Gil de Ferran earned his team's first American Le Mans Series pole position in only his third sportscar race at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on Friday - topping the timesheets in qualifying for the Acura Sports Car Challenge.
de Ferran set the fastest lap on his first two flying laps aboard the Panasonic-sponsored Acura ARX-01b he will share tomorrow with Frenchman Simon Pagenaud.
After four of his rivals took turns at the top of the timesheet, de Ferran had another assault on the top spot - setting the second fastest lap on his first run, then shaving three tenths of a second on his second lap to record a new qualifying lap record of 1 minute, 7.969 seconds - the only man to drop into the 1 minute 7 second bracket.
"I have great memories from this place and last time I was here I was on the pole as well," said de Ferran, who scored pole at the circuit during his CART Championship years in 2000 and 2001 - the last time he competed at the track.
"This is a fantastic achievement for us because we are such a young team - to score a pole position in only our third race is really unbelievable. Our guys did a great job and Acura gave us a great car straight off the bat - they have been going non stop on development.
"The car kept getting better as I kept pushing. I love qualifying, there is no consideration, its pure speed. You don't have to look after the brakes or the tyres, or the fuel, you just push it.
"We are going through turn 1 at full throttle at unbelievable speeds. I love it. This is so much fun."
"Gil did a fantastic job with that lap - it is really quite amazing what he did today. We certainly have a great car which has been well prepared by the whole team," added Pagenaud. "We have made some changes since Lime Rock and it certainly seems like we have gone in the right direction.
"I am really happy with the way things are going. Gil and I have very similar driving styles and our feedback is very similar. I like a little more oversteer than he does but we are pretty close - it makes things easier.
