ALMS: Elkhart Lake

[Plex]

De Ferran takes another ALMS pole

Gil de Ferran continued his team's recent run of American Le Mans Series success by taking pole position for the Elkhart Lake round.

The Brazilian beat title rival David Brabham's Highcroft Acura by 0.823 seconds.

"It was a great day for us today," said de Ferran, who will be aiming for a fifth straight victory tomorrow along with team-mate Simon Pagenaud. "Since we unloaded the car has been fantastic."

Marino Franchitti took his and the Dyson Lola-Mazda combination's first LMP2 pole in third overall, fending off a late challenge from Adrian Fernandez (Fernandez Acura).

"The car was awesome," said Franchitti. "I actually made a real mess of the first run. I'm a bit disappointed with myself for that, but overall I'm just delighted for all the guys. It means so much."

Franchitti's team-mate Guy Smith secured fifth on the grid ahead of the Cytosport Porsche and the LMP1 privateers despite missing much of the session while his Lola-Mazda was repaired following a crash in pre-qualifying practice.

BMW took a breakthrough one-two in GT2 qualifying, with Joey Hand beating his Rahal Letterman Racing team-mate Dirk Muller to pole by 0.123s.

"How about this BMW around Road America?" said Hand. "I don't think anybody really saw it coming, but this place has been really good to BMW. I've put it on our first pole of our new programme and I hope to take the first win too."

The championship-leading Flying Lizard Porsche of Jorg Bergmeister and Patrick Long will start third, just ahead of the two Corvettes, while the Flying Lizard Porsche and Risi Ferrari set identical times in sixth and seventh.

Guy Cosmo dominated in the Challenge class, taking pole by over a second.

Pos Cl Drivers Car Time
1. P1 De Ferran/Pagenaud Acura ARX-02a 1m48.216s
2. P1 Brabham/Sharp Acura ARX-02a 1m49.039s
3. P2 Leitzinger/Franchitti Mazda Lola B09 86 1m51.010s
4. P2 Fernandez/Diaz Acura ARX-01b 1m51.222s
5. P2 Dyson/Smith Mazda Lola B09 86 1m51.832s
6. P2 Pickett/Graf Porsche RS Spyder 1m51.922s
7. P1 Willman/McMurry Lola B06/10 AER 1m53.649s
8. P1 Field/Field Lola B06/10 AER 1m55.209s
9. GT2 Auberlen/Hand BMW M3 E92 2m06.950s
10. GT2 Mueller/Milner BMW M3 E92 2m07.073s
11. GT2 Bergmeister/Long Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 2m07.362s
12. GT2 O'Connell/Magnussen Corvette C6.R 2m07.387s
13. GT2 Gavin/Beretta Corvette C6.R 2m07.619s
14. GT2 Werner/Henzler Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 2m07.740s
15. GT2 Melo/Kaffer Ferrari 430 GT 2m07.740s
16. GT2 Robertson/Murry/Robertson Doran Ford GT Mk 7 2m08.188s
17. GT2 Farnbacher/James Panoz Esperante 2m08.800s
18. GT2 Feinberg/Hall Dodge Viper 2m08.822s
19. GT2 Neiman/Law Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 2m13.501s
20. Cha Baker/Cosmo Porsche 911 GT3 Cup 2m16.098s
21. Cha Snow/Snow Porsche 911 GT3 Cup 2m17.202s
22. Cha Brown/Sweedler Porsche 911 GT3 Cup 2m18.289s
23. Cha Hoaglund/Faieta Porsche 911 GT3 Cup 2m18.970s
24. Cha Parker/Pickering Porsche 911 GT3 Cup 2m20.554s
25. Cha Curtis/Sofronas Porsche 911 GT3 Cup
26. P1 Mowlem/Johansson Ginetta-Zytek 09SH

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[Plex]

Highcroft ends its ALMS win drought

Highcroft Racing ended fellow LMP1 Acura squad De Ferran Motorsports' streak of American Le Mans Series victories in today's Elkhart Lake event.

Gil de Ferran and team-mate Simon Pagenaud had looked set to further erode Highcroft duo David Brabham and Scott Sharp's championship lead after they took pole, but in the race the Highcroft car got ahead when de Ferran opted to make an early pitstop under the first yellow.

Later cautions brought both back onto the same strategy, and they were nose to tail again with Brabham just ahead of de Ferran when the green flag waved for the final time with six minutes to go.

De Ferran tried his utmost, but Brabham was able to absorb the pressure and win by half a second, stretching his and Sharp's points lead again.

It was another Acura one-two-three, with the Fernandez entry winning LMP2 in third overall. The Dyson Lola-Mazdas had looked good early on, but the timing of the second yellow during the opening pitstops worked out badly for Dyson duo Butch Leitzinger and Marino Franchitti, allowing Adrian Fernandez and Luis Diaz to get in front and win again. The #20 Dyson car took a close second, with the Cytosport Porsche not far behind.

Rahal Letterman's Joey Hand and Bill Auberlen gave BMW its first GT2 victory since the German marque returned to the ALMS this year. Having dominated class qualifying, the two BMWs were handed a one-lap advantage over their rivals when the first yellow fell just as the leaders had lapped the rest of the GT2 pack.

A penalty for a pit infringement dropped Dirk Muller and Tommy Milner off their team-mates' tails soon afterwards, leaving Hand and Auberlen to cruise to the class win. Muller resisted a late charge from the best of the Corvettes and the GT2 points leading Flying Lizard Porsche to complete a BMW one-two.

Pos Cl Driverw Car Time/Gap
1. P1 Brabham/Sharp Acura ARX-02a 2h45m49.618s
2. P1 De Ferran/Pagenaud Acura ARX-02a + 0.461s
3. P2 Fernandez/Diaz Acura ARX-01b + 15.809s
4. P2 Leitzinger/Franchitti Mazda Lola B09 86 + 22.551s
5. P2 Pickett/Graf Porsche RS Spyder + 23.914s
6. P1 Field/Field Lola B06/10 AER + 48.510s
7. P1 Mowlem/Johansson Ginetta-Zytek 09SH + 1 laps
8. P1 Willman/McMurry Lola B06/10 AER + 1 laps
9. GT2 Auberlen/Hand BMW M3 E92 + 2 laps
10. GT2 Mueller/Milner BMW M3 E92 + 3 laps
11. GT2 O'Connell/Magnussen Corvette C6.R + 3 laps
12. GT2 Bergmeister/Long Porsche 911 GT3 RSR + 3 laps
13. GT2 Melo/Kaffer Ferrari 430 GT + 3 laps
14. GT2 Gavin/Beretta Corvette C6.R + 4 laps
15. GT2 Robertson/Murry/Robertson Doran Ford GT Mk 7 + 5 laps
16. GT2 Neiman/Law Porsche 911 GT3 RSR + 6 laps
17. Ch Snow/Snow Porsche 911 GT3 Cup + 8 laps
18. GT2 Feingerg/Hall Dodge Viper + 8 laps
19. Ch Parker/Pickering Porsche 911 GT3 Cup + 9 laps
20. Ch Hoaglund/Faieta Porsche 911 GT3 Cup + 9 laps
21. Ch Baker/Cosmo Porsche 911 GT3 Cup + 10 laps
22. Ch Brown/Sweedler Porsche 911 GT3 Cup + 10 laps
23. GT2 Henzler/Miller Porsche 911 GT3 RSR + 15 laps
24. GT2 Farnbacher/James Panoz Esperante + 17 laps
25. P2 Dyson/Smith Mazda Lola B09 86 + 21 laps

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