ALMS, Mosport – Qualifying Report
Graf Rides The Coaster To Pole

Klaus Graf became the seventh driver in eight races to top the qualifying time sheets, and it was another nail-bitingly close battle.  The popular German, who will share the cockpit of the Muscle Milk Porsche RS Spyder at Mosport with 2010’s endurance champion supreme, Romain Dumas, turned a 1:06.956 on his penultimate lap of the session.

Graf outpaced Dyson Racing’s Chris Dyson – driving the Mazda-powered Lola coupe he will share with Guy Smith – by 0.186 seconds. Patrón Highcroft Racing’s Simon Pagenaud was third in the HPD ARX-01c he will drive with David Brabham, the car feeling every gramme of the extra 25 kg it has over the Spyder.

The top four cars were within 0.526 seconds. Needless to say, the margin for error was razor-thin.

“This is very special to be (on pole),” Graf said following his first ALMS pole position. “Congrats to all the guys. In any class driving at this place is quite challenging and difficult; in the LMP cars, it’s unbelievable. Some of the corners you go through - it’s like a roller coaster. To put it all together and get a good lap and be overall pole here at Mosport is unbelievable.”

Drayson Racing had a race on their hands to make it to qualifying as, in the practice session before, Scott Tucker’s LMPC side-swiped Cocker as he exited the pits.  It damaged the floor and sidepod of the Lola but they made it by the skin of their teeth and Cocker put the car in fourth place.

Jon and Clint Field’s engine or engine-related woes continued with a scavenge pump issue in practice causing them to miss qualifying. 

Risi Competizione’s drama-filled day ended on a high thanks to Gianmaria Bruni’s third career GT pole position but it was a bitter-sweet moment as the car will be starting from the back of the grid. The Italian turned a lap of 1:17.160 on his third of five laps in the Ferrari F430 GT that he will drive with Toni Vilander.

Bruni’s regular partner Jaime Melo is suffering from a stomach virus and has been confined to his bed for two days now.

Vilander originally was in a second Risi entry but it was withdrawn following a vicious crash with Pierre Kaffer at the wheel Saturday morning. The German went hard into the outside wall between turns 1 and 2 with heavy impact on the front end. He was transported to a local hospital but released a few hours later without serious injury.  Because of the driver change, the No. 62 will start Sunday’s race from the back of the field.

“Wherever we finish – first, second or third – I hope it will come from a clean good race,” said Bruni, the pole-winner at Utah. “Right now I’m not thinking points or championships;  I`m just thinking how I can get by 15 cars tomorrow. We`ll see how it ends up and how it goes.”

“When the accident happened this morning, although I was fast I was not on the limit,” Kaffer said after he returned to the track in the afternoon. “Everything was under control.  At the exit from the corner which enters the little short straight between Turns 1 and 2, the rear floor of the car hit the ground and the car got upset and snapped into the barriers. It was quite harsh and very sudden. I didn’t expect it at that point as the car was really good as our lap times would have showed.”

The Ferrari’s time was 0.301 seconds better than Flying Lizard’s Jörg Bergmeister who will, by default, start from pole. 

Four manufacturers and five entrants filled the top five GT places with BMW Rahal Letterman Racing Team’s Tommy Milner third at 1:17.491 – a scant two hundredths of a second behind the Porsche.  As has been the case all year, more than half the field were separated by no more than a cigarette paper and only 0.681 seconds separated the top-seven in GT.

In LMP Challenge, Luis Diaz claimed his second straight class pole with a lap of 1:11.455. He will make his third start with Ricardo Gonzalez in PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports’ ORECA FLM09.  Diaz was 0.558 seconds clear of Genoa Racing’s Frankie Montecalvo, who put in an impressive effort for 1:12.013.

“For us it’s been a dream really. Ricardo and I fit perfectly in this team,” Diaz said. “The car has been fantastic since we got here Wednesday. It was kind of weird but boring. I didn`t know what to ask the engineers. To have the pole is nice, we love it. But Mosport is Mosport. The race is going to be very, very tough tomorrow. We know we have the speed but it will come with strategy too.”

The Mexican star won the LMP2 class last year at Mosport and shared the Series’ class championship with Adrian Fernandez. So he has some prototype experience and data to share.

“Basically in the P2, we had a lot more downforce through turns 1 and 2, and in Turn 8 we were flat out,” Diaz said. “It’s really a pleasure with the LMPC because you have to really think about corners and braking and driving the car. I remember last year when I was driving I told Adrian, ‘You will get to drive lots tomorrow. This is too dangerous!’ But the LMPC is perfect for this track. It’s just a great challenge to keep it fun but advanced too. “

Gunnar Jeannette qualified third in the Green Earth Team Gunnar entry he will drive with Elton Julian. The top four cars in the class were within 0.805 seconds.

Bryce Miller broke Jeroen Bleekemolen’s stranglehold on GT Challenge pole positions with his first career class pole in the ORBIT/Paul Miller Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup entry. The young American set a lap of 1:22.495 in the car he will share with Luke Hines, good enough for a 0.103-second gap back to Bleekemolen in the Black Swan Racing entry.

“I really enjoy this circuit. It’s a great circuit with a lot of character,” said Miller, a GT2 race-winner with Farnbacher Loles Racing at Road America in 2008. “It`s exciting to be in the qualifying position at this track and pull a great lap here. It can be an unforgiving track. It’s great for the team; the car has been technically sound but we just really had the luck come our way.”

Like Risi in GT, the ORBIT squad had to overcome a little weekend drama of its own; the Porsche’s engine let go early in Friday’s test session.

With such a short and crowded pit lane (30 cars as opposed to 2009’s 19) at Mosport this year, IMSA has made a sensible move to avoid any serious accidents by introducing a temporary new pit procedure for yellow-flag caution periods. 

How will it work? The pit entrance will be closed immediately under full course caution, as is standard practice. Once the Safety Car has the overall leader and field in tow, IMSA officials will open the pits with LMP and LMPC cars only allowed to pit on the first lap. On the next lap, all GT and GTC cars may pit. For subsequent laps, any car may come in to pit lane.

The only exceptions are if a car has damage such as a flat tyre or would run out of fuel before it would make it back around to an open pit. Such a car may only pit to make the immediate repair; the crew may not perform a full service with the pits closed so the car would have to stop again to make a driver or full tyre change.

The wave-by procedures following the round of pitstops will remain the same. The Safety Car will wave by to the nearest class leader, and that will be the order until the restart.

Fiona Miller (with thanks to Ryan Smith)