CORE autosport Sebring qualifying report

CORE autosport qualify 2nd and 5th for 12 Hours of Sebring

SEBRING, FL, Friday, March 16, 2012: It was a combination of speed, anticipation and frustration for CORE autosport in today’s American Le Mans Series (ALMS) qualifying session for tomorrow’s 60th Annual Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh from Florida.

#06 CORE Autosport Oreca FLM09: Alex Popow, EJ Viso, Burt Frisselle

Photo by: Eric Gilbert

E.J. Viso, driving the #06 Soloson Import ORECA FLM09 qualified second (22nd overall) in the Le Mans Prototype Challenge (LMPC) class with a fast lap of the 17-turn, 3.74-mile Sebring International Raceway of 1:54.555 – a mere four hundredths of a second off of the pole position.

Colin Braun, in the sister #05 Composite Resources machine took the fifth spot (26th overall) with a lap of 1:55.208. The session, which was slated to last 15 minutes, was shortened to a mere 10 minutes due to an accident by another car that caused a red-flag condition. Prior to the red flag being thrown, Braun was consistently listed in the first spot on all of his qualifying laps, and was slated to claim it again before the interruption.

The ALMS LMPC class is one of the most hotly contested for this event, with all nine class entrants qualifying within a 1.3-second range (out of 64 total cars in nine classes – five in ALMS and four in the visiting World Endurance Challenge).

Tomorrow’s 12-hour event will be one of the toughest for the second-year CORE autosport organization. The team, led by Team Manager Morgan Brady, is prepared to battle for the top spot on the LMPC podium after claiming second and third in 2011.

Co-driving the #06 machine with IZOD IndyCar Series star Viso is lead driver Alex Popow and sportscar stalwart Burt Frisselle. In the #05 with motorsports phenom Braun is CORE autosport founder / owner Jon Bennett and 2011 ALMS “Rookie of the Year” and LMPC driver co-champion Eric Lux.