Guy Smith turned in an amazing lap of 1:13.927 in the G-Oil Dyson Lola Mazda, almost .7 faster than the competition, to win the pole for the Modspace American Le Mans Series Monterey at Laguna Seca, Smith’s second pole in a row.
I really wanted to get pole position,” Smith told ESPN3.com. “Modspace, G-Oil, Mazda, it’s their home circuit, so I couldn’t think of a better place to do it. It’s a really good day for Mazda and hopefully we can give them a good day tomorrow.”
With 36 cars on the grid, traffic will be a real issue, a look at what happened to Audi at Silverstone shows what the slightest inattention can do to the fastest car.
On top of that, track conditions will change constantly. The race will start in early afternoon; the track will get warmer, then in the evening the fog will roll in off the ocean, and the track will cool. Engineers will need to be constantly adapting and anticipating to make sure their cars have the right setup.
Smith’s first flying lap put him into second ahead of Fernandez, whose next lap, 1:14.827, got him the spot back.
Guy Smith then put in an amazing, edge-of-control, near-disaster lap, sawing at the wheel, fishtailing under acceleration and locking up the left front entering the corkscrew, but he kept it together and beat both Fernandez and Steven Kane to take the pole.
Upon seeing that, Klaus Graf parked his Lola Aston Martin; he had no response for that kind of speed
Kane went back out too challenge his teammate, but only managed second.
Of course, being on the pole doesn't mean that much in a six-hour race like Laguna Seca.
GT: Hand Wins One for His Son
“We always want to be on the pole I love having an opportunity to qualify especially when these BMWE Team RLL guys give me such a great car,” Joey Hand said on ESPN3.
“It’s a big weekend for us—my home track, I think Bill’s home track kind of; a lot of friends and family—I got my wife and kids here. My son always says, ‘Dad, make sure you stand on the loud pedal,’ and I didn’t want to let him down today.”
Marcelli, Bleekemolen Top Challenge Classes
Kyle Marcelli in the #89 Intersport, fresh off a third-in-class at Silverstone, took the pole in LMPC.
Marcelli bested the time of Gunnar Jeannette in the #6 Core car on his first flying lap, starting the contest.
Jeannette went back out, determined to improve his time, but went off in a major way on the downhill entrance to Turn Six. Jeannette barely slowed as he crossed the dirt and gravel to retake the track on the turn’s uphill exit, but he lost the lap.
Both Jeannette and Marcelli kept lapping trying to better their times, until the session was cut short when Anthony Nicolosi’s #18 Performance Tech machine stalled on the side of the track bringing out the red flag.
Kyle Marcelli was surprised to find he had won the class pole. “Our radio communication wasn’t that good,” he said. “I came into the pits and I thought I was sitting second so, I’m very happy.”
“It was a great session—we couldn’t ask for a better position,” he continued. “I think the key thing is just unloading with a quick car.
“We’ve had so many red flags this weekend it’s important to have a good car. You don’t have a whole lot of time to really adjust anything if you don’t have a good car. So hats off to the team—we’ve done a great job.”
Jeroen Bleekemolen in the #54 Black Swan Porsche earned himself yet another pole in the GTC class, besting Damien Falkner in the #34 Green Hornet/Black Swan car by three-tenths of a second.
“We were struggling a lot in practic ,” Jeroen Bleekemolen told ESPN3. “The guys did a really good job of fixing the car for the qualifying in the last practice the car wasn’t that good, but finally we went out and the car was really good.
“Now we are looking forward to tomorrow, because the car is very strong and I think we have a good chance to do well tomorrow.”
