Klaus Graf brought Muscle Milk Pickett Racing back to the overall pole position for the American Le Mans Series' race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Mosport. The HPD driver was more than two seconds quicker than Chris Dyson in the Dyson Lola Mazda. The only hair-raising moment for the German came when he got loose entering the 150mph, downhill, Turn 2, and slid to the outside of the track surface.
“It was quite a scary moment, but believe me my eyes got big, as that's not the place you want to get on the outside!” Graf admitted. “At that speed, it's not a good idea at all. I had to recover a bit of it. Luckily I didn't hit the brakes, as if I did I would have spun. Then I had two really good laps and brought myself together.”
Graf co-drives with Lucas Luhr, Dyson with Guy Smith for tomorrow's two-hour, 45-minute race.
Martin Plowman secured his and Conquest Endurance's first pole positions in the ALMS in P2, Plowman edging usual class pace leader Christophe Bouchut of Level 5. It's the first time to Mosport for Plowman and co-driver David Heinemeier Hansson (ABOVE).
“This place we just rolled off the truck with a great car,” said Plowman. “We had a blistering practice lap (yesterday). We missed the balance a little bit. In qualifying, I can't explain. Sometimes it feels like you're not driving the car. The lap just felt out of this world. It doesn't happen very often.”
In the GT ranks, Corvette swept to a 1-2 result with Jan Magnussen on pole ahead of teammate Oliver Gavin. The two won the race at Mosport last year but are now split, with Magnussen driving with Antonio Garcia and Gavin with Tommy Milner. The Magnussen/Garcia car seeks its first win of 2012. Behind them Bill Auberlen (BMW Team RLL), who joked he “ran out of talent” at one stage in qualifying in running off course, Johannes van Overbeek (Extreme Speed Ferrari) and Joerg Bergmeister (Flying Lizard Porsche) completed the top five.
“We are a front row start with Corvette and we'll be racing for the championship, so we'll need to play nice
tomorrow for the start,” Magnussen said of the intra-team Corvette battle. “We'll go for the gaps that come up. We're teammates and we'll have to take what we see on the track.”
Colin Braun (CORE autosport, PC) and Damien Faulkner (Green Hornet Racing, GTC) took the Challenge class poles. Braun withstood a challenge from Merchant Services' Kyle Marcelli to hold on to PC class pole. Their session was interrupted by a late red flag to retrieve the spun car of Marino Franchitti - in for Butch Leitzinger at PR1/Mathiasen this weekend. Franchitti, perhaps surprisingly, was slowest of the six drivers in class.