American Le Mans Series

Lowe’s Fernández qualifies 2nd in class at Road America

© Fernandez racing

Lowe’s Fernandez Racing will line up on Row Two of the grid for Saturday’s Generac 500 presented by Time Warner Cable at Road America. Adrian Fernandez handled qualifying duties for the #15 Lowe’s Acura ARX this afternoon, claiming a second-place LMP2 class starting position and fourth-place overall result.

Fernandez made a valiant effort to chase down fellow Acura driver and LMP2 class polesitter Franck Montagny in the closing stages of the 20-minute qualifying session, missing the mark by only 0.294 seconds. This is the fourth top-three LMP2 starting position for Lowe’s Fernandez Racing this season. Five drivers managed to better the LMP2 class qualifying track record of 1:48.833 = 133.901 mph set last year.

Fernandez and Luis Diaz, who managed testing duties at Road America for the team on Monday, are looking to improve on their third-place result at Mid-Ohio three weeks ago. The pair have finished in the top five the past three races – in class and overall – and are currently 21 points outside the top three in the championship in sixth position.

Tomorrow’s four-hour race will begin at 5:00 pm EDT.

Qualifying Results (Overall)
1. Luhr/Werner – LMP1 Audi R10/TDI 1:46.935 = 136.277 mph
2. Montagny/Rossiter – LMP2 Acura ARX 1:47.345 = 135.757 mph
3. Faessler/Pirro – LMP1 Audi R10/TDI 1:47.579 = 135.461 mph
4. Fernandez/Diaz – LMP2 Acura ARX 1:47.639 = 135.386 mph

Adrian Fernandez, #15 Lowe’s Acura ARX: “So far, this weekend has been good for us. We have been competitive from the time we unloaded. Luis started the work on Monday during our test and did a good job in finding a baseline for this car. Practice this morning was good but there was a lot of traffic and we never managed to put a good lap time. Qualifying was good but I wouldn’t say it was perfect. I had some traffic that, while it didn’t disturb me on my fast lap, I could not prepare on my out lap. Sometimes you need to reach a good temperature on the tires before you can punch the good one. I had to slow down quite a bit just to make a gap in front of me. The car had quite a good balance and there was a lot of grip at the end. When they told me I needed four-tenths [of a second] more, I did four or five [tenths] but [Franck] Montagny went a little bit faster. On my last lap, I was at one-tenth less but unfortunately I went a little wide in one of the corners when I put the power down. I lost the rear and lost the momentum and that was it. It was good job by everyone and we are looking forward to having a good race tomorrow. It is a long race and hopefully we have the car to win.”

Luis Diaz, #15 Lowe’s Acura ARX: “We have a good car for tomorrow. We have had a few races that we haven’t been this competitive in qualifying but we showed the potential in the race. If we can put together what we have learned in the last two races, I’m pretty sure we will have a good result here. I am very happy that the boss is happy with the car. The guys did a great job all this week. This is good motivation for everybody and we are looking forward to tomorrow’s race.”