Flying Lizard Audi on class pole for TUDOR Championship race

Flying Lizard Motorsports was able to take the pole and 5th place starting positions for today's two-hour TUDOR United SportsCar Championship race despite an interrupted qualifying session caused by a car stuck in the Turn 4 gravel. After only six minutes the red flag came out and the team returned to pit lane. The session did restart however and was extended by enough time to meet the minimum 10-minute time requirement dictated by the rules. In the short extension period both Flying Lizard Audi R8 LMS race cars were able to move up the order, with Spencer Pumpelly on pole in the Venezuela / eSilicon No. 45 car, which he will share with Nelson Canache Jr. and Dion von Moltke in 5th place in the PR Newswire / UBM Tech / eSilicon No. 35, which he will share with Seth Neiman.

"I am super proud of the Flying Lizard team," said Spencer Pumpelly, driver of the number 45 (shown above). "They have put a lot of work into getting the cars up to speed including our recent test here at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and it's their dedication that put us on pole. The car was set up perfectly for qualifying and I was on a knife edge the entire last lap. I really love racing here and getting our first pole for Audi at the team's home race really feels great."

"Our No. 35 PR Newswire / UBM Tech / eSilicon Flying Lizard Motorsport Audi R8 LMS was fantastic during qualifying," said driver Dion von Molkte, driver of the 35. "We worked really hard during the test we had here two weeks ago and our engineers Steve Conover and Thomas Blam found a sweet spot for this track with the car. I was a little worried after the red flag in qualifying as we might not have had enough laps to develop enough front tire temperature to get optimal grip for a quick lap, but after it went green again it worked out perfectly. Spencer turned a great lap to grab pole on his last lap too. I believe we have a good setup package for the race tomorrow and I know it will be vital for us to look after our rear tires throughout the race."

Flying Lizard