Pagenaud, Acura Takes St. Pete ALMS Pole

Mika Salo drives the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 430 GT at Sebring; the team took GT2 honors. (Doug Benc/Getty Images)

ST PETERSBURG, Fla—Simon Pagenaud drove his deFerran Racing Acura ARX-002a to the pole of the St. Petersburg American Le Mans Series race with a time of 1:03.776, besting the P1 competition by one second.

Scott Sharp placed his Patrón Highcroft Acura ARX-002a in second place with a time of 1:04:799.

Pagenaud will team up with team owner and Indy champion Gil de Ferran, while Scott Sharp will share this ride with David Brabham.

The Intersport Racing Lola B06/10-AER of Jon Field, Clint Field and Chapman Ducote was third in P1 at 1:09.044.

Acura led in P2 also, with the Lowes-Fernandez Acura ARX-01B of Luis Diaz and Adrian Fernandez placing third overall and first in class. Diaz drove a lap of 1:05.179, less than half-a-second behind the Patrón HIghcroft P1 car.

Dyson Racing, whose new Mazda-Lola B09/86 coupes broke at Sebring, fared better at St. Pete, with Guy Smith qualifying fourth in the car he will share with Chris Dyson, three-tenths of a second behing the Lowes-Fernandez machine. Marino Franchitti qualified third in class in the Dyson Mazda-Lola he co-drives with Butch Leitzinger.

Guy Smith explained the different mind-sets needed fopr racing a twelv-hour race like Sebring and a two-hour-sprint like St. Pete: “You just have to get on with it. There is not time for slow steady laps, every lap counts around here. You get your head down, focus on the job at hand and make every lap count.” 

“After our first test with these cars, we thought that they would do well on street courses,” noted Chris Dyson.

“This is a fast, high downforce track that is very smooth, allowing you to lower the car, and get the most out of the Lola package. From a driver’s standpoint, it is one of the better laid-out street courses. At an hour and fifty-five minutes, tomorrow’s race will put a premium on a quick sprint pace and today’s qualifying gave us the confidence we will be right in the mix.”

New Acura in Its Element

The new P1 Acura is well-suited to tight, twisty courses like St. Petersburg. With four-equally-sized tires, the P1 Acura has more front grip than its P1 competition.

Simon Pagenaud discussed the car’s differences: “We gain 7 percent more contact patch on the front so it helps us turn the front better. It is helping us get a P1 car as fast or faster in the corners as P2 cars. It was important for us to have a good car at Sebring for testing, and you expect that if it is good at Sebring then it will be good on street circuits. We have a little softer setup here. The car is good on long runs and I expect it to be very good for the race.”

The larger front tires necessitate a more powerful hydraulic power steering unit; the normal electric assist was not sufficient to move the larger front tires. Problems with the hydraulic power steering sidelined the deFerran car at Sebring, but the St. Petersburg race is only one hour, fifty-five minutes long. The car ran well for several hours at Sebring.

Patrón Highcroft driver Scott Sharp said, “We made a few changes prior to qualifying and I think we learned a great deal. We made a few changes prior to qualifying and I think we learned a great deal. We need to gain a bit of speed compared to the #66 car [the deFerran car] but overall I think we had a good session.

“We have been working all day with the race set-up in mind to make sure the car remains consistent and we can keep the Michelin tires underneath us throughout the race. Especially if it is hot, the track can be very greasy and I think we can shine if that happens.”

Risi Competizione Leads GT2

Three different manufacturers will fill the top three spots on the GT2 grid.

Sebring GT2 winner Risi Competizione captured the class pole, with Jaime Melo turning in a lap of 1:12.892 Melo will co-drive with Pierre Kaffer  in their Ferrari F430 GT.

Wolf Henzler, in the Farnbacher Loles Racing Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, had a best lap of 1:13.173 and will drive with Dirk Werner.

Third in GT2 was Joey Hand in BMW Rahal Letterman Racing Team’s new BMW M3 at 1:13.267.

      

 

	Pos	Car#	Class	Drivers	Car Make	Lap Time
	1	66	P1	de Ferran/Pagenaud	Acura ARX 02	1:03.776
	2	9	P1	Brabham/Sharp	Acura ARX 02	1:04.722
	3	15	P2	Fernandez/Diaz	Acura ARX 01	1:05.178
	4	16	P2	Dyson/Smith	Lola-Mazda MXR-R	1:05.464
	5	20	P2	Leitzinger/Franchitti	Lola-Maxda MXR-R	1:05.666
	6	37	P1	Field/Field/Ducote	Lola B06/10	1:09.044
	7	62	GT2	Melo/Kaffer	Ferrari 430	1:12.892
	8	87	GT2	Henzler/Werner	Porsche 911	1:13.173
	9	90	GT2	Hand/Auberlen	BMW E92	1:13.267
	10	92	GT2	Mueller/Milner	BMW E92	1:13.458