Fogarty places BSR Chevy on Mid-Ohio pole

Fogarty by one-tenth over Taylor for Mid-Ohio season finale DP pole; Bremer on GT pole

With cool temperatures in Ohio, Jon Fogarty laid down a flying lap of 1:16.504 at a speed of 106.253 mph for a new Grand-Am Rolex Series record at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Fogarty grabbed the season's final Daytona Prototype pole by 0.101 seconds over Ricky Taylor. Third fastest was taken by Antonio Garcia to land Chevrolet the sweep of the podium.

It was Fogarty’s third pole of the season and he said, “We had to really push hard to get that time. I don’t know if two makes a streak, but maybe we can keep the streak going into next year. We have great weather here at Mid-Ohio – dry and cool. Normally it gets really hot in a Daytona Prototype, but in conditions like these, it’s really comfortable.”

Fogarty and co-driver Alex Gurney will aim to place the GAINSCO Bob Stallings Racing Chevrolet Riley on the top step of the podium tomorrow to close out the 2011 season. However, one of their yearlong rivals only needs to turn 30 minutes in the sprint endurance race on Saturday. Chip Ganassi Racing’s duo of Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas have a very nice cushion in the points standings in their BMW Riley; they will start from seventh on the grid.

SunTrust Racing’s Max Angelelli and Taylor are currently 20 points behind Pruett and Rojas. Taylor’s best qualifying lap was a 1:16.605 (106.113 mph) in their Chevrolet Dallara. The two will not give up the fight easily for the title, even if it is a long shot but nothing in motor sports is ever written in stone.

#57 Stevenson Motorsports Camaro GT.R: Robin Liddell, Ronnie Bremer

Photo by: Eric Gilbert

“I think one of the most important parts of the weekend just happened because qualifying here at Mid-Ohio is so super-important,” said Taylor. "As far as the driver championship, we have to try and win the race, as always, and see where that gets us. But one big goal we have is to try and lock down the engine manufacturer championship for Chevrolet. All we have to do there is finish ahead of the 01. All in all, it’s going to be another big day tomorrow.”

In the GT class, Ronnie Bremer landed his first career pole in the Stevenson Motorsports Camaro GT.R with his best lap of 1:25.092 (95.530 mph). Boris Said was second fastest in the Marsh Racing Corvette with Banner Racing’s Dan Herrington placing their Camaro third fastest to yet again give GM a sweep of the podium.