IMSA MONTEREY GRAND PRIX QUALIFYING ROUND-UP

Pole position for the new Porsche 911 GT3 R – 911 RSR on fourth grid row

The new Porsche 911 GT3 R takes up round four of the IMSA SportsCar Championship at Laguna Seca on Sunday from pole position in the GTD class. Former Porsche Junior Alex Riberas (Spain) set the fastest time in qualifying on the challenging circuit in the hills near the Californian coastal city of Monterey. For the race, Riberas shares driving duties with Mario Farnbacher (Germany) in the customer sports racer fielded by the Seattle/Alex Job Racing squad. Jörg Bergmeister (Germany) and Patrick Lindsey (USA) planted the 911 GT3 R of Park Place Motorsports on the third grid spot.

In the GTLM class, outright Le Mans winner Earl Bamber (New Zealand) and Frédéric Makowiecki (France) take up the race in the Porsche 911 RSR from the fourth grid row after scoring eighth in qualifying. With the sister 911 RSR campaigned by Porsche North America, defending IMSA GT champion Patrick Pilet (France) and overall Le Mans winner Nick Tandy (Great Britain) set the ninth quickest time. A fortnight ago on the city circuit of Long Beach, the pair scored their first win of the season.

Qualifying quotes
Dr Frank-Steffen Walliser, Head of Porsche Motorsport: “After our problems during free practice, it was clear that we wouldn’t be able to achieve a better qualifying position with the 911 RSR. We’ll now concentrate fully on our race preparation, but this will definitely be a very difficult one. In contrast, however, the GTD class result is extremely pleasing. The teams there worked very well and they can tackle the race with great confidence.”
Marco Ujhasi, Overall Project Leader GT Works Motorsport: “The major tasks that we faced in free practice are still not entirely mastered. But with a view to the race, we’ve made several small steps in qualifying.”
Earl Bamber (911 RSR #912): “It certainly won’t be easy to take up the race from eighth. But we have a reliable car and an excellent team backing us. Tomorrow we want to earn as many points as possible towards the championship.”
Nick Tandy (911 RSR #911): “After our win at Long Beach, ninth in qualifying is not at all what we had expected this weekend. But Patrick and I will do everything we can during the two-hour race tomorrow.”
Alex Riberas (911 GT3 R #23): “That was my first ever qualifying in the IMSA SportsCar Championship, and then to start from pole is simply fantastic. The team put a perfectly-prepared 911 GT3 R on the track for me and I turned a super lap. Of course, we’re now hoping we can perform as strongly in the race tomorrow.”

In Laguna Seca, four classes of the IMSA SportsCar Championship contest two races: The GTLM and P classes start on Sunday at 11.15 hrs local time (20.15 hrs CEST). The GTD and PC classes take off at 15.45 hrs local time. All races run over two hours and will be broadcast live outside the USA on http://www.imsa.com.

Qualifying result
GTLM class
1. Pier Guidi/Serra (I/BRA), Ferrari 488 GTE, 1:22.867 minutes
2. Briscoe/Westbrook (AUS/GB), Ford GT, + 0.079 seconds
3. Hand/Müller (USA/D), Ford GT, + 0.248
4. Gavin/Milner (GB/USA) Chevrolet Corvette, + 0.518
5. Fisichella/Vilander (I/SF), Ferrari 488 GTE, + 0.532
6. Garcia/Magnussen (E/DK) Chevrolet Corvette, + 0.583
7. Auberlen/Werner (USA/D), BMW M6, + 0.704
8. Bamber/Makowiecki (NZ/F), Porsche 911 RSR, + 1.096
9. Pilet/Tandy (F/GB), Porsche 911 RSR, + 1.182
10. Edwards/Luhr (USA/D), BMW M6, + 1.515

GTD class
1. Riberas/Farnbacher (E/D), Porsche 911 GT3 R, 1:25.775 minutes
2. Nielsen/Balzan (DK/I), Ferrari 488 GT3, + 0.722 seconds
3. Lindsey/Bergmeister (USA/D), Porsche 911 GT3 R, + 1.168
4. DeGeorge/Sbirazzuoli (USA/MC), Lamborghini GT3, + 1.409
5. Davis/Davison (USA/AUS), Aston Martin GT3, + 1.498
6. Liddell/Davis (GB/USA), Audi R8, + 1.502

BMW Team RLL – Continental Monterey Grand Prix – Qualifying

Following pole positions in rounds two and three of the 2016 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, BMW Team RLL uncharacteristically struggled to post seventh and tenth place starting positions for tomorrow’s two-hour Continental Monterey Grand Prix.

Dirk Werner set the seventh fastest GTLM class time with a 1:23.571 minute lap around the 2.238-mile, 11-turn Laguna Seca circuit in the No. 25 M6 GTLM he shares with Bill Auberlen. Lucas Luhr, driving the No. 100 M6, qualified tenth with a 1:24.382 minute lap. Luhr and co-driver John Edwards are defending race winners. The pole position went to the No. 68 Ferrari with a time of 1:22.867 minutes.

This year is a historic one for The Ultimate Driving Machine® as Bavarian Motor Works celebrates its 100th anniversary. To mark the occasion both of the M6 machines will race with unique liveries and numbers significant to the marque. The number 100 M6, with John Edwards and Lucas Luhr, looks forward to BMW’s next century with an artistic theme. The number 25 M6, driven by Bill Auberlen and Dirk Werner races in honor of BMW Motorsport’s first season racing in the US in 1975. The car displays images of four significant racing BMWs; the 3.0 CSL, M1, M3 and V12 LMR.

“It has been a bit of a struggle all weekend for us and several other teams,” said Bobby Rahal, Team Principal. “Michelin has brought a new specification tire this weekend and some teams have had the chances to test them. We certainly haven’t been able to find the secret to get the tire to work yet. Frankly, we have never had this kind of challenge before. It’s going to be a late night for the guys.”

Dirk Werner, driver No. 25 BMW M6 GTLM (P7) : “It was a challenging qualifying session for us. We have had to change the set up of the car for the new tires we have here this weekend, and we only have three practice sessions of data so far. This, added to the fact that the M6 is still a new car and it is the first time for it here at Laguna Seca, has made for a difficult few days for the team.”

Lucas Luhr, driver No. 100 BMW M6 GTLM (P10) : “We have been struggling the whole weekend. Sometimes one car was a little bit better than the other and then the other way round. Qualifying really showed we are struggling, and at the moment I have no answer to that. Qualifying is one thing because you try to squeeze out the maximum on one lap, but I think that is not really our strongest point. Maybe we are a little bit better off in racing terms, which I really hope we can show tomorrow.”

Source. BMW

NIELSEN QUALIFIES CAREER-BEST SECOND AT LAGUNA SECA

Christina Nielsen produced a career-best qualifying performance in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, turning the second-quickest lap in the GT Daytona class Saturday, April 30 at the Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix Powered by Mazda at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

Nielsen will start second in the No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3 on Sunday in the two-hour race, sharing the car with teammate Alessandro Balzan. Her top lap Saturday was 1 minute, 26.497 seconds on her sixth lap around the 11-turn, 2.238-mile (3.602 km) circuit, which includes the famous “Corkscrew” turn complex.

“I had no idea what to expect,” Nielsen said. “We had some very different conditions we qualified in today. Yesterday we also practiced in the afternoon, and we are used to the car changing a bit during the afternoon. And our qualifying sessions have always been in the afternoon, but yesterday was a lot colder yesterday than it was today.

“The team gave me an awesome car. I had a few mistakes, so I didn’t get the perfect lap. But it is so hard to get the perfect lap around Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. It’s a really difficult track. You have low grip, lots of sliding, a lot of pushing, the car is moving everywhere. So the driver behind the wheel is definitely working. But I am super happy. I think it was the right performance by everybody.”

The strong qualifying effort continued a wave of momentum for Nielsen, who earned her first career WeatherTech Championship victory in her last start, the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida in mid-March at Sebring International Raceway.

This event features a unique, split format in which Nielsen and the rest of the GTD field will race with the Prototype Challenge class, and the Prototype and GT Le Mans classes will compete separately.

Source. LST Marketing

ACTION EXPRESS RACING WILL START THE CONTINENTAL MONTEREY GRAND PRIX THIRD AND FIFTH

Action Express Racing drivers Dane Cameron and Christian Fittipaldi qualified the team’s two Chevrolet Corvette Daytona Prototypes third and fifth respectively for the Continental Monterey Grand Prix on Saturday afternoon. Cameron turned a lap of 1:19.072 with Fittipaldi clocking a best lap of 1:19.214.

“I think we maximized our potential today for our type of cars,” said Cameron. “Obviously we’ve shuffled our driver order up a little bit, so we’ll see what shakes out tomorrow. I’m certainly happy to be starting up front tomorrow, and overall we’ve made a lot of progress through the weekend, and certainly over where we were last year here with our Whelen Engineering Corvette DP.

“We’re happy to be a lot farther down the road than we were at this point last season, and we’ll focus on trying to score another podium finish tomorrow and maximize our points towards the championship.”

Cameron’s teammate, Brazilian Christian Fittipaldi qualified the team’s Mustang Sampling Corvette DP in fifth position.

“We’ll take it,” said Fittipaldi. “Obviously this wasn’t a dream qualifying session, but the race is tomorrow and that’s what really matters. As a team we made good progress with the car. We helped one side of it quite a bit, but we lost out a little on the other. That’s pretty much how it went, but we’re confident for the race tomorrow.”

Action Express Racing enters the fourth event of the season first and second in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship point standings, with the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Corvette DP leading the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Corvette DP by three points.

“I’m extremely proud of both teams for an incredible showing today,” said team owner Bob Johnson. “The team has made great improvements at one of our toughest tracks and we feel very confident for the race tomorrow.”

Source. Hi-Rev Racing

Visit Florida Racing Set for Seventh on Continental Tire Grand Prix Grid

Defending Continental Tire Grand Prix powered by Mazda race winners Visit Florida Racing will look to mount a strong push to the front on Sunday at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca as the team is set to start from the fourth row of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship grid.

The two-hour sprint will see Marc Goossens and Ryan Dalziel team in the No. 90 Visit Florida Racing Corvette DP as the duo hope to return the bright blue skies VISIT FLORIDA Corvette to victory lane for the second year in a row. With a pair of practice sessions on Friday followed by one full session Saturday, the 15-minute qualifying session yielded a fast lap time of 1:19.652-seconds with Dalziel behind the wheel to lock in seventh on the GTLM and Prototype class field.

“We’ve had a tough weekend so far,” admitted Dalziel of the slower start to the event than the team was hoping for. “We can’t seem to find the pace in the car. But the guys have a great strategy, we know we’re going to be one of the quickest in pit stops and we’ll try to make some more changes overnight. We know the team is the defending winner of this race and we certainly don’t want to let the guys down, so Marc (Goossens) and I will definitely get everything out of her we can and hopefully we’ll get some Florida sunshine and that will help the Visit Florida car balance-wise.”

“This is pretty far from where we want to be so far this weekend, we have just not yet been able to dial the speed into this Visit Florida car that we need to be up front, so it has been frustrating for us,” said team owner Troy Flis. “We’ve got a few more things to think about to get a little more grip and put ourselves into position to move up tomorrow. This is another shorter race and we will see what kind of strategies play out so we’ll focus on executing in the pits and just try to make our way to the front as well as we can.”

Source. Sunday Group

Stevenson Motorsports Set for Third Row Start at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca

Stevenson Motorsports will move from the endurance format to a sprint-race format on Sunday at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca as the team enters Round 3 of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

Sunday’s two-hour race will feature the GTD and LMPC classes at the 2.238-mile circuit as Stevenson Motorsports looks to add to a long history of highlights at the Monterey area track.

The No. 6 Stevenson Motorsports Audi R8 LMS of Andrew Davis and Robin Liddell led the Stevenson charge during Saturday’s 15-minute qualifying session by putting the car sixth on the grid for Sunday’s two hour race event.

The No. 9 Stevenson Motorsports Audi R8 LMS, shared by Matt Bell and Lawson Aschenbach, will start 11th.

The Jacksonville, North Carolina-based team worked through three practice sessions throughout the weekend to dial in the set up on each car. Friday featured cool and windy conditions, while Saturday brought sunshine and warmer temperatures.

Davis was tabbed to qualify the No. 6 machine and set a fast time of 1:27.277-seconds on the ninth of his 11 laps during the all green-flag run.

“The Stevenson guys have been working really hard all weekend trying to get little bits of improvement here and there,” said Davis, who won at Laguna Seca in 2011 en route to the Rolex GT Championship title. “We’re still suffering a little bit from some handling woes and they were still there during qualifying. So we pushed as hard as we could. It’s not exactly where we want to be, but it’s a spot where we can fight from. Now we just move forward to getting the car ready for the race over the long run tomorrow. It’s a short race so it’s really going to be an all-out sprint for us. As always, the guys are working as hard as they can to get our new Audi R8 LMS up to the front at the end of the race.”

Bell has a vast amount of experience at the Laguna Seca circuit, living not far from the Northern California track. He drove the No. 9 Audi R8 LMS to a 1:27.945-second lap.

“This was not our best qualifying effort, but it’s not terrible,” said Bell. “I might have not done some homework and I think we may have missed the mark on the set up. I’m definitely struggling with the car a little bit. We had prime tires, basically, and the track was a little bit greasier, so everyone’s times went down a little bit. We just weren’t there to have it. We’ll look over data and video and make sure we’re doing our research on what we need to do. We’ll get it done and try to have a better result tomorrow.”

Source. Sunday Group

DELTAWING QUALIFIES IN A SOLID SIXTH

It was a particularly exciting qualifying for the Panoz DeltaWing Racing team. The pace was fast and the DeltaWing showed its competitiveness with Sean Rayhall securing leader position early on. In the end, Rayhall secured a solid sixth place on a lap time of 1:19.301.

The team was encouraged by the performance the coupe displayed during the practice sessions as well. After a few minor adjustments to the set-up to optimize the car, the team believe it has a fast car that will be up-front throughout the two-hour Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix Powered by Mazda tomorrow.

Quoteboard:

Sean Rayhall
“Really optimistic about our chances in the race tomorrow. I think we have a better long-staying car than a qualifying car and I’m really proud of the team as everyone has been working incredibly hard. Katie will be in our thoughts tomorrow. We miss her very much and wish her a continued speedy recovery.”

Katherine Legge
“Sean did a great job in changeable conditions and we start from a sound sixth on the grid for tomorrow’s race. I’m confident we can both move forward in the race and we’ve learnt even more about the car which should translate into speed. Hoping Katie is doing well and I know she will be watching!”

Tim Keene
“It’s encouraging to be three-tenths off of third position. I am looking forward to the race as I think our car is pretty good for the long run.”

Source. DeltaWing Racing Cars

WeatherTech Racing Starting from Back at Laguna Seca

WeatherTech Racing drivers Cooper MacNeil (Hinsdale, Ill.) and Leh Keen (Charleston, S.C.) will start from the back of the GTD field for tomorrow’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Continental Tire Monterey grand Prix presented by Mazda.

MacNeil had the controls of the No. 22 WeatherTech Porsche for qualifying. On the out lap he reported an issue with the brakes. Trying to continue to post a time he opted instead to bring the white and black Porsche to pit lane for the Alex Job Racing team to diagnose the problem. The team decided that the repairs could not be completed in the 15-minute time allotted for qualifying. The car took no time and will start 17th on the grid in GTD.

“I think we had a mechanical issue with the brakes, maybe something broke,” MacNeil said. “The car was really good in practice this morning. We figured out some issues with the brakes we had yesterday. We were happy with the handling and the way the car drove. The Alex Job Racing crew has worked hard on the car. It is unfortunate that qualifying went the way it did today for us. I had 10% braking pressure and it was just locking up the rear tires. It is a mystery to me. The team will get into it tonight and we will see what we have in the warm-up. We start from the back on new rubber for tomorrow.”

Keen has faith in the Alex Job led team.

“It has been a real up and down weekend,” Keen said. “We ended the day yesterday really good. Today it was tough. We have had two completely different issues with the brakes that we have never seen before. With Cooper in qualifying it looks like a mechanical issue on the left rear. It is locking the tire and the brake is not releasing. Cooper did a good job to keep the car on the track and get it to pit road safely. If we can get the car back to where we were yesterday afternoon we will be able to make up some ground in the race. The Alex Job Racing guys are working hard and will give us a car we can go and race with. We have some work ahead of us.”

Team owner, Alex Job, has the team sorting through the WeatherTech Porsche.

“We are looking into every aspect of the braking system,” Job said. “We had a good car yesterday and Cooper and Leh were happy with the speed and drivability. Today a brake issue crept up and really manifested itself in qualifying where Cooper couldn’t turn a single lap. We will get it sorted and be ready to race tomorrow.”

Source. Kyle Chura/Alex Job Racing

The Heart of Racing on Pole at Laguna Seca

The Heart of Racing Porsche drivers Mario Farnbacher (Germany) and Alex Riberas (Spain) will start from pole position in GTD for tomorrow’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix presented by Mazda to run at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

Farnbacher and Riberas had the Alex Job Racing prepared Heart of Racing Porsche on the top of the GTD timing chart for every practice this weekend. In qualifying Riberas had the wheel of the No. 23 blue Porsche for the 15-minute session. Wasting little time he posted a lap of 1:25.755 to take the pole position. A remarkable feat as he had no previous experience at the 2.2-mile, 11-turn circuit located east of Monterey Bay. Tomorrow’s race will be only two hours in length making strategy a very important element.

“We are really in a good position here,” Riberas said. “This is very special, my first pole position in IMSA. The team has done an outstanding job since Sebring. Right from the first practice we have had a great feeling with the Heart of Racing Porsche. The hard work paid off this week. In all four practice sessions we were the fastest. We will stay cool, keep our heads down and go for the win tomorrow.”

Teammate Farnbacher is also happy with the car and the team.

“Alex did a great job to go out and get the pole for the Heart of Racing team,” Farnbacher said. “In all of the free practice sessions and in qualifying we have the fastest car, so it is going good so far. The team is working hard and we will be looking to keep the Porsche at the front of the field in the race as well. This is a shorter race, so we will have to have good strategy and good speed in the car.”

“Alex did his homework on the track and did a nice job to get the pole in the Heart of Racing Porsche,” Team Owner Alex Job said. “He and Mario have been the fastest GTD car all week. The team has the car running fast and we now need to put it all together in the race tomorrow. A short race compared to what we are used to, but that will make it that much more interesting.”

Source. Kyle Chura/Alex Job Racing