It has turned out to be quite a day for Patrón Highcroft Racing. David Brabham captured the overall pole position for the Detroit Sports Car Challenge presented by Bosch, only hours after Acura announced that Patrón Highcroft would be one of its two LMP1 entries for the 2009 American Le Mans Series season.
Brabham put in a quick lap of 1:13.483 in the Patrón Highcroft Acura ARX-01b. He and Scott Sharp will start first overall for the first time since Lime Rock Park, where the duo captured the first overall victory for Acura. The pairing have won three of the last four rounds in LMP2 including the last two races at Road America and a week ago at Mosport.
Brabham went 0.177 seconds faster than Simon Pagenaud in the de Ferran Motorsports Acura. The quickest Porsche was Guy Smith in Dyson Racing's No. 20 entry at 1:42.209.
Lucas Luhr earned another class pole position for Audi Sport North America with a lap of 1:15.879. He qualified the Audi that he will share with Marco Werner eighth overall and 2.396 seconds behind Brabham. The second Audi of Emanuele Pirro and Marcel Fässler was another 0.44 seconds back.
Jan Magnussen took the GT1 pole position at Detroit for the second straight season in his Corvette C6.R. Corvette Racing's title contender qualified at 1:24.351 to beat out the sister car of Oliver Gavin by 1.024 seconds. Magnussen and Johnny O'Connell are the defending class winners at Detroit and also lead the class championship standings.
Entering the weekend, they have won seven times in eight rounds and haven't lost since St. Petersburg at the end of Marchh. Magnussen's last pole position was another street race - Long Beach in mid-April. He and O'Connell started their current six-race class win streak that weekend.
Terry Borcheller qualified the Bell Motorsports Aston Martin DBR9 third in GT1 at 1:26.676.
Flying Lizard Motorsports' Wolf Henzler took his first GT2 pole position since winning the Utah Grand Prix in May at Miller Motorsports Park. Saturday's lap was a 1:24.941 in his Porsche 911 GT3 RSR that outpaced Risi Competizione's Jaime Melo by a mere 0.037 seconds.
In fact, Henzler's pole time at Utah was exactly the same as Melo but the Porsche was awarded the top spot because Henzler posted the first.
Henzler and Jörg Bergmeister have won three times in class this season and own a 10-point championship lead over Tafel Racing's Dirk Mueller and Dominik Farnbacher.
Muelller qualified third in class at 1:25.270 in the Tafel Ferrari F430 GT.
The Detroit Sports Car Challenge presented by Bosch from Belle Isle is scheduled for 2:35 p.m. ET on Saturday, August 30. SPEED will broadcast the race live, and XM will air it from 5 to 8 p.m. ET on Sunday, August 31. American Le Mans Radio will have live coverage of all on-track sessions at americanlemans.com, which also will feature IMSA's Live Timing & Scoring.
Detroit Sports Car Challenge presented by Bosch The Raceway at Belle Isle Park, Detroit Friday's qualifying
1. Scott Sharp, Jupiter, FL; David Brabham, Australia; Acura ARX-01B (P2), 1:13.483, 102.68
2. Simon Pagenaud, France; Gil de Ferran, Brazil; Acura ARX-01B (P2), 1:13.660, 102.44
3. Chris Dyson, Pleasant Valley, NY; Guy Smith, England; Porsche RS Spyder (P2), 1:14.209, 101.68
4. Luis Diaz, Mexico; Adrian Fernandez, Mexico; Acura ARX-01B (P2), 1:14.380, 101.45
5. James Rossiter, England; Franck Montagny, Brignoles France; Acura ARX-01B (P2), 1:14.446, 101.36
6. Timo Bernhard, Germany; Romain Dumas, France; Porsche RS Spyder (P2), 1:14.598, 101.15
7. Patrick Long, Oak Park, CA; Ryan Briscoe, Australia; Porsche RS Spyder (P2), 1:15.476, 99.97
8. Marco Werner, Germany; Lucas Luhr, Germany; Audi AG R10/TDI (P1), 1:15.879, 99.44
9. Emanuele Pirro, Italy; Marcel Fassler, Switzerland; Audi AG R10/TDI (P1), 1:15.923, 99.38
10. Marino Franchitti, Scotland; Butch Leitzinger, State College, PA; Porsche RS Spyder (P2), 1:16.554, 98.57
11. Gerardo Bonilla, Orlando, FL; Ben Devlin, England; Lola B07 46 Mazda (P2), 1:16.742, 98.32
12. Jon Field, Dublin, OH; Clint Field, Dublin, OH; Richard Berry, Evergreen, CO; Lola B06/10 AER (P1), 1:23.307, 90.58
13. Johnny O`Connell, Flowery Branch, GA; Jan Magnussen, Denmark; Corvette C6.R (GT1), 1:24.477, 89.32
14. Wolf Henzler, Germany; Joerg Bergmeister, Germany; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (GT2), 1:24.941, 88.83
15. Jaime Melo, Brazil; Mika Salo, Finland; Ferrari F430 GT (GT2), 1:24.978, 88.79
16. Dominik Farnbacher, Germany; Dirk Mueller, Germany; Ferrari F430 GT (GT2), 1:25.270, 88.49
17. Olivier Beretta, Monaco; Oliver Gavin, England; Corvette C6.R (GT1), 1:25.501, 88.25
18. Johannes van Overbeek, San Francisco, CA; Patrick Pilet, France; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (GT2), 1:25.770, 87.97
19. Harrison Brix, San Jose, CA; Robert Bell, UK; Ferrari F430 GT (GT2), 1:26.627, 87.10
20. Terry Borcheller, Vero Beach, FL; Chapman Ducote, Miami, FL; Aston Martin DBR9 (GT1), 1:26.676, 87.06
21. Tom Milner, Leesburg, VA; Tom Sutherland, Los Gatos, CA; Panoz Esperante Ford (GT2), 1:27.232, 86.50
22. Lonnie Pechnik, Pacific Grove, CA; Martin Raggenger, Austria; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (GT2), 1:27.444, 86.29
23. Paul Drayson, London, UK; Jonny Cocker, UK; Aston Martin Vantage (GT2), 1:27.961, 85.78
24. Nicky Pastorelli, Netherlands; Francisco Pastorelli, Netherlands; Marc Basseng, Germany; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (GT2), 1:28.075, 85.67
25. Tim Pappas, Boston, MA; Anthony Lazzaro, Acworth, GA; Doran Ford GT-R (GT2), 1:29.391, 84.41
26. Jim Tafel, Alpharetta, GA; Alex Figge, Hollywood, CA; Ferrari F430 GT (GT2), 1:30.694, 83.20
27. David Murry, Cumming, GA; Andrea Robertson, Ray, MI; David Robertson, Ray, MI; Doran Ford GT-R (GT2), 1:31.013, 82.91
28. Joel Feinberg, Ft. Lauderdale, FL; Chris Hall, Daytona, FL; Dodge Viper Comp Coupe (GT2), No Time.
- Bob Dickinson - photo ALMS
