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View Full Version : Brundle puts OAK Racing Ligier-HPD on debut pole in Austin



bigbadbrother
09-20-2014, 12:31 AM
Sportscar365

Alex Brundle pushed the No. 42 OAK Racing Ligier JS P2 HPD to a debut pole position for the new car on North American soil ahead of Saturday's Lone Star Le Mans, Round 10 of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship season.

Brundle has achieved his second (Watkins Glen) and OAK Racing's third pole this season, courtesy of the fastest TUDOR Championship lap of the weekend thus far at Circuit of the Americas. He'll share the car with Gustavo Yacaman.

The Englishman's best time of 1:57.809 at the 3.4-mile track beat three other Daytona Prototype-spec cars, and the next best P2-spec car that ended fifth.

Ricky Taylor slotted the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP into second (1:58.643) with Memo Rojas third in the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Riley-Ford and Christian Fittipaldi fourth in the No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP.

Johannes van Overbeek, in the lone Extreme Speed Motorsports HPD ARX-03b in the TUDOR Championship this weekend, lines up fifth.

Sean Rayhall took his second straight pole position in Prototype Challenge, driving the No. 25 8Star Motorsports Oreca FLM09, with a time that will slot him eighth on the overall grid.

Rayhall's best time of 2:00.528 was a solid 0.557 clear of the rest of the runners in the truncated session. He'll race Saturday with Luis Diaz.

Colin Braun (CORE autosport) and Bruno Junqueira (RSR Racing) were next, with the two Starworks Motorsport entries fourth and fifth.

Jack Hawksworth didn't get to complete a lap in the No. 08 RSR Racing as he pulled off course, and neither did David Ostella in the No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports entry following an accident at the exit of Turn 20.

Ostella's contact brought out a red flag that truncated the session to just eight minutes of green flag running instead of the standard 15.

Porsche North America punctuated its practice pace by procuring the pole position in GT Le Mans.

The third factory entry, the No. 910 Porsche 911 RSR of Patrick Pilet, laid down the ultimate flier at 2:03.302 to secure the pole. Pilet will share the car with Fred Makowiecki.

This is only Porsche's second pole of the season in GTLM, first since Michael Christensen took one at Sebring. It also continues the streak of no repeat polesitters in GTLM through the first 10 races of the year.

Jonathan Bomarito moved the two full-season factory Porsches down to row two with a late flier of 2:03.649 in the No. 93 SRT Motorsports Dodge Viper SRT GTS-R.

The No. 911 got ahead of the No. 912 to edge into third on the grid.

The three remaining manufacturers struggled. The pair of BMW Team RLL BMW Z4 GTEs are sixth and seventh on the grid, the two Corvette Racing C7.Rs eighth and 10th and the sole Risi Competizione Ferrari F458 Italia 11th and last on the GTLM grid.

James Davison captured his third straight GT Daytona pole in the No. 007 TRG-AMR Aston Martin Vantage, with the weekend's fastest lap at 2:08.502. He'll race with Al Carter.

The Aston Martin led four manufacturers in the top four positions. Jeroen Bleekemolen clocked in second in the No. 33 Riley Motorsports Dodge Viper SRT GT3-R, with Dane Cameron third in the No. 300 Turner Motorsport BMW Z4 GT3 and Mike Skeen fourth in the No. 71 Park Place Motorsports Porsche 911 GT America.

All of the top four were in the 2:08 range, with Skeen four tenths off at 2:08.984. Kuba Giermaziak got into fifth in the No. 30 MOMO NGT Motorsport Porsche 911 GT America.

Spencer Pumpelly was top Audi in the No. 45 Flying Lizard Motorsports Audi R8 LMS in 10th, with GTD co-points leader Townsend Bell best Ferrari only 15th in the No. 555 AIM Autosport Ferrari 458 Italia GT3.

The third member of the GTD title battle, the No. 22 Alex Job Racing Porsche 911 GT America, will only line up 16th in the 18-car class.