AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Alex Brundle took the Prototype pole in qualifying Friday for the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship’s Lone Star Le Mans at Circuit of The Americas.
The second-generation British driver turned a lap of 1 minute, 57.809 seconds (103.897 mph) on the twisty 3.40-mile circuit to take his second total pole award of the season and third for the French team.
“We knew the machine was good. We’ve done enough miles in it (in Europe). It was a case of bringing it here with a new tire and a new motor,” Brundle said. “It all worked out, and it’s a credit for the guys for adapting so quickly with it. When you change engines, you’ve got to adapt to it again. I’m amazed at how quickly any issues were ironed out.”
Brundle won the pole at Watkins Glen International, while co-driver Gustavo Yacaman took pole honors at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, both in a Nissan-powered Morgan chassis.
Ricky Taylor will start from the outside of the front row after running a lap of 1:58.643 (103.167 mph) in the No. 10 Konica Minolta Corvette DP he shares with his brother Jordan. Memo Rojas took third in the No. 01 Telcel Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Ford EcoBoost/Riley co-driven by Scott Pruett. They were followed by Prototype points leader Christian Fittipaldi in the No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP. Fittipaldi co-drives with Joao Barbosa.
The Lone Star Le Mans takes the green flag at 12:35 p.m. Saturday.
Sean Rayhall scored his second consecutive pole in the Prototype Challenge class, running 2:00.528 (101.553 mph) in the No. 25 Takis/Speedsters ORECA FLM09.
Rayhall, who scored his first TUDOR Championship victory in the most recent race at Virginia International Raceway with co-driver Luis Diaz, said the team gambled on its qualifying setup.
“We made a wholesale change,” Rayhall said. “It was either ‘go big or go home,’ and it paid off. With the change, we were going to qualify either first or fifth.”
Colin Braun was second, running 2:01.085 (101.086 mph) in the No. 54 CORE Autosport ORECA FLM09. Braun and co-drive Jon Bennett can clinch the PC driver championship with a second-place finish or better on Saturday.
Jonathan Bomarito won the pole in the GT Le Mans class and James Davison took the top spot in the GT Daytona class.
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