American Le Mans Series

ALMS – Utah Grand Prix – Qualifying Report

© American Le Mans Series

Simon Pagenaud, Luis Diaz, Jörg Bergmeister and Carl Skerlong took class poles for the Utah Grand Prix, round 4 of the American Le Mans Series, during qualifying at the Miller Motorsport Park circuit.

At 3.20 p.m. the track went green for the 20-minute GT2/Challenge Class qualifying session.
Jaime Melo was the first of the GT2 cars to set a quick lap, followed by a 1:47.720. His lap time would not be the fastest for long though as Jörg Bergmeister in the Flying Lizard Motorsport Porsche came out and posted a quicker lap straight away. His lap time of 1:47.120 was also 0.015s quicker than the GT2 qualifying record, set by Wolf Henzler in 2008.

With Bergmeister coming in after his fast lap Melo stayed out trying to get back provisional pole, but the Brazilian was unable to beat Bergmeister’s time.

Jorg Bergmeister: “We had a good test here and made so much progress for this track. We came in with a really dialed-in car. It seems to have worked out pretty well so far.”

Carl Skerlong posted the fastest lap of the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars and took the first ever ALMS Challenge Cup pole.

At 3.45 p.m. the green flag for the LMP1 and LMP2 qualifying was waved. Jon Field spun his Intersport Lola five minutes into the session but was able to continue. David Brabham was the first driver to post a fast time, the Australian would continue to improve his lap time lap after lap. Eleven minutes into the qualifying session the Patrón Highcroft Racing Acura driver posted a time of 1:31.523.

One minute later Simon Pagenaud in the de Ferran Motorsports Acura ARX-02a set his fastest time, still two tenths of a second behind Brabham. But on his next lap the French driver, who had taken pole position for Peugeot at Spa the week before, blasted through and went almost a second quicker, 1:30.645. Pagenaud did two other 1:30.6 laps before coming in. Brabham posted one other fast lap before the session came to an end, but was still seven tenths behind Pagenaud.

Simon Pagenaud: “This place especially really suits my driving style really well. With the team last year it was our first race. The philosophy we use to set-up the car at de Ferran Motorsports really suits this track well. The Acura is really behaving well because the aero was reworked. To be honest we worked in the practice this afternoon and we tried to find some things in my driving style and the set-up. I’m really please the engineers pushed me because it really paid off. “

In LMP2 Luis Diaz set the fastest time. Five minutes into the session the Mexican set a 1:33.049 and when the chequered flag was out he posted a 1:32.749. Both Dyson Racing Lola’s were over seven tenths behind the Acura ARX-01b.

Luis Diaz: “I think the team did a great job again. We were expecting a top 5 with the Mazdas. And its been like that. In the first 2 practices they lead in the practices, but the team made good changes for qualifying and we did a great job with those and did a good lap. We have the right tire compound with the Michelins for tomorrow. So we are really looking good for the race.”