Hand gives Ganassi, Ford its first TUDOR Championship pole of 2015
Hand gave his Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Prototype team its first pole of 2015, with a fast lap of 1 minute, 56.452 seconds at Road America.
It was more than a half-second ahead of the next-fastest qualifier, Christian Fittipaldi in the Mustang Sampling Action Express Chevrolet Corvette DP.
Since the Ganassi car is the only Ford-powered Prototype in the field, this is Ford’s first pole for this season in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship.
Hand, who shares driving duties with IMSA legend Scott Pruett, said he was “super excited" to get the pole, especially since Road America is “a track I love."
“The car was pushing in practice," he said, but the Ganassi team worked on the handling “and really helped us find our way."
In GT Le Mans, Earl Bamber showed the sort of talent that made him an overall winner for Porsche at the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans.
His lap of 2:02.384 in the Porsche North America Porsche 911 RSR he shares with Patrick Pilet edged out Antonio Garcia’s best lap of 2:02.608 in the Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C7.R he shares with Jan Magnussen.
Third in GT Le Mans qualifying was Giancarlo Fisichella, who turned a lap of 2:02.721 in the Risi Ferrari F458 Italia he co-drives with Pierre Kaffer.
Bamber’s lap was about 1.4 seconds faster than the previous track record for the class.
“The car was really hooked up," said Bamber, who is making his first visit to Road America.
In the Prototype Challenge class, the cars all use an ORECA FLM09 chassis powered by a Chevrolet V8, so it comes down to driver talent and the team’s ability to tune the handling to win a pole, and in this case that was James French, who logged a late lap of 1:59.658, knocking Chris Cumming off the pole.
French is from nearby Sheboygan, Wis.
The GT Daytona class qualifying went down to the wire.
ViperExchange.com Dodge Viper SRT driver Ben Keating had the class pole, just as he did at Lime Rock, until a late charge by Patrick Lindsey’s Park Place Porsche 911 GT America beat his time.
Lindsey’s fastest lap was 2:09.370, with Keating clocking in at 2:09.488. Third in the GT Daytona class qualifying was Christina Nielsen, who ran a lap of 2:09.947 in the TRG-AMR Aston Martin she shares with 2014 GT Le Mans champ Kuno Wittmer.
“I knew I had to out my head down for one lap that was perfect," Lindsey said. And once he got it, “I knew that was all I could get out of the car."
Race day opens with a 20-minute TUDOR Championship warm-up at 10 a.m., followed by the second IMSA Lites race at 11:05 a.m. and the Porsche GT3 Cup USA at 12:15 p.m.
The Continental Tire Road Race Showcase, round nine of the TUDOR Championship, takes the green flag at 3:05 p.m. Live coverage on FOX Sports 1 begins at 3 p.m. IMSA.com and the IMSA mobile app will have live streaming, live timing and scoring, and IMSA Radio’s play-by-play.
Qualifying results for Sunday’s IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship Continental Tire Road Race Showcase at the 4.048-mile, 14-turn Road America circuit with starting position, car number (in parentheses), driver, car and speed in miles per hour.
1. (01) Joey Hand, Riley DP Ford EcoBoost, 125.140 mph
2. (5) Christian Fittipaldi, Corvette DP, 124.533
3. (90) Michael Valiante, Corvette DP, 124.370
4. (10) Ricky Taylor, Corvette DP, 124.090
5. (60) John Pew, Ligier JS P2 Honda HPD, 124.022
6. (0) Memo Rojas, DeltaWing DWC13 Elan, 123.775
7. (31) Eric Curran, Corvette DP, 123.572
8. y-(38) James French, Oreca FLM09 Chevrolet, 121.787
9. (11) Chris Cumming, Oreca FLM09 Chevrolet, 121.734
10. (85) Chris Miller, Oreca FLM09 Chevrolet, 120.687
11. (52) Mike Guasch, Oreca FLM09 Chevrolet, 120.135
12. (54) Jon Bennett, Oreca FLM09 Chevrolet, 119.717
13. (07) Tom Long, Mazda, 119.519
14. (8) Mirco Schultis, Oreca FLM09 Chevrolet, 119.373
15. (16) Matt McMurry, Oreca FLM09 Chevrolet, 119.298
16. x-(912) Earl Bamber, Porsche 911 RSR, 119.074
17. (3) Antonio Garcia, Chevrolet Corvette C7.R, 118.857
18. (62) Giancarlo Fisichella, Ferrari F458 Italia, 118.747
19. (24) John Edwards, BMW Z4 GTLM, 118.226
20. (4) Tommy Milner, Chevrolet Corvette C7.R, 117.818
21. (25) Bill Auberlen, BMW Z4 GTLM, 117.739
22. (17) Wolf Henzler, Porsche 911 RSR, 117.627
23. z-(73) Patrick Lindsey, Porsche 911 GT America, 112.644
24. (33) Ben Keating, Dodge Viper SRT, 112.542
25. (007) Christina Nielsen, Aston Martin V12 Vantage, 112.144
26. (48) Dion von Moltke, Audi R8 LMS, 111.991
27. (63) Bill Sweedler, Ferrari 458 Italia, 111.144
28. (23) Ian James, Porsche 911 GT America, 110.656
29. (22) Cooper MacNeil, Porsche 911 GT America, 110.537
30. (44) John Potter, Porsche 911 GT America, 110.387
31. (911) Patrick Pilet, Porsche 911 RSR, 110.144
32. (97) Michael Marsal, BMW Z4, 109.619
33. (76) Ray Mason, Audi R8 LMS, 108.034
x-GT Le Mans class pole
y-PC class pole
z-GT Daytona class pole