Franck Montagny was the quickest Acura driver for Andretti Green Racing with the fourth-fastest time in P2. But Briscoe is smart enough to realise that qualifying positions mean little over the course of a 1,000-mile race.

"You have to be conservative and look after your equipment, but strategy will play a big role as well," he said. "It cools off at night and you have to look after that. Working only with Helio, we're going to have to stay fresh and get our meals in to share the duties. We'll have to focus on the really close championship between Porsche and Acura."

Johnny O'Connell captured his second GT1 pole at Road Atlanta in three years with a record-breaking run of 1min 16.542 (119.464 mph). The Corvette Racing driver beat team-mate Olivier Beretta by 0.047 seconds. O'Connell has three pole positions this season after entering 2008 with just two in the previous nine years. O'Connell also was on pole for the 2006 race and the 2005 spring event at Road Atlanta.

"I love this racetrack," he beamed. "Certainly with Corvette Racing we do some testing here. Michelin is great and it is my relationship with Panoz that first brought me to the area in 1999. Anytime you can out qualify Olivier, you've done a good job. One of the objectives is to qualify well, and I've stepped up my game."

O'Connell and Jan Magnussen have won seven races this season entering Petit Le Mans. They lead the class championship by 23 points and have not trailed in the title chase after they won at Sebring with Ron Fellows. The trio are back together again, hoping to help O'Connell and Magnussen end Beretta and Oliver Gavin's run of three straight class championships.

Jaime Melo earned his second straight Road Atlanta pole and third this season in GT2 for Risi Competizione and Ferrari. The Brazilian pilot turned a lap of 1min 19.399secs in the Ferrari F430 GT that he will drive with Mika Salo. It was enough for a 0.057sec advantage over Farnbacher Loles Racing's Dirk Werner and his Porsche 911 GT3 RSR.

"We found very good balance for the race," Melo said. "We are happy with the lap time. Porsche was very close as well. We were quite ahead of everyone yesterday. It's a 10-hour race. Qualifying is important but we think about the total race.

"We've been working really hard for this race. This is nice after a bad season. We have been preparing at Petit to make up for it."

Dirk Mueller qualified Tafel Racing's Ferrari third in class at 1min 19.795secs. He will drive with Dominik Farnbacher.