Given his turn to qualify the Spirit of Daytona Coyote-Chevrolet, Paul Edwards stepped up Friday and ran a lap of 1:44.984 (112.131mph) to capture the pole position for Saturday's Bosch Engineering 250 at Virginia International Raceway. It was the team's second consecutive Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series pole, with Antonio Garcia having led qualifying at Barber Motorsports Park.
"The team decided at the beginning of the year that they were going to treat us both as ‘A' drivers," said Edwards, who won his first career DP pole. "They said we were going to flip-flop through the year with who starts and who finishes. It's a good experience for both of us, gives us the full-rounded package of starting and finishing races."
Memo Rojas – who is seeking to give the No. 01 Telmex Riley-BMW co-driven by Scott Pruett its seventh consecutive victory – appeared to take the pole with a lap of 1:44.935. On his next lap, through, Rojas went wide in Turn 17 and came to a stop, bringing out a black flag. Under Grand-Am qualifying rules, drivers who cause a qualifying session to be stopped are penalized their fastest lap. As a result, the No. 01 will start sixth.
"I was a little concerned when I heard Memo had pipped me by half a tenth," Edwards said. "I was on a flier to better the pole, but then he had an incident and threw up some dirt. It will be nice starting on the pole, trying to get the 'bounty' award," alluding to the $25,000 "bounty" Grand-Am has posted for any team that can halt the Telmex/Ganassi winning streak.
Magnussen leads GT
Jan Magnussen won his second GT pole of the season, running a lap of 1:53.727 (103.511mph) in the No. 57 Stevenson Automotive Group Camaro co-driven by Robin Liddell. He will be joined on the front row by Boris Said, who went 1:54.380 (102.920) in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Chevrolet Corvette co-driven by Eric Curran.
The Bosch Engineering 250 will take the green flag at 3 p.m. ET Saturday. The race will be televised on SPEED, beginning at 5 p.m. ET Saturday.
| Pos |
Driver |
Car/Engine |
Time |
Delay |
| 1 |
P.Edwards/A.Garcia |
Coyote/Chevrolet |
1'44.984 |
- |
| 2 |
J.Fogarty/A.Gurney |
Riley/Chevrolet |
1'45.138 |
0.154 |
| 3 |
M.Angelelli/R.Taylor |
Dallara/Chevrolet |
1'45.348 |
0.364 |
| 4 |
D.Donohue/D.Law |
Riley/Porsche |
1'45.720 |
0.736 |
| 5 |
B.Frisselle/M.Wilkins |
Riley/BMW |
1'45.761 |
0.777 |
| 6 |
S.Pruett/M.Rojas |
Riley/BMW |
1'46.015 |
1.031 |
| 7 |
O.Negri/J.Pew |
Riley/Ford |
1'46.594 |
1.610 |
| 8 |
A.Popow/E.Potolicchio |
Riley/Ford |
1'48.200 |
3.216 |
| 9 |
R.Dalziel/M.Forest |
Riley/Ford |
1'48.838 |
3.854 |
| 10 |
J.Barbosa/T.Borcheller/J.France |
Riley/Porsche |
1'49.112 |
4.128 |
| 11 |
R.Liddell/J.Magnussen |
Chevrolet |
1'53.727 |
8.743 |
| 12 |
E.Curran/B.Said |
Chevrolet |
1'54.380 |
9.396 |
| 13 |
O.Gavin/G.Schaldach |
Chevrolet |
1'54.507 |
9.523 |
| 14 |
J.Bomarito/S.Tremblay |
Mazda |
1'54.881 |
9.897 |
| 15 |
A.Davis/L.Keen |
Porsche |
1'54.976 |
9.992 |
| 16 |
B.Lester/J.Taylor |
Chevrolet |
1'55.273 |
10.289 |
| 17 |
D.Cameron/J.Gue |
Mazda |
1'55.658 |
10.674 |
| 18 |
M.Gidley/W.Nonnamaker |
Mazda |
1'56.149 |
11.165 |
| 19 |
B.Auberlen/P.D.Lana |
BMW |
1'56.194 |
11.210 |
| 20 |
J.Potter/C.Stanton |
Porsche |
1'56.374 |
11.390 |
| 21 |
D.Herrington/B.Sandberg |
Mazda |
1'56.485 |
11.501 |
| 22 |
E.Assentato/J.Segal |
Mazda |
1'56.866 |
11.882 |
| 23 |
J.Nonnamaker/W.Nonnamaker/J.Sahlen |
Mazda |
1'58.313 |
13.329 |
| 24 |
P.Dempsey/J.Foster |
Mazda |
1'58.520 |
13.536 |
| 25 |
J.Nonnamaker/W.Nonnamaker/W.Nonnamaker |
Mazda |
1'59.260 |
14.276 |
| 26 |
S.Bertheau/S.Pumpelly |
Porsche |
2'02.018 |
17.034 |
| 27 |
B.Frisselle/H.Richard |
Dallara/Ford |
|
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