Porsche and BMW may lead the championship, but Ferrari was out in force at GT qualifying for th American Le mans Series finale, Petit Le Mans.
Ferrari swept the top four spots with the Risi Ferraris of Jaime Melo, and Gianmaria Bruni finishing one–two, followed by the Extreme Speed Ferraris of Guy Cosmo and Johannes van Overbeek.
Performance like this is nothing new for the Risi team. Risi has been fastest in qualifying in six of the season’s ten races; Jaime Melo at three of them. (Gianni Bruni has a pair and driving partner Toni Vilander, one.)
Melo’s lap of 1:19.889 was .6 slower than his record-setting 2008 lap of 1:19.399, but still beat the nearest non-Ferrari by .433.
“This is a good start for success tomorrow. I’m really happy to be on pole,” Jaime Melo told Americanlemans.com. “We worked really hard on race set-up. We are looking for the championship, team, and manufacturer points, so to have the top 4 spots is really good for Ferrari.”
It was the extreme speed of Extreme Speed Motorsports that was surprising. Fifth in team points with no podiums, ESM surprised everyone by beating the Porsches and BMWs.
Guy Cosmo turned in a lap of 1:20.165, with Johannes van Overbeek just .02 behind. Perhaps Petit Le Mans will be the race where Extreme Speed starts living up to its potential.
Dirk Mueller took third in the #90 Rahal Letterman BMW, followed by the Corvettes of Jan Magnussen and Olivier Beretta.
Patrick Long, in the #45 Flying Lizard Porsche, managed only eighth. This Porsche is has a one-point over BMW in the team, and manufacturers’ points, and needs a strong finish. Long and co-driver Jorg Bergmeister are 22 points ahead of Giannmaria Bruni in the drivers’ contest, but with a win worth 30 at Petit Le Mans, they cannot afford to finish back in the pack.
Another surprise was David Murry putting the new Robertson Ford GT ninth, ahead on Bill Auberlen’s BMW. The new car, with its all-pro driver line-up was only .009 behind Long’s Porsche and only .89 off the pole. This car could create some excitement Saturday.
Ferrari swept the top four spots with the Risi Ferraris of Jaime Melo, and Gianmaria Bruni finishing one–two, followed by the Extreme Speed Ferraris of Guy Cosmo and Johannes van Overbeek.
Performance like this is nothing new for the Risi team. Risi has been fastest in qualifying in six of the season’s ten races; Jaime Melo at three of them. (Gianni Bruni has a pair and driving partner Toni Vilander, one.)
Melo’s lap of 1:19.889 was .6 slower than his record-setting 2008 lap of 1:19.399, but still beat the nearest non-Ferrari by .433.
“This is a good start for success tomorrow. I’m really happy to be on pole,” Jaime Melo told Americanlemans.com. “We worked really hard on race set-up. We are looking for the championship, team, and manufacturer points, so to have the top 4 spots is really good for Ferrari.”
It was the extreme speed of Extreme Speed Motorsports that was surprising. Fifth in team points with no podiums, ESM surprised everyone by beating the Porsches and BMWs.
Guy Cosmo turned in a lap of 1:20.165, with Johannes van Overbeek just .02 behind. Perhaps Petit Le Mans will be the race where Extreme Speed starts living up to its potential.
Dirk Mueller took third in the #90 Rahal Letterman BMW, followed by the Corvettes of Jan Magnussen and Olivier Beretta.
Patrick Long, in the #45 Flying Lizard Porsche, managed only eighth. This Porsche is has a one-point over BMW in the team, and manufacturers’ points, and needs a strong finish. Long and co-driver Jorg Bergmeister are 22 points ahead of Giannmaria Bruni in the drivers’ contest, but with a win worth 30 at Petit Le Mans, they cannot afford to finish back in the pack.
Another surprise was David Murry putting the new Robertson Ford GT ninth, ahead on Bill Auberlen’s BMW. The new car, with its all-pro driver line-up was only .009 behind Long’s Porsche and only .89 off the pole. This car could create some excitement Saturday.
Black Swan Continues GTC Domination
Jeroen Bleekmolen put the #54 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup on the GTC pole for the third time this season, with a lap of 1:25.141.
“It was a great qualifying for us. We need to do 70% tomorrow to be the class winners for the championship. It should be pretty exciting,” Bleekmolen said. “We thought if we start out front it will be more easy.”
Andy Lally brought the #63 TRG Porsche in .223 behind Bleekmolen, and .341 ahead of Andrew Davis in the #77 Magnus Racing Porsche.
The 13th annual running of the American Le Mans Series Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta starts at 11:20 a.m. EDT on Saturday, October 2. Tickets are available through the Road Atlanta tickets web page.
The race will be televised in the U.S. on SPEED-TV starting at 11 a.m.
