American Le Mans Series

Fastest Ever Qualifying at Mid-Ohio

Hayanari Shimoda posted the fastest qualifying time ever at Mid-Ohio for a Prototype on his way to a pole position start for Sunday’s Two Hour, forty-five minute race. Shimoda will start next to the Dyson Lola of James Weaver, who set the record last year.

In P2, Jon Field posted a new record in the Telesis-Intersport Racing Lola B05/40. The Corvette C6R of Oliver Gavin set a new GT1 mark, followed by Timo Bernhard in the Alex Job Racing Porsche in GT2.

Shimoda took the pole from Weaver in dramatic fashion. Weaver had fastest lap for most of the qualifying session, but Shimoda’s Zytek was able to seize the lead on his next-to-last pass of the circuit.

The second row will be an all-Audi affair, with Lehto/Werner in the #1 car in third, and Biela/Pirro’s #2 starting from fourth.

The two Courages, fielded by BK Motorsports with Mazda power, and the AER-Powered Miracle team, will start from tenth and seventh respectively. They will be separated in the field by both of the Corvette entries.

Changes to the Maserati’s package resulted in a qualifying result only two-tenths of a second slower than the GT1 Corvettes. The ACEMCO Saleen landed one place behind the Maserati.

The Petersen/White Lighting Porsche will start from second in GT2, and sixteenth overall. The Panoz entries will start from third and fourth in GT2.

Behind the Panoz’s on the grid will be the Pobst/Baas driven Alex Job Porsche, followed by both Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsches and the J3 Racing Porsche.