A great qualifying session saw Scott Dixon in the de Ferran Motorsports Acura ARX-02a grab pole from Audi and Peugeot earlier today.
It was an impressive achievement for Acura and Wirth Research for such a radical new car to beat Audi and Peugeot, almost out of the box. Chief Designer, Nick Wirth was in tears and speechless. Personally, I’m really pleased as the Chief Engineer at de Ferran was one of the guys who gave me my first break, many years ago .
Peugeot appeared to be content with one flying lap and then back to the pits, while Tom Kristensen had bad luck with traffic in the Audi.
Acura had more success in P2 with the Fernandez Lola fending off both Dyson Racing Lola Mazdas.
GT1 saw Oliver Gavin in the #4 Corvette in front of Jan Magnussen in the other Corvette.
Farnbacher Loles’ Dirk Werner in the Porsche 911 GT3 RSR beat Flying Lizard driver Jorg Bergmister in GT2. Gianmaria Bruni in the ‘visiting’ Ferrari was 3rd, ahead of the regular ALMS Risi Ferrari’s.
Robertson Racing’s Ford GT put in some very quick laps, fifth in GT2.
BMW had a frustrating qualifying, but people forget this is a new car and team. The #92 had technical problems. The sister car of Bill Auberlen qualified 7th.
The 12hr race starts on Saturday 10am ET.
-Andy Blackmore