Krohn Racing performance in qualifying for the Porsche 250 presented by Bradley Arant was a perfect match for the hot temperatures at Barber Motorsport Park, as 17-year old Colin Braun put the #76 Riley-Ford on pole position.
Braun posted a best lap of 1min 22.022secs in the 15-minute session to record the first 'real' pole of his Rolex Series career. The youngster previously recorded the fastest time during qualifying for the EMCO Gears Classic at Mid-Ohio last month, but the time was disallowed for a technical infraction and Braun started from the rear of the grid. This weekend, the teenager and current
Daytona Prototype points leader Jorg Bergmeister head into Sunday's race looking to bring the #76 machine its fourth-consecutive podium result.
"It feels great to not only get a pole for myself, but also for all of the guys at Krohn Racing," Braun said, "Hats off to my engineer, Steve Newey, because we've had some pretty good tests here and have learned quite a bit. There's a fantastic bunch of guys working on this team."
Patrick Long will start second in the #23 Ruby Tuesday Championship Racing Team Crawford-Porsche after lapping some four-tenths slower than Braun, the seventh time in the team's ten races this season that the #23 machine will start from the front row.
"Our qualifying run was pretty positive," Long said, "It was definitely more than we expected since we've been battling some problems all weekend, and this is a very tricky track, but our car seemed to handle pretty well during the session. It should be a barn-burner when the race comes around."
Jan Magnussen claimed third spot in the #10 SunTrust Riley-Pontiac, which won on the Rolex Series' last visit to Barber Motorsports Park.
“Things went very well, I think,” Magnussen smiled, “We got the best out of it that we could. On my best lap, according to the data, I was blocked by traffic. Second was within reach, but pole was a bit far away. We have to work harder, but I think we have a really good race car, as we have had in the past. I think it will be good for tomorrow.”
