TUSC, LAGUNA SECA QUALIFYING ROUND UP

Johannes van Overbeek Earns Pole for ESM Patrón

Extreme Speed Motorsports (ESM) showed its speed on Saturday afternoon at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca with pole position for Sunday’s TUDOR United SportsCar Championship race. Johannes van Overbeek in the No. 2 Tequila Patrón Honda Performance Development ARX-03b was the fastest qualifier in a battle between the two ESM prototypes.

The Oakland, Calif., driver won his first overall pole position with a time of 1:18.561 (102.555 mph), which established a Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca qualifying record for the Prototype category. In addition, it was ESM’s first overall TUDOR United SportsCar Championship pole position. Back in 2012, van Overbeek earned a GT class pole at Virginia International Raceway.

During the brief 15-minute qualifying session, van Overbeek and Ryan Dalziel in the No. 1 Tequila Patrón HPD ARX-03b swapped the lead several times. Dalziel eventually qualified with the third-fastest time with a 1:18.788 (102.259 mph) lap around the 2.238-mile, 11-turn circuit.

Ed Brown will start Sunday’s race for the No. 2 team and van Overbeek will drive second. Scott Sharp will start in the No. 1 machine and Dalziel will drive second.

The day didn’t start as the team planned. Following a traffic-filled opening session, ESM was uncertain about the performance of the prototypes and were fourth and sixth in class. In the second session, both machines shot to the top of the charts. In a preview of what was to come in qualifying, the two black and green machines traded the top spot several times. When the second session was complete, van Overbeek was quickest and Dalziel was third.

Sunday’s two-hour Grand Prix of Monterey is the fourth race in the 2014 TUDOR United SportsCar Championship. Green flag is 2:45 p.m. PT

JOHANNES VAN OVERBEEK

“It is good to get a pole position here at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. The lap was good. It was hard to tell how the laps were going time-wise because the predicted lap timer didn’t work. I wasn’t sure where we were relative to everyone else – which lap was good or which wasn’t.

“It was great and the car was improving with every lap. I think that bodes well for tomorrow’s race. I felt confident and comfortable in the car, so tomorrow’s race should be fun.

“This is my first pole here. I’ve come close so many times in endurance sports car series and to get it here at my home track is very rewarding. Starting in the front is always an advantage, and here Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca is no different. You can stay out of trouble running up front.

“The ESM Patrón guys have been hustling all year. We’re starting to figure out the Continental tires. The long, fast corners definitely suit this style of car. We’re still not as fast on the straightaway but we can make it up in other places.”

RYAN DALZIEL

“This is a great result for the team with the No. 2 car in P1 and we’re P3. This is good for Johannes because this is his home track, so it is always nice to get a pole at your home track.

“We had a couple of small issues in our car but realistically, I think we have the car to win. We’re looking forward to the race tomorrow, and it is refreshing to see our cars up front and it looks like we have a fighting chance here at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

“I’m hoping for a good, clean race tomorrow and a good result that will help us get back on track for the championship.

“I think the majority of the race will be green. I don’t think there will be many incidents but you can always count on gravel traps causing a yellow. My prediction is a fairly green race, because the longer the race stays green, the better it is for us. We’re hoping for a green race.”

Source. Extreme Speed Motorsport

Michael Shank Racing Starting on Fourth Row in Monterey

Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian will start the Continental Tire Grand Prix of Monterey at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca from eighth on the grid for the two hour sprint race. The team arrived in sunny Monterey, California looking forward to the race thanks to a long history of big moments at the track, with many miles of experience between drivers John Pew and Ozz Negri.

Two practice sessions prior to the quick 15-minute qualifying session showed continual improvemtn for the team, as they finished both sessions inside of the top-10 with the No. 60 Ford Ecoboost Riley. Negri took the car out for qualifications in the quickly cooling Monterey evening air and laid it all out on the 11-turn, 2.238-mile circuit. Despite giving it his all, the effort didn’t yeild what the team had been hoping for but knows it can move up at the drop of the green on Sunday.

“The car is understeering quite a bit, I would say. I never pushed as hard as I did at this qualification session,” said Negri after qualifying the No. 60. “Turn 6 I was just taking it the way I thought I should and I actually ended up going off there and damaged the front a little bit. I really pushed as hard as I could. There was nothing else left in the car. I’m very surprised at the lap times, especially the 90 car. I knew the P2 cars were going to be better here. This is a track that suits them, but I’m pretty impressed by the 90 car, the lap time they did. We are going to work on some more stuff and give everything our beast has tomorrow.”

Pew, who made his first DP start at Laguna Seca with Michael Shank Racing in 2007, will open tomorrow’s two-hour event.

“I struggled a little bit with the car,” echoed John Pew. “We usually don’t here, so that was kind of a surprise. It’s a new package, so we’re getting used to the downforce, but I think we made a lot of progress. I was surprised at some of the lap times in qualifying. I know Ozz was giving it one million percent as he always does and there was not one hundredth or thousandth of a second faster that car would go because Ozz got everything out of it. So we’ll put our heads together and see what we can come up with. The important thing is to have a good race car. We tend to, compared to the P2s, out-strategize them a little bit in the races. I think they’ve been making a lot of mistakes in races, where the pit crew could’ve done a lot better, so we’ll see what happens.”

Source. Sunday Group

Front Row Start for Visit Florida Racing At Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca

Looking to score an encore pole position at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Visit Florida Racing came up just a blink of an eye short.

Richard Westbrook, who will share the No. 90 VISITFLORDIDA.com Corvette DP with Michael Valiante in the 2-hour sprint race for Round 4 of the 2014 IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship, notched a 1:18.788-second lap on Saturday to score second on the grid for Sunday’s Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix.

Westbrook won the pole for last year’s race and was focused on doing so once again. While the pole ambition was not met, Westbrook knows that locking in a front row start could be critical on a track that is notoriously challenging to pass on.

“Last year we had a one-lap wonder car, and this year it feels like we have a better car for the race,” said Westbrook. “It wasn’t very smooth going into qualifying. We had a clutch issue in Practice 2, and I thought we were going to have the same issue in qualifying. The guys did a good job to band-aid it up, so I can’t say it hindered me in qualifying but it was always in the back of my mind that it could come back. We will get that changed for the race. The car is behaving well for the race. Of course I wanted pole – I’d be lying if I said I didn’t – but starting from the front row is great for our recovery.”

Source. Sunday Group

DeltaWing Coupe Shows Speed at Mazda Raceway‏

DeltaWing Racing Cars took another step forward at Mazda Raceway today, as the revolutionary coupe paced among the leaders in morning practice and earned its highest qualifying position to date for tomorrow’s Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix.

The two-day event got off to a bang in morning practice, as driver Andy Meyrick set a quick lap of 1:20.603, barely three-tenths of a second off the lead time. With more than 50 TUDOR United SportsCar Championship cars on the track during the practice sessions, lap times were at a premium. Katherine Legge put the DeltaWing coupe’s straight line speed on display during qualifying, setting the quickest top speed of the field at 154mph on the way to a ninth place starting position with a time of 1:20.327.

Tomorrow’s races will not hold nearly the number of cars on the track at one time as did today’s practice sessions. The series will split the field into two races – the first race for Prototype Challenge and GTD cars, while the second race will feature the Prototype and GTLM classes. Both races will be broadcast live on FOX Sports 1.

Katherine Legge
“I got two pretty clear laps in qualifying, which we really weren’t able to do during the practice sessions. There were so many cars on the track, there wasn’t a lap that I didn’t have cars to overtake. But during the race, we’ll have half the number of cars on the track as we did during practice, so that will be much cleaner.”

Andy Meyrick
“This track is a low-grip surface, so it’s difficult to switch the tires on. It’s quite unique in its setup. It was also difficult with so much traffic in the practice sessions, but it was the same for everybody. You had to be very careful. We made a lot of changes to the car through the practice sessions, so we’ll find out in the morning warm up if they worked, though we’ll have plenty of time before the race to sort things out.”

Source. DeltaWing Racing Cars

8Star in the mix for TUDOR Championship LMPC win at Laguna Seca

8Star Motorsports’ Sean Rayhall qualified the team’s #25 ORECA FLM09 LMPC machine 3rd in the Prototype Challenge class for the Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix Powered by Mazda – the next instalment in the 2014 TUDOR United SportsCar Championship – at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca (3 May).

Rayhall was the first to get behind the wheel in free practice one and initially held the top spot before being dropped to third place, with some improvements still to be made to 8Star’s orange LMPC contender.

Mexican Luis Diaz got his shot in the latter stages of first practice, but was severely hampered by excessive traffic and ultimately had his running curtailed by a red-flag stoppage.

Practice two was a completely different story, as both drivers reported significant improvements in the feel of the car and this was represented by Rayhall’s and Diaz’s lap times, which were a match for anybody.

As the tires degraded, the car lost grip. However, 8Star still managed to maintain fourth place on the timing screens.

Yet more improvements came in Saturday’s qualifying session and Rayhall opened his account with a time of 1m20.421s to go third fastest, with pole-sitter Bruno Junqueira on a 1m19.723s and almost five tenths up on the rest of the field.

Rayhall, from Atlanta, Georgia, said: “Practice felt good and we made changes on the car that moved us in the right direction for qualifying. I’m really happy with third place, as this is 8Star’s first visit to Laguna Seca with LMPC machinery. Yves, our engineer, worked really hard, even though we didn’t have much time to practice. I’m really thankful to have Takis on the car supporting us this weekend and for the rest of this year’s sprint races. To win is the objective. In fact, I’m really looking forward to the race, as I think we have a good car and two really good drivers.”

Diaz, from Mexico City, said: “The track changed a lot between FP1 and FP2 as there was a lot less grip. But the car feels good and 8Star Motorsports did a great job to fix some details on the car. I feel pretty good about qualifying third and, if we can stay out of trouble and have a clean race, I’m sure we’ll produce a great result for our new sponsor, Takis, and perhaps finish on the podium.”

Source. 8Star Motorsports

WeatherTech Racing Qualifies on Front Row at Laguna Seca

WeatherTech Racing will start on the front row in GTD for tomorrow’s running of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

Leh Keen (Charleston, SC) had the wheel of the No. 22 WeatherTech Porsche for the 15-minute qualifying session. Keen got down to work quickly posting his fast lap on his third circuit of the 2.2-mile, 11-turn Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca track. He put in a time of 1:26.962 which looked good for the pole position in GTD. Soon after a red flag stopped the action. The session resumed with three minutes remaining. The WeatherTech team was eclipsed at the last minute by the No. 45 Flying Lizard Audi for pole. Keen and Cooper MacNeil (Hinsdale, Ill.) will start from the front row in GTD in second position for tomorrow’s two-hour race.

“We were looking real good for the pole and then the Audi took it right at the end,” Keen said. “We are starting on the front row in second. We started on the front at Sebring and here we are again. We were close to pole in the most competitive class in the series and it is going to be like that every race. I am really happy with the WeatherTech Porsche. The guys unloaded the car with a great set-up and we were fastest in this morning’s practice. We just tuned on it a little bit and the car responded well. We will take a win over the pole tomorrow.”

MacNeil will be arriving at the track this evening as he is taking a final exam in Intermediate Microeconomic Theory at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Alex Job, team owner, has the team up front again for the start.

“Another great qualifying run by Leh,” Job said. “The team did a good job with the initial set-up of the car as was evident with us being the fastest in the first practice this morning. We thought we had the pole until the very last minute. We are in a good position for the start. We will get Cooper in for the warm-up and he will get into a rhythm quickly. He has a lot of laps around this track and has won here in the past. We are ready.”

Source. Kyle Chura/WeatherTech Racing

Team Seattle-The Heart of Racing to Start on Fifth Row at Laguna Seca

Team Seattle-The Heart of Racing will start tomorrow’s running of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca from the fifth row.

Team Seattle gave Mario Farnbacher (Ansbach, Germany) the honor of qualifying. Farnbacher turned his first laps ever at the 11-turn, 2.2-mile Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca circuit in this morning’s practice. Taking the opportunity to get a few more laps in before the race tomorrow the young German turned a lap of 1:27.459 that will have him and teammate Ian James (Phoenix, Ariz.) starting from the fifth row in GTD in eleventh.

“Laguna Seca is a great circuit,” Farnbacher said. “It is new for me, but I really like it. There hasn’t been a lot of track time this weekend, but it is the same for everyone. I am happy with my qualifying effort. The race is two hours long and we will be able to make up positions quickly. I don’t have a favorite part of the track yet, but I know that I don’t like Turn Six.”

James knows the team is strong on strategy and likes the way Farnbacher has gotten to grips with the track.

“First practice this morning we struggled with some unbalance in the car,” James said. “The Alex Job guys did a lot of work between practice and qualifying and it looked like we are heading in the right direction. I got in for a few laps and it felt better. I think we have a good race set-up on the car now. We are starting in eleventh, but we have two hours and there will be a lot of strategy playing out in that time. Mario is doing an excellent job learning the track and he is already up to speed.”

Alex Job, team owner, has the Team Seattle-Heart of Racing Porsche heading in the right direction.

“We threw a lot at young Mario this morning,” Job said. “He didn’t have the best car to learn the track, but I am proud of the way he qualified. If we would have had a full session he would have been easily in the top eight at least. The team made great progress on the handling for the last practice and qualifying. Maybe a few more changes to try for the warm-up. He and Ian will be a factor in tomorrow’s race.”

Source. Kyle Chura/Team Seattle Alex Job Racing

Tandy Places Porsche 911 RSR Third on Tight Monterey Gp Gtlm Grid; Long Eighth

With less than one second covering the top ten of both the GT Le Mans (GTLM) and GT Daytona (GTD) grids, competition in tomorrow’s two, two Continental Tire Monterey Grands Prix at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca promises to be intense. In qualifying, Nick Tandy (Great Britain) placed the No. 911 Porsche North America Porsche 911 RSR third in GTLM class. Alex Job Racing’s Leh Keen (Atlanta) drove the No. 22 WeatherTech Porsche 911 GT America to second on the GTD grid.

As has become a hallmark of the Tudor Championship, the competition between manufacturers was again strong at the 2.238-mile circuit on California’s Monterey Peninsula. Tandy’s time of one-minute, 22.678 seconds in the works Porsche was a narrow 0.305-seconds off the pole-winning time of Corvette Racing’s lap of 1:22.373. The Porsche factory driver’s effort was only a tenth of a second from taking the outside of the front row for the two-hour race which will see the top two-tiers of North American sports car racing, GTLM and Prototype (P), racing together at the same time. The GTD class will race earlier in the day in a two-hour event with the Prototype Challenge (PC) class.

Tandy and his Austrian co-driver Richard Lietz are currently tied for second in the GTLM driver point standings. The pairing, along with Patrick Pilet (France), won the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona.

Porsche North America teammate Patrick Long (Playa del Rey, Calif.) was eighth quickest in the 15-minute qualifying session. The gap from the pole position time to the American Porsche factory ace’s hot lap was a slender 8/10ths of a second. Long will co-drive with Norway’s Michael Christensen. The pairing, with Jörg Bergmeister (Germany), raced to victory in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.

Team Falken Tire, the sole privateer entrant of the Porsche 911 RSR in North America, will start tomorrow’s GTLM/P class race tenth on the 11-car grid. Factory driver Wolf Henzler (Germany), who shares the No. 17 with Bryan Sellers (Braselton, Ga.), qualified with a time of 1:23.660.

GT Daytona – Porsche on the Front Row

In the GT Daytona qualifying session, the No. 22 Alex Job Racing WeatherTech Porsche 911 GT America was fastest among the Porsche entries. The qualifying effort of Leh Keen was good enough for a front row spot on the grid for tomorrow’s GTD/PC race.

Keen, who will share the car with Cooper MacNeil (Hinsdale, Ill.), turned his fast lap before an eight-minute red flag period ate into the 15-minute qualifying session. With qualifying times being valid by rule only after ten minutes of green flag racing, the sanctioning body extended GTD qualifying by two minutes – enough to give the field ten minutes of green and enable Audi’s Spencer Pumpelly to take the pole position on the last lap of extended time.

Jan Heylen, from Tampa, Fla., was the next fastest Porsche in his Snow Racing with Wright Motorsports 911 GT Daytona he will co-drive with Madison Snow (Lehi, Utah), earning a seventh place starting position, while Kuba Giermaziak, from Poland, was eighth in the MOMO NGT Porsche GT America he co-drives with Henrique Cisneros (Miami). Andy Lally (Dacula, Ga.) was ninth in the Magnus Racing Porsche 911 GT America in the car he will share with John Potter (Salt Lake City, Utah)..

Nick Tandy, No. 911 Porsche North America Porsche 911 RSR: “This is very promising. Where we lacked a little bit of speed at Long Beach, we found some this weekend. It’s still a sprint race so qualifying is important. It’s obviously a decent place to start for the race tomorrow. We’ve been working to get a better qualifying understanding with this car. We’re not quite there yet but we are getting better.”

Patrick Long, No. 912 Porsche North America Porsche 911 RSR: “We made a choice to go for our lap early and that might not have paid off. I think, as a driver, I left a little out there. We will need to do our homework tomorrow. I think we made big strides forward from the practice to the race. The track changed from when we finished practice to qualifying immensely so it shows potential for a big shift in track conditions in the race tomorrow. That is pretty typical of Laguna Seca, temperatures can drop quickly.”

Leh Keen, Alex Job Racing WeatherTech Porsche 911 GT America, GTD: “We were looking real good for the pole and then the Audi took it right at the end. We started on the front row at Sebring and here we are again. We were close to pole in the most competitive class in the series and it is going to be like that every race. The guys unloaded the car with a great set-up and we were fastest in this morning’s practice. We just tuned on it a little bit and the car responded well. A win tomorrow is the focus now.”

Owen Hayes, Director of Operations, Porsche Motorsport North America: “Qualifying was good. You can see between all the manufacturers it’s really close. Laguna is one of those circuits that is a little bit difficult to setup for. We’ve had very little time on circuit and a lot of cars on circuit so we’ve had very few clear laps. I think all-in-all, it is OK.”

Monterey Grand Prix Qualifying

GT Le Mans Results:

1. No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R, Antonio Garcia (Spain), 1:22.373
2. No. 56 BMW Z4 GTE, John Edwards (USA), 1:22.578
3. No. 911 Porsche 911 RSR, Nick Tandy (Great Britain), 1:22.678
4. No. 4 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R, Oliver Gavin (Great Britain), 1:22.768
5. No. 55 BMW Z4 GTE, Andy Priaulx (France), 1:22.810
8. No. 912 Porsche 911 RSR, Patrick Long (USA), 1:23.263
10. No. 17 Porsche 911 RSR, Wolf Henzler (Germany), 1:23.660

GT Daytona Results:

1. No. 45 Audi R8 LMS, Spencer Pumpelly (USA), 1:26.696
2. No. 22 Porsche 911 GT America , Leh Keen (USA), 1:26.962
3. No. 48 Audi RS LMS, Chsitopher Haase (Germany), 1:27.101
4. No. 35 Audi RS LMS, Dionne von Moltke (USA), 1:27.121
5. No. 64 Ferrari F-458 Italia, Kyle Marcelli (Canada), 1:27.121
7. No. 58 Porsche 911 GT America, Jan Haylen (USA), 1:27.371
8. No. 30 Porsche 911 GT America, Kuba Giermaziak (Poland), 1:27.416
9. No. 44 Porsche 911 GT America, Andy Lally (USA), 1:27.448
11. No.23 Porsche 911 GT America, Mario Farnbacher (Germany), 1:27.549
12. No. 81 Porsche 911 GT America, Damien Faulkner (Ireland), 129.750
14. No. 73 Porsche 911 GT America, Kevin Estre (France), 1:27.963
16. No. 71 Porsche 911 GT America, Craig Stanton (USA), 1:28.238
17. No. 27 Porsche 911 GT America, Andrew Davis (USA), 1:28.480
19. No. 18 Porsche 911 GT America, Matt Bell (USA), 1:29.581
21. No. 19 Porsche 911 GT America, Dillon Machavern (USA), 1:30.205

Source. Porsche

BMW Team RLL Qualifies 2nd and 5th at Laguna Seca

BMW Team RLL’s two Z4 GTLM racing cars will start from the second and fifth positions in tomorrow’s two-hour Monterey Grand Prix, the fourth round of the 2014 TUDOR United SportsCar Championship.

John Edwards and Andy Priaulx were two of the five drivers in today’s 15-minute qualifying session to break into the 1:22 minute bracket around the 2.238-mile, 11-turn Laguna Seca circuit.

John Edwards placed the No. 56 Z4 on the outside of the GTLM class front row – only .205 seconds from the pole sitter – with a time of 1:22.578 minutes. Edwards and co-driver Dirk Müller currently stand fourth in driver points following their first podium finish of the year – second – at the Sports Car Showcase at Long Beach race on April 12th.

Triple World Champion Andy Priaulx, in only his first day driving Laguna Seca, qualified the No. 55 Z4 fifth with a time of 1:22.810 minutes. Priaulx and co-driver Bill Auberlen currently lead GTLM driver points following podium finishes at the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring. They finished sixth at Long Beach.

John Edwards, driver No. 56 Z4 GTLM – (2nd) – “Today was really a good day at the office for me. I had a pole and win in GS and we were quickest in the number 56 in both the practices. I wanted another pole which would have put me in P1 in every session. With a front row start you can’t be too disappointed, but it really felt like a pole run. It wasn’t meant to be, but tomorrow is the one that counts. The race is a whole different animal and it is going to be a tough battle. Hopefully we can race it out among ourselves, unlike Long Beach where we had some Prototypes in the mix. It is only a two hour race. We saw Long Beach went green all the way, so every second is going to count tomorrow.”

Andy Priaulx, driver No. 55 Z4 GTLM – (5th) – “I am happy with my performance considering it is my first time here. I would like to have been a bit higher up, but we didn’t have everything spot on. Also we got very little running today with all the traffic of four classes practicing together. Qualifying is important, but we still have a two hour race ahead of us and I am happy we are in a strong position for that. As for the track itself, it is awesome and lives up to its reputation.”

Source.BMW

Performance Tech Qualifies Sixth on Busy Day at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca

David Ostella qualified the Performance Tech Motorsports No. 38 ORECA FLM 09 machine in the sixth position at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca for the Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix Powered by Mazda on Sunday.

Ostella was given a short time to gain his footing, with the only practice sessions of the weekend taking place Saturday. But he still was happy with his pace during qualifying, turning a top lap of 1 minute, 20.836 seconds on the 11-turn, 2.238-mile circuit.

“Qualifying was pretty good,” Ostella said. “I screwed up in the beginning. I flat-spotted the left front early on, driver error. I haven’t been qualifying the car in a while, so there was a little bit of pressure there. No issues with car at all. Race car-wise, we have a great set up. The competition is fierce in the PC class with all the ex-F1 and IndyCar drivers. I’m more of a racer than a qualifier, so I think the race is where we’re going to be strong.”

Teammate Charlie Shears feels comfortable with the team’s starting position and will fight alongside Ostella for a second Performance Tech PC podium finish at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca after finishing third last year.

Source. Grand Solutions

GB Autosport Ready to Take on Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca

Although forced to settle for a qualification result far behind where they were expecting to start following a fraught 15-minute qualifying session, GB Autosport is fully prepared to pilot their No. 81 Tully’s Coffee Porsche 911 GTD America up the pack in tomorrow’s 2-hour race. Damien Faulkner and Bob Faieta will begin the Grand Prix of Monterey Powered by Mazda from the sixth row of the starting grid.

The team entered the weekend with high spirits, excited to take on the first sprint race of the season. In the two practice sessions ahead of qualifying, their spirits and ambitions continued to improve as they showed strong pace, never falling out of the top-10 in either session and consistently posting fast lap times below the 1:27 mark.

A red flag during qualifying coupled with troublesome traffic kept Faulkner from truly getting all that he could out of the Tully’s machine. Deepening the frustration was the fact that it was a familiar foe causing the disruption. While the qualifying effort didn’t reflect what the team is capable of, the group knows that the points are paid for race results and not the starting grid.

“The same No. 51 Ferrari that took us out a Daytona was the same one that ruined our fastest lap of qualifying today,” said a disappointed Cole Scrogham, Team Manager, after the qualifying session. “We did get to go back out (after the caution period for a Ferrari off track in the Corkscrew) but then we got hung up by another car that slowed us down in the last corner, so we just couldn’t get any clear laps in the full 15-minute session. Tomorrow will take care of itself, races usually work themselves out, but I’m disappointed right now. I thought we definitely had one of the top cars, if not the top Porsche but we just couldn’t put it together. But maybe that will light a fire under the drivers for tomorrow. I know our car is good, so we will see.”

Source. Sunday Group