American Le Mans Series

Gil de Ferran clinches pole for ALMS finale

© American Le Mans Series

Gil de Ferran secured the pole position for the Monterey Sports Car Championships presented by Patrón, the final race of the 2009 American Le Mans Series and the final race of the Brazilians racing career. De Ferran’s fastest time at the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca was a 1:11.206, enough to beat the Patrón Highcroft Racing Acura ARX-02a of David Brabham.

Both De Ferran and Brabham had to get the best out of their machines and themself in order to take pole position. In the first half of the LMP qualifying session the Acura ARX-01b of Lowe’s Fernandez Racing driver Luis Diaz had held provisional pole after setting a 1:11.310. The Mexican driver kept setting similar times lap after lap, with the two ARX-02a’s not going quicker.

Eventually both De Ferran and Brabham passed the LMP2 car on their way to the pole, with Brabham just 0.092 seconds behind De Ferran. Gil de Ferran tried to improve his time in the final moments of the session, but missed the apex at the famous Cork Screw chicane, damaging the back of his car and ending his run.

As the chequered flag came out it was an all-Acura top three, with Dyson Racing’s Butch Leitzinger in fourth place overall, second place in LMP2. Jonny Cocker put the Drayson Racing Lola Judd in fifth overall, third in LMP1 while Klaus Graf put the CytoSport Porsche RS Spyder third in LMP2.

Jan Magnussen took his third consecutive class pole position, albeit in GT2 rather than GT1 this time. Risi Competizione’s Pierre Kaffer had set provisional pole early on in the session, despite a near-off on his first flying lap, but soon after the two Corvette C6.R GT2 cars began showing their capabilities, with Kaffer only able to beat Oliver Gavin for second place on the grid.

Lap after lap the fastest time was improved and in the end it was Magnussen who posted a 1:23.053, taking the first pole position for the GT2 Corvette. Behind the Dane it was Kaffer in second with a 1:23.220 and Gavin in the second Corvette posted the third fastest time, a 1:23.283!
When the chequered flag came out ten GT2 cars were within a second of each other.

ORBIT Racing’s Guy Cosmo won his fourth consecutive pole in the Challenge class. He posted a lap of 1:29.546 in his Porsche 997 GT3 Cup car.