Klaus Graf grabbed the Muscle Milk Pickett Racing team's fifth consecutive pole position in American Le Mans Series qualifying at Virginia International Raceway. The team has not won though since Mid-Ohio at the beginning of August – having lost to Dyson at Road America and Baltimore in succession.
Graf's 1:35.434 in the HPD ARX-03a beat both Dyson Lola Mazdas, with Guy Smith and Chris Dyson each having the chance to qualify this weekend. The team's new Lola B12/66 Mazda coupe is premiering a “Flybrid” KERS hybrid system this weekend for Smith, Dyson and Johnny Mowlem; Dyson has also joined the restructured No. 20 lineup in the team's older car with Michael Marsal and new team driver Mark Patterson.
Needing a win and a bit of luck to regain its chance for the P2 class crown, Conquest Endurance's Martin Plowman took that class pole – his third of the season. Prior ones at Mosport (Canadian Tire Motorsport Park) and Road America ended in class wins for him and David Heinemeier Hansson in the team's Morgan Nissan.
Johannes van Overbeek secured Extreme Speed Motorsports' first GT class pole with its Ferrari F458 Italia. Van Overbeek led Dirk Mueller in one of the BMW Team RLL M3s, then the two Corvettes and two Flying Lizard Porsches. The top seven in class were separated by seven tenths of a second.
There's 11 GT cars entered with the SRT Vipers not in action this weekend. One car was being repaired from an accident in practice at Baltimore. Corvette's pairing of Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner can clinch the class championship if they leave VIR with a 25-point lead in class; they enter with a 28-point lead over teammates Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia.
Colin Braun took the PC class pole for CORE autosport. Braun and CORE team principal Jon Bennett have an outside shot at the class driver's championship, but would need help from the team's sister car driven by Alex Popow and Tom Kimber-Smith to either not finish or finish down the charts in class to maintain a shot at Petit Le Mans. CORE has already clinched the team's championship. Braun edged Kyle Marcelli (Merchant Services Racing) by all of .001 of a second.
Damien Faulkner scored another GTC class pole for Green Hornet Racing, ahead of Jeroen Bleekemolen by 0.37 of a second. Bleekemolen is racing for his fourth different team in GTC this season, NGT Motorsport, and has won the three prior races with three other teams.