Werner333
12-10-2002, 13:51
Since his car had been the fastest in all practice sessions, it was no surprise that Frank Biela placed his Audi R8 on the pole for the American Le Mans Series season finale in Friday's qualifying session at Road Atlanta.
But the biggest surprise in qualifying for Saturday's Audi presents Petit Le Mans was the performance of James Weaver, who was third-fastest while driving Dyson Racing's LMP 675 Lola EX257-MG. The smaller, less-powerful Prototype led its class and outqualified all but two of the powerful LMP 900 machines.
Biela, winning the pole for the second consecutive race on the American Le Mans Series, turned the 2.54-mile circuit in a non-record time of 1:10.939. He and co-driver Emanuele Pirro are the defending champion of the event and Biela still has a mathematical chance of overtaking fellow Audi driver Tom Kristensen for the series championship.
"Our engineer came up with the plan to get the qualifying point in case something happens to the other car," said Biela. "During practice, conditions were constantly changing so it was hard to judge how well we were doing. We only had one problem: a little too much understeer, which could be a problem during the race. One important thing is that our car is always pretty reliable."
Kristensen qualified second at a very close 1:11.070 in a car he will share with Rinaldo Capello. Weaver, who will co-drive with Butch Leitzinger and Andy Wallace, timed in at 1:11.883.
"We thought we could get third quickest," said Weaver. "Anything better than that would have taken a bit of a miracle. This is a fabulous little car. It's very, very fast."
The Champion Audi of Johnny Herbert and Stefan Johansson will start fourth in the 1,000-mile (or 10-hour) event, with the Panoz LMP-1 of David Brabham, Jan Magnussen and David Donohue to start fifth. The Panoz team worked all night to repair the car after a mechanical failure sent Donohue into a barrier in Thursday's practice.
In the GTS class, the Prodrive Ferrari piloted by Tomas Enge led the way with a lap of 1:19.069, barely beating the Chevrolet Corvette C5-R of Ron Fellows. The Ferrari was the first non-Corvette to win in the ALMS this season.
"The pole will give the team a big boost for the race," said Enge, who will co-drive with Peter Kox and Alain Menu in the Ferrari 550 Maranello. "We know it will be hard against the Corvettes because they are two and we are alone. A win would be a really good way to end the season."
Fellows, who won the first six poles of the season in the GTS class, has now been beaten four consecutive times in qualifying and still stands one pole short of owning the series record for the most poles in any class.
"The car felt good and the tires were only decent," said Fellows, who can win the GTS class driver title in Saturday's race. "The hot track temperatures were not what we expected and kinda went off after the second lap. The weather is going to be a lottery this weekend."
In the GT class, Alex Job Racing driver Jorg Bergmeister won the first pole of his brief ALMS career with a lap of 1:23.922 in a Porsche 911 GT3 RS he will share with Timo Bernhard and Marc Lieb. The other Job machine, to be co-driven by Sascha Maassen an Lucas Luhr, was second at 1:24.068, followed by the Cirtek Motorsport Porsche of Stephane Ortelli and Christophe Bouchut.
"It's my first pole and I'm really happy," said Bergmeister. "Thank you to the team because they did a great job. I was just pushing as hard as I could."
The race starts at 11:30 a.m. (EDT) and will be televised live by the SPEED Channel. The American Le Mans Series Radio Web will have live coverage online at www.americanlemans.com.
Starting lineup for Saturday's American Le Mans Series Audi presents Petit Le Mans at 2.54-mile Road Atlanta showing drivers, type car (class), qualifying speed in miles per hour and qualifying time:
1. Frank Biela and Emanuele Pirro; Audi R8 (LMP 900), 128.899, 1:10.939.
2. Tom Kristensen and Rinaldo Capello; Audi R8 (LMP 900), 128.662, 1:11.070.
3. James Weaver, Butch Leitzinger and Andy Wallace; Lola EX257-MG (LMP 675), 127.207, 1:11.833.
4. Johnny Herbert and Stefan Johansson; Audi R8 (LMP 900), 126.854, 1:12.083.
5. Jan Magnussen, David Brabham and David Donohue; Panoz LMP-1 (LMP 900), 126.741, 1:12.147.
6. Jim Matthews, Tony Ave and Marc Goossens; Riley & Scott MkIIIC-Elan (LMP 900), 126.727, 1:12.155.
7. Eric Bernard, Emmanuel Collard and Wayne Taylor; Cadillac Northstar LMP 02 (LMP 900), 126.468, 1:12.303.
8. Jon Field, Duncan Dayton and Michael Durand; Lola EX257-MG (LMP 675), 126.398, 1:12.343.
9. JJ Lehto, Max Angelelli and Christophe Tinseau; Cadillac Northstar LMP 02 (LMP 900), 125.987, 1:12.579.
10. John Nielsen and Casper Elgaard; Reynard 02S-Zytek (LMP 675), 125.732, 1:12.726.
11. Bryan Herta, Bill Auberlen and Gunnar Jeannette; Panoz LMP-1 (LMP 900), 124.623, 1:13.373.
12. Milka Duno, Christian Vann and Xavier Pompidou; Dome S101-Judd (LMP 900), 124.400, 1:13.505.
13. Steve Knight, Andy Lally and Chad Block; Lola EX257-MG (LMP 675), 124.400, 1:15.009.
14. Clint Field, Joel Field and Mark Neuhaus; Lola B2K10-Judd (LMP 900), 119.906, 1:16.260.
15. Earl Goddard, Andrew Davis and John Mefford; Reynard 01Q-McLaren (LMP 675), 118.132, 1:17.405.
16. Ben Devlin, Jason Workman and Georges Forgeois; Lola B2K40-Millington (LMP 675), 116.613, 1:18.413.
17. Tomas Enge, Peter Kox and Alain Menu; Ferrari 550 Maranello (GTS), 115.646, 1:19.069.
18. Ron Fellows, Johnny O'Connell and Oliver Gavin; Chevrolet Corvette C5-R (GTS), 115.497, 1:19.171.
19. Franz Konrad, Terry Borcheller and Toni Seiler; Saleen S7R (GTS), 114.804, 1:19.649.
20. Andy Pilgrim, Kelly Collins and Franck Freon; Chevrolet Corvette C5-R (GTS), 115.497, 1:19.827.
21. Yojiro Terada, Jim Downing and Stephane Daoudi; AutoExe LMP02-Mazda (LMP 675), 113.981, 1:20.224.
22. Thomas Erdos, Robin Liddel and Rob Barff; Saleen S7R (GTS), 113.751, 1:20.386.
23. Emanuele Naspetti, Mimmo Schiattarella and Max Papis; Ferrari 550 Maranello (GTS), 113.157, 1:20.808.
24. Chris McMurry, Bryan Willman and Jeff Bucknum; Pilbeam MP84-Nissan (LMP 675), 112.598, 1:21.209.
25. Patrice Roussel, John Mirro and Jeret Schroeder; Norma M20002-Ford (LMP 900), 112.544, 1:21.248.
26. Tom Weickardt, Marc Bunting and Jean-Philippe Belloc; Dodge Viper GTS-R (GTS), 111.737, 1:21.835.
27. Pierre Ehret, Melanie Paterson and John Olsen; Pilbeam MP84-Nissan (LMP 675), 110.693, 1:22.607.
28. Marino Franchitti, Fabio Babini and Mike Hezemans; Dodge Viper GTS-R (GTS), 110.246, 1:22.942.
29. Dennis Spencer, Rich Grupp and Ryan Hampton; Lola B2K42-Mazda (LMP 675), 109.655, 1:23.389.
30. Charles Slater, Sean Murphy and Jean Francois Yvon; Saleen S7R (GTS), 109.189, 1:23.745.
31. Timo Bernhard, Jorg Bergmeister and Marc Lieb; Porsche 911 GT3 RS (GT), 108.958, 1:23.922.
32. Lucas Luhr and Sascha Maassen; Porsche 911 GT3 RS (GT), 108.769, 1:24.068.
33. Stephane Ortelli and Christophe Bouchut; Porsche 911 GT3 RS (GT), 108.559, 1:24.231.
34. Vic Rice, Mike Newton and Shaun Balfe; Saleen S7R (GTS), 108.196, 1:24.513.
35. Anthony Lazzaro and Ralf Kelleners; Ferrari 360 Modena (GT), 107.445, 1:25.104.
36. Randy Pobst, Johnny Mowlem and Michael Petersen; Porsche 911 GT3 RS (GT), 107.043, 1:25.424.
37. Philipp Peter, Joe Foster and Giovanni Anapoli; Porsche 911 GT3 RS (GT), 107.032, .1:25.432.
38. Justin Jackson, Mike Fitzgerald and David Murry; Porsche 911 GT3 RS (GT), 106.884, 1:25.551.
39. Kevin Buckler, Brian Cunningham and Michael Schrom; Porsche 911 GT3 RS (GT), 106.830, 1:25.594.
40. Leo Hindery, Peter Baron and Tony Kester; Porsche 911 GT3 RS (GT), 106.667, 1:25.725.
41. Steve Donovan, Piers Masarati and Gavin Pickering; Porsche 911 GT3 RS (GT), 105.594, 1:26.596.
42. Boris Derichebourg, Angelo Barretto and Thierry Perrier; Porsche 911 GT3 RS (GT), 105.256, 1:26.874.
43. Tony Burgess, Phillip Collin and Grady Willingham; Porsche 911 GT3 RS (GT), 104.953, 1:27.125.
44. Craig Stanton, Hugh Plumb and Gilles Vannelet; Ferrari 550 Maranello (GT), 104.554, 1:27.457.
45. Emil Assentato, Chris Gleason and Nick Longhi; BMW M3 (GT), 102.429, 1:29.272.
46. Gary Schultheis, Joe Policastro and Jay Policastro; Porsche 911 GT3 RS (GT), 102.407, 1:29.291.
47. Carlos de Quesada, Boris Said and Scooter Gable; BMW M3 (GT), 92.908, 1:38.420.
48. Bart Hayden, Richard Dean and Jurgen Von Gartzen; Porsche 911 GT3 R (GT), no speed.
Bron: http://www.imsaracing.net
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