Action Express Racing’s Fittipaldi Leads Front-Row Sweep

Christian Fittipaldi

Christian Fittipaldi left nothing on the table with a banzai run around the Raceway at Belle Isle Park in Detroit to take the pole position for Saturday's Chevrolet Sports Car Classic presented by the Metro Detroit Chevy Dealers.

Fittipaldi's lap of 1 minute, 24.746 seconds in the No. 5 Action Express Mustang Sampling Corvette DP was good enough for the track record.

Given the sponsorship, perhaps it's appropriate that the fastest three cars in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship were Chevrolet Corvette Daytona Prototypes. Fittipaldi was winded after the 15-minute session, during which all the drivers were on the ragged edge on a rough, very fast street course.

“I’m very happy and thankful for Action Express and Chevrolet," Fittipaldi said. “We are coming out of two difficult races, and we think we have figured it out. We’re looking forward to the race tomorrow."

In second – a very close second – was Ricky Taylor in the No. 10 Konica Minolta Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP. His best lap was 1:24.796, 50-thousandths of a second behind Fittipaldi.

“I said on the radio that I haven’t pushed that hard and been that close to the wall in a long time," Taylor said. “It’s going to be a tough fight tomorrow."

Third fastest was the No. 90 VisitFlorida.com Corvette DP of Michael Valiante with a best lap of 1:25.156. He was followed by Scott Pruett in the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Ford EcoBoost Riley, then Eric Curran in the No. 31 Action Express Corvette, a team car to the polesitter. Sixth was John Pew in the No. 60 Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian Honda Ligier.

Heavy rain drenched the track earlier in the day, but it was sunny and dry for qualifying. The forecast for Saturday does hold a possibility of rain at race time, and that concerns Fittipaldi. He made a lap in the rain, “and the car was all over the place, very difficult to control. For some reason, the track wasn’t draining like it should."

In GT Daytona (GTD), that rain nearly had disastrous consequences for Dion von Moltke, who crashed the No. 48 Paul Miller Racing Castrol Audi R8 LMS on a wet track in practice early Friday afternoon. The team not only got the car repaired in time for qualifying, but von Moltke put the Audi solidly on the pole with a lap of 1 minute, 33.546 seconds, the only car to qualify under 1 minute, 34 seconds.

Ben Keating was second in his No. 33 ViperExchange.com Dodge Viper SRT with a lap of 1:34.261, followed by Christina Nielsen in the No. 007 TRG-AMR Aston Martin V12 Vantage with a lap of 1:34.388.
“The guys did an amazing job," von Moltke said.

When the car came in from the track, he said he wasn’t even sure they could make Saturday’s race, much less qualifying.

“Hats off to everyone at Paul Miller Racing," he added.

The GTD qualifying session was shortened by about three minutes when Michael Marsal slapped a tire wall in his No. 97 Turner Motorsport BMW Z4. He was able to drive away, but the tire barrier required some work.

In Prototype Challenge (PC), this was the first trip here for the class under the TUDOR United SportsCar Challenge banner, as they weren’t part of the field last year. They adapted quickly – Chris Cumming was fastest throughout the session in the Paul Gentilozzi-owned No. 11 RSR AutoMaxUSA ORECA FLM09, but James French turned a Hail Mary last lap of 1 minute 29.317 seconds, four-thousandths of a second under Cumming’s 1:29.321. French drives the Performance Tech Ric-Man Detroit No. 38 entry.

In third was Mirco Schultis at 1:30.687 in the No. 8 Starworks Martini car. All six of the Prototype Challenge cars that qualified use the same ORECA chassis, with Chevrolet V8 power.

The Chevrolet Sports Car Classic presented by the Metro Detroit Chevy Dealers takes the green flag for 100 minutes of racing at 12:05 p.m. Follow all the action live on FOX Sports 2 beginning at noon ET, or worldwide on IMSA.com. The race will also be televised on FOX Sports 1 from 2-4 p.m.

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