Porsche North America’s Nick Tandy and Action Express Racing’s Christian Fittipaldi scored their first pole positions in qualifying today for tomorrow’s Petit Le Mans – the 10 hour journey at Road Atlanta that will conclude the inaugural season of TUDOR United SportsCar Championship.
Remarkably, Tandy became the 11th GT Le Mans class pole winner in 11 races this year – highlighting the incredible competitiveness of the class. He outpaced Ferrari ace Giancarlo Fisichella and local star Bryan Sellers (Porsche) to claim the top spot.
Despite leading the championship, Fittipaldi had never scored a TUDOR United SportsCar Championship pole position until today. The effort was the best possible result for the championship leader who – combined with Action Express Racing teamamte Joao Barbosa – will challenge for the prototype championship win tomorrow.
In the PC class, IndyCar racer and Indianapolis PC class race winner Jack Hawksworth took the pole in a talent packed field. The Brit outqualified renowned fast men Bruno Junquiera, Tom Kimber-Smith, 2014 driver’s co-champion Colin Braun and Gunnar Jeannette.
In GT Daytona, Australian James Davison continued his strong run of four consecutive pole positions for Aston Martin.
The teams will return to the track tomorrow morning for the warm-up at 9:00am before the race goes green at 11:15am.
Top three in class (overall in parentheses):
(1) #5-P Christian Fittipaldi (Corvette DP) 1:14.508
(2) #10-P Ricky Taylor (Corvette DP) 1:14.797 (0.289-)
(3) #90-P Richard Westbrook (Corvette DP) 1:14.920 (0.412-)
(8) #08-PC Jack Hawksworth (Oreca FLM 09 Chevrolet) 1:16.210
(9) #09-PC Bruno Junqueira (Oreca FLM 09 Chevrolet) 1:16.471 (0.261-)
(10) #25-PC Tom Kimber-Smith (Oreca FLM 09 Chevrolet) 1:16.599 (0.389-)
(17) #911-GTLM Nick Tandy (Porsche 911 RSR) 1:18.350
(19) #62-GTLM Giancarlo Fisichella (Ferrari F458 Italia) 1:18.687 (0.337-)
(20) #17-GTLM Bryan Sellers (Porsche 911 RSR) 1:18.707 (0.357-)
(31) #007-GTD James Davison (Aston Martin V12 Vantage) 1:22.254
(32) #58-GTD Jan Heylen (Porsche 911 GT America) 1:22.395 (0.141-)
(33) #73-GTD Kevin Estre (Porsche 911 GT America) 1:22.471 (0.217-)
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