao Barbosa and Sebastien Bourdais, taking his first pole of the year. It was the team’s second of the season, the first coming when Bourdais led qualifying for the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida in March.
The Petit Le Mans powered by Mazda takes the green flag at 11:15 a.m. ET.
The session was red flagged twice, once as Alex Brundle stopped on course in the No. 42 OAK Racing Ligier JS P2/Honda, and then for a two-car incident when Brian Frisselle in the No. 9 Action Express Corvette DP tagged the stopped No. 07 Mazda Prototype of Tristan Nunez.
“After I saw the second red, I knew we would have only a few minutes,” Fittipaldi said. “I knew I had to nail it on two laps maximum. After that, it went to the checker and it was all over.
“We have a couple of goals for tomorrow,” Fittipaldi added. “First, the car has to start. If we roll down after the pace car we get the team championship. Then priority number two is to get Joao and myself 45 minutes to clinch the driver championship. After that, we’ll start looking at the Patrón Endurance Cup and the race win. We’re definitely looking at the big picture. It’s by no means finished yet, and I’ve seen many crazy things happen in racing.”
Ricky Taylor qualified second in the No. 10 Konica Minolta Corvette DP co-driven by his brother Jordan and Max Angelelli with a lap of 1:14.797 (122.251 mph). Sharing the second row will be the No. 90 VisitFlorida.com Corvette DP, qualified by Richard Westbrook at 1:14.920 (122.050 mph), and the No. 01 Telcel Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Ford EcoBoost/Riley, qualified by Scott Pruett at 1:15.224 (121.557 mph).
Brundle was looking to give the new Ligier chassis its second consecutive pole, with co-driver Gustavo Yacaman running fastest in Thursday night practice. However, Brundle lost the clutch very early in the session, relegating the new car to the back of the 51-car grid.
RSR Racing Takes Top Two Positions In Prototype Challenge Qualifying
Jack Hawksworth and Bruno Junqueira gave RSR Racing a front-row sweep in Prototype Challenge (PC). Hawksworth won the TOTAL Pole Award in the No. 08 AutomaxUSA.com ORECA FLM09 co-driven by Chris Cumming and Rusty Miller, running 1:16.210 (119.984 mph).
Junqueira, a three-time 2014 pole winner, ran 1:16.471 (119.575 mph) in the No. 09 Linospresso USA ORECA FLM09 co-driven by Duncan Ende and David Heinmeier-Hansson, turning in his fastest lap at the end of the 15-minute session.
“I was really happy to get it, because Bruno nipped me at the last minute at Road America, and I would have been incredibly disappointed if he did it again,” Hawksworth said. “The pole doesn’t mean too much on the way of the result tomorrow, but it’s always nice to be in the quickest car.”
The two cars in the battle for the team championship took the next two positions.
While CORE autosport clinched the drivers’ championship for Colin Braun and Jon Bennett at Circuit of The Americas, 8Star Motorsports enters the finale trailing by 11 points in the team standings. Tom Kimber-Smith qualified third in the No. 25 8Star Motorsports with a lap of 1:16.599 (119.375 mph), and will be joined by Sean Rayhall and Eric Lux in a bid for a third consecutive victory. Braun qualified fourth with a lap of 1:16.612 (119.355 mph), with James Gue completing the driver lineup for the No. 54 CORE autosport Flex-Box ORECA FLM09.
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Tandy Captures GTLM Pole For Porsche
In a class that has been extremely competitive throughout the entire TUDOR United SportsCar Championship season, it should come as no surprise that the season ended without a repeat pole winner in the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class. The ace in the hole at Road Atlanta was Nick Tandy, who will start up front Saturday.
Tandy set a lap of 1:18.350 (116.707 mph) in the No. 911 Porsche North America Porsche 911 RSR early in the 15-minute session.
“It goes to show how competitive this class is, and how good all the guys that drive the cars and the teams and manufacturers are in this series,” Tandy said. “It shows that this probably is the best GT race series in the world right now. I’m proud to be part of it, really.”
Tandy will co-drive with Michael Christensen, Patrick Pilet and Joerg Bergmeister. Tandy and Pilet won the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona, while Christensen and Bergmeister won the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida.
“We went pretty aggressive on the strategy in qualifying, knowing that we’d have two laps where the car would really be at its best,” Tandy said. “In qualifying trim, the car is the best it’s been all season. Since mid-season, we’ve really put a lot of emphasis into our qualifying performance.”
Giancarlo Fisichella qualified second in the No. 62 Ferrari F458 Italia, 1:18.687 (116.207 mph), followed by Wolf Henzler, 1:18.707 (116.178 mph) in the No. 17 Team Falken Tire Porsche 911 RSR.
Davison Captures Fourth Straight GTD Pole For TRG-AMR
Hoping to end the season on a high note, James Davison captured his fourth-consecutive TOTAL Pole Award in the GT Daytona (GTD) class in the No. 007 Royal Purple/PassTime/Orion Energy Aston Martin V12 Vantage.
Davison lapped the 2.54-mile, 12-turn circuit in 1:22.254 (111.168 mph), 0.141 seconds ahead of the No. 58 Dempsey Racing Discount Tire/Universal Industrial Sales Porsche 911 GT America driven by Madison Snow.
“This is a great result for our whole team, because we’ve had a bit of a rough weekend up to this point,” said Davison, who will co-drive with David Block and Christina Nielsen. “This was a tougher session than our three other poles. I think everyone was sliding around a fair bit because there wasn’t enough grip on the track. Hopefully we can get a good result the finish off the season on a high note.”
Snow, who will be joined Saturday by co-drivers Jan Heylen and Patrick Dempsey, ran a lap of 1.22.395 (110.978 mph).
With only one race remaining on the TUDOR Championship schedule, three teams, three manufacturers and five drivers in the GTD class are separated by seven points. Class leader Dane Cameron drove the No. 94 Turner Motorsport BMW Z4 to a fifth-place starting position with a lap of 1:22.682 (110.592 mph). Cameron will be joined by co-drivers Markus Palttala and Christoffer Nygaard.
Among the other championship contenders, Cooper MacNeil qualified eighth in the Alex Job Racing No. 22 WeatherTech Porsche 911 GT America co-driven by Leh Keen and Craig Stanton, while Bill Sweedler qualified in 12th in AIM Autosport’s No. 555 REVO/Robert Graham Ferrari F458 co-driven by Townsend Bell and Conrad Grunewald.
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