Olivier Pla Wins IMSA WSC Petit Le Mans Pole for Shank Racing

Olivier Pla Wins IMSA WSC Petit Le Mans Pole for Shank Racing
Olivier Pla drives the #60 Shank Racing Ligier-Honda during Petit Le Mans qualifying, Friday, Sept. 2016. Chris Jasurek/Epoch Times
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BRASELTON, Ga.—Michael Shank Racing’s Olivier Pla captured the pole for the 2016 IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championsip Petit Le Mans season finale with a lap of 1:13.061 at 125.1 mph in the team’s Honda-powered.#60 Ligier JS P2 Friday afternoon, Sept. 30.

Pla edged out Mazda driver Tristan Nunez by a healthy 0.459 of a second. Nunez managed a lap of 1:13.520 at 124.3 mph in the #55 Mazda Motorsports Prototype.

Dane Cameron in the #31 Action Express Coyote-Corvette qualified third ahead of Tom Long in the second Mazda prototype. Only these three were able to lap the ten-turn, 2.54-mile Road Atlanta course within a second of Pla’s time.

This is not to say that the rest of the field was slow. Of the nine prototypes entered, the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Dallara-Corvette driven by Ricky Taylor was slowest, only 1.47 seconds off Pla’s pace.

Tristan Nunez in the #55 Mazda was not able to best Pla's lap. (Chris Jasurek/Epoch Times)
Tristan Nunez in the #55 Mazda was not able to best Pla's lap. Chris Jasurek/Epoch Times