“There is no better place to put a Mazda on pole than Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca,” commented Chris Dyson on Guy Smith’s pole-winning effort, in the team's press release.
The Isobutanol-powered Lola Mazda turned a lap of 1:12.338, .671 faster than the second-place HPD-ARX01c driven by David Brabham and Simon Pagenaud.
Third was the Cytosport Porsche RS Spyder of Klaus Graf and Memo Gidley, who replaces owner-driver Greg Pickett for this race.
In LMPC, Johnny Mowlem in the PR1/ Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca bested Gunnar Jeannette’s G-Oil car and Christian Bouchout’s Level 5 Oreca. Less than half-a-second covered the top four in the class.
In GT, two Ferraris and a Corvette will lead the grid. Jaime Melo in ther Rsis Competitizione car lapped the track in 1:22.752, three-tenths faster thasn Johannes van Overbeek in the Extreme Speed Motorsports car. Thios was by far the most promising performance out of Scott Speed’s new team.
Thirty-five thousandths back came Oliver Gavin’s Corvette Racing ZR1. As always GT looks to be intensely fought.
In GTC Jeroen Bleekemolen beat out Bitch Leitzionger and Andy Lally for the Porsche Cup pole.
Laguna Seca is a six-hour race this year, a true endurance race. Fast at first means nothing; fast last is what counts, and often cars that are too fast don’t finish. The race starts at 2:30 PDT Saturday.
The race is being streamed live on TodoCast. Register to watch (free of charge) at http://americanlemans.com/primary1.php?cat=live
Better still see the race in person. The weather is perfect and Mazda Laguna Seca is one of the most beautiful courses in the country. Tickets are available at the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca website.
CBS will broadcast the highlights of the race May 29, 2010 at 1:30 p.m. ET.
