Ryan Dalziel takes TUDOR Championship Prototype pole on last lap

Ryan Dalziel waited until his final lap in Saturday’s TUDOR United SportsCar Championship qualifying session to capture the TOTAL Pole Award for Sunday’s Continental Tire Road Race Showcase at Road America. 

Dalziel ran a lap of one minute, 55.166 seconds (126.537 mph) in the No. 1 Extreme Speed Motorsports Tequila Patrón HPD ARX-03b/Honda co-driven by Scott Sharp to capture his second consecutive Prototype (P) pole position – becoming the first two-time TOTAL Pole Award winner in the class.

The race, Round 10 of the TUDOR Championship, takes the green flag at 1:15 p.m. CT (FOX Sports 1, same day delay, 6:30 p.m. ET). 

“I knew from my first lap that the car was going to be fast,” Dalziel said. “But much like (the Brickyard Grand Prix at) Indy, it was shocking to win the pole. To be honest, I’d be happy with second, but when I saw the predictor on my last lap I saw it was a pole at that point. There were things on that last lap I don’t ever want to do again.”

Indianapolis race winner Christian Fittipaldi qualified second in the No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP co-driven by Joao Barbosa, 1:55.961 (125.670 mph).  He was followed by Olivier Pla, running a lap of 1:56.019 (125.607 mph) in the No. 42 OAK Racing Morgan/Nissan co-driven by Gustavo Yacaman. 

Fittipaldi and Barbosa enter the race leading brothers Ricky and Jordan Taylor by two points (249-247) in the Prototype standings. Ricky Taylor was the fourth-fastest qualifier with a lap of 1:56.175 (125.438 mph) in the No. 10 Konica Minolta Corvette DP.

Richard Westbrook originally qualified second with a lap of 1:55.487 (126.186 mph) in the No. 90 VisitFlorida.com Corvette DP co-driven by Michael Valiante, but the car failed the stall test in post-qualifying inspection and will start the race from the rear of the field.

Edwards takes second pole of the day

There’s something about qualifying at Road America that suits John Edwards. One day after scoring the pole for the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge event, Edwards returned to the top of the charts driving the No. 56 BMW Team RLL BMW Z4 GTE to the fastest time in TUDOR United SportsCar Championship GT Le Mans (GTLM) class. 

Edwards lapped the 4.048-mile, 14-turn road course in two minutes, 3.747 seconds (117.763 mph) for his first TUDOR Championship pole of the season, beating Jonathan Bomarito by a mere 0.066 seconds in the No. 93 SRT Motorsports Dodge Viper GTS-R co-driven by Kuno Wittmer at 2:03.813 (117.700 mph).

“It obviously doesn’t guarantee success, but it feels pretty good to have two poles in a weekend,” said Edwards, who led early, but finished third in a BMW M3 co-driven by series points leader Trent Hindman in the Continental Tire Challenge event. “It’s the first time I’ve done that, that’s a pretty cool feeling. The tires were coming in better and better each lap and everyone was cycling through. I came across in P1 and then kind of dropped back to second, third, fourth, then came around to P1 again.” 

SRT Motorsports qualified second and third in GTLM with Marc Goossens driving the No. 91 Dodge Viper GTS-R to third with a lap of 2:03.930 (117.589 mph). The impressive qualifying effort for Dodge Viper SRT should come as no surprise after winning at Indianapolis Motor Speedway one race ago with Bomarito and Wittmer, and winning the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón event at Road America one year ago with Goossens and co-driver Dominik Farnbacher. 

GTLM points leaders Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen qualified eighth in the No. 3 Corvette Racing Corvette C7.R. The duo enters Road America with a 13-point lead, 219-206, over Bomarito and Wittmer.

Junqueira leads Prototype Challenge

In the Prototype Challenge (PC) class, Bruno Junqueira, no stranger to success at Road America, was the fastest qualifier and earned his third pole position of the season. 

Junqueira turned a best lap of 1:59.411 (122.039 mph) in the No. 09 RSR Racing ORECA FLM09 he shares with Duncan Ende. 

It was the third pole of the season for Junquiera, who has pole position and race wins in both IndyCar and the ALMS on his Road America resume. 

“I love Road America, it’s my favorite track,” he said. “You need to believe in yourself and that your cars can make the corners at high speeds. You need to always be on the limit.”

Davison earns GTD pole

James Davison earned his first career TUDOR United SportsCar Championship pole position Saturday in GT Daytona (GTD) TOTAL Pole Award qualifying for the Continental Tire Road Race Showcase. It took only two laps for Davison to set the fastest time in the 15-minute session with a lap of 2:09.079 (112.898 mph) in the No. 007 CarryOn.com/The B+ Foundation Aston Martin V12 Vantage for TRG-AMR. Dane Cameron made a run at the top spot with a few minutes remaining, but fell 0.214 seconds short in the No. 94 Turner Motorsport BMW Z4 co-driven by Markus Palttala, 2:09.293 (112.711 mph). 

“We nailed the lap on lap one,” said Davison. “Strategy came into that a little bit. We sat in the pits and got a clear track. We built up the tire temperature to capitalize the peak of the tire on lap one. I just really hit my marks. No one else really had a chance to get us back there.” 

Jeroen Bleekemolen rounded out the top three with a lap of 2:09.345 (112.666 mph) in the No. 33 ViperExchange.com SRT Viper GT3-R which won two races ago at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park with Bleekemolen and co-driver Ben Keating.

IMSA