David Brabham took the Highcroft HPD to a stunning American Le Mans Series pole position in very wet conditions at Lime Rock.
Brabham was 2.5 seconds than the rest of the LMP1 field on their first flying laps, but CytoSport Porsche driver Klaus Graf kept closing in. Every time Graf got within sight -- even trimming the gap to 0.003sec at one stage -- Brabham managed to inch further ahead. Then as conditions improved very slightly in the final minutes, Brabham raised the bar with two laps in the low 58s -- 1.7sec quicker than Graf's pace at the time.
Graf got within 0.6sec and then made one last-ditch bid to depose the HPD, but had to abandon it after going straight on down the escape road at the first corner. Guy Smith (Dyson Lola-Mazda) had an equally tough battle with Drayson's Jonny Cocker to earn third.
Porsche had a one-two in a GT session interrupted by Guy Cosmo crashing the #02 Extreme Speed Ferrari. Patrick Long put the No. 45 Flying Lizard Porsche on class pole by 0.4sec over Wolf Henzler's Falken car, with the two Risi Ferraris third and fifth and the Corvettes fourth and sixth. The Rahal Letterman BMWs struggled though, and will start ninth and 13th in class.
Christophe Bouchut took LMPC pole for Level 5, while Jeroen Bleekemolen claimed his and Black Swan's third straight pole in a GTC class depleted by Alex Job cutting back from three cars to one for the rest of the year, with ex-LMP1 men Butch Leitzinger and Luis Diaz among the drivers sidelined.