The brisk, bright sunny weather at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca turned into foggy and chilly overcast for qualifying of the American Le Mans Series, but this could have been part of the reason all four classes now have new qualifying records.
And, for the first time in ALMS history, all four pole drivers ran Michelin tyres. In the past, Michelin hasn't participated in the ALMS LMP2 class, except for an occasional foray, although it runs in the LMP2 class at Le Mans, and has won four of the last five Le Mans LMP2 class battles, and swept the LMP2 class this year.
Cheeky TOM CHILTON scored his first-ever ALMS pole Friday afternoon, in the #15 Zytek 04S with a 1min 14.185secs lap - on a track he saw for the first time Thursday. His Zytek Engineering team, which ran selected races this year, has earned three poles this year in as many tries. His team-mate is HAYANARI SHIMODA.
Chilton said: "We know the Zytek is fast, but it's a four-hour race and anything can happen. How I see it, I'm on the inside and just need to get a clean start. Not even JJ can pass somebody on the outside of a hairpin."
Lehto qualified sixth, behind LMP2 pole winner, the new Penske Panzer.
SASCHA MAASSEN kept the record for Penske Motorsports in its ALMS race. It has been fastest in every session so far, and he broke the existing LMP2 qualifying record in his first outing, with a lap of 1min 15.606secs.
He said: "I think the army that we have here is happy now. I can't wait for the race tomorrow. This still is my favourite track. Hopefully it won't rain. Michelin has a solution for that. Those are rain tyres. But for us, it means a different set-up, and we have not had the chance to work on that yet."
Penske's closest competitor so far this weekend has been the Intersport Racing Lola N05/40 with CLINT FIELD and American LIZ HALLIDAY driving. The two cars had a close call in pit-lane during qualifying, when Field slid at pit entry and didn't make the turn. Maassen was coming in behind, but was able to slide to a stop, narrowly averting a contact.
