ALMS Generac 500 - Road America - Qualifying Report

Lucas Luhr grabbed Audi’s first ALMS Pole Position since St Petersburg at Road America, a lap in 1:46.935 from the #2 R10 TDI man heading the 14 car LMP field and good enough for a class record qualifying time and fending off the challenge of Franck Montagny in the #26 Andretti Green Acura (1:47.345) itself good enough for a class qualifying record and for the Frenchman’s first class pole. 

Lucas Luhr “I think this is one of the best race tracks in America. I really like it here. The car is really good. We are very prepared for tomorrow. Its just good fun to come here, there are some corners that are challenging in a GT car and a prototype.

“If you go around the paddock and ask any driver, they love coming here. It’s loads of fun. A 4 hour race is longer than the other ones, basically the strategy is in our favour being a longer race, but you never know with the yellows and the things going on around the race track.

“If a yellow comes out, you have to be prepared to change your mind completely and react and adapt to it. Our plan is to go as fast as you can and then react to it.

“For sure the car is improved from last year, especially after Le Mans last year. I'll make sure Nishy gets a note that I broke his record!

“I’m still confident that we will still have the overall win. The course is good for our car.

“I was surprised Montagny was only 4 tenths behind me. You can see that Acura is getting quicker and quicker.”

Franck Montagny “I’m happy to be at this track. Mid-Ohio was the first step compared to Lime Rock. I have quite a lot of fun with the car. It should be a fair race, lots of competition and great race cars.

“I didn’t know this track coming here, I didn’t know the other tracks either, but we have a good engineering crew and experience that helps me out.

“It’s hard to get around in traffic and I have more time now doing that. Tomorrow will be another great race. From now to the last race, I'm trying to work with the engineers and get used to the car. We are always improving the car, race after race and test after test.

“I've done a lot of racing in Europe, and some GT cars and prototypes. It’s good to go somewhere and be good right off from the start.”

Row two would again be an Audi / Acura affair, Emmanuele Pirro in the #1 R10 edging out Adrian Fernandez in the #15 Acura by less than a tenth of a second with 2007 overall race winner Romain Dumas a similar distance astray in fifth overall in the #7 Penske Porsche RS Spyder.

Sixth overall fell to David Brabham in the #9 Patron Highcroft Acura, second through sixth places separated by less than half a second.

In GT1, Oliver Gavin produced his 17th ALMS pole position with a lap of 2:01.235 in the #4 Corvette C6.R, 0.641 seconds quicker than Jan Magnussen’s best in the #3 C6.R and more than three seconds quicker than Terry Borcheller in the #009 Bell Motorsports' Aston Martin DBR9.

Oliver Gavin “It’s a great track. The car seems to be reasonably good here and we are simulating some things from Le Mans. It’s a little edgy in some places but we found a reasonable setup.

“The Aston doesn’t seem to be as quick as other Astons in the past.

“The track is quick, it’s challenging and its fun. It’s a real proper circuit. It hasn’t been sliced up and cut up like other tracks. But this is definitely a good place.

“You can lose the most time in the Kink because it's so fast. The Kink is not quite flat for us but I'm pretty sure the prototypes are flat through there.

“For us, we need to use every inch of the road. When the P cars are around us there, they can use whatever part of the road they like but we have to stick to one line.”

“There will be some other developments but this is the best place in the US for Le Mans simulations. We want to be as strong as possible there for 2009.

In GT2 Jaime Melo in the #62 Risi Ferrari was the first man to show real pace but he was soon overhauled by a pair of Porsches, Dirk Werner in the #87 of Farnbacher Racing, and Jorg Bergmeister’s #45 Flying Lizards 997, the Lizards man improving the class record by more than half a second.

In the end though it would be a Ferrari 1 – 2 in GT2, Melo improving but having finally to give best to Dirk Müeller in the #71 Tafel Racing F430, the first pole position for the team.  The Tafel man’s 2:06.083 good enough to beal Melo’s 2007 class record by well over a second, progress indeed in GT2! And progress too for Mueller who last won the GT2 class pole in the ALMS 7 years and 2 days ago!

Dirk Mueller “Yes it has been a while.

“We knew from this morning that it would be close. The Porsches gained a lot between the last practice session and qualifying. We were out for a three-lap run. I came in after two laps and was really impressed.

“We don’t have a qualifying setup and were focusing on the race tomorrow.

“You need to consider which strategy you want. We can do double stints on our Michelins, which the Porsches cannot do.  We haven’t decided yet. It’s a lot different to the standard length race. It’s nearly double the duration and it’s a very demanding track. It’s easy to make mistakes that can cause big problems to the car. We are in good shape.

Flying Lizards would claim fifth in class too with the #46 car ahead of a fine sixth place for the Team PTG Panoz.

The only dramas in the session came for the #61 Risi Ferrari, a red flag appearing as the car apparently ran out of fuel on track whilst the Drayson Barwell Aston Martin Vantage failed to make the session.