ALMS – Dyson and BMW on pole at Lime Rock

After a break of almost two months due to 24 Hours of Le Mans, the American Le Mans Series returns to action this weekend on the Lime Rock circuit. Yesterday, qualifying gave rise to a little surprise, since pole went to Guy Smith, at the wheel of the Dyson Racing Lola B12/60-Mazda, although he has not been in good shape lately. Associated with Chris Dyson, the winner of the 24 2003 Hours of Le Mans, author of a 44, will attempt to climb, for the first time this season, to the highest step of the podium. But to do this it will be necessary to overcome the formidable HPD ARX 017a of Muscle Milk Racing of the Lucas Luhr-Klaus Graf pair. Suffice to say that the task promises to be complicated.

“It was neck and neck, and it was very entertaining, exclaims Smith, who gives Dyson his first pole this season. We have suffered somewhat this year. After Monterey (May 12. Editor’s note), Rob Dyson said we needed to get to work. We have worked a lot over the last few weeks, and tested, tested and tested again. Let’s hope that tomorrow marks a turning point for us”. Last year, starting from pole, the Dyson Racing Lola triumphed. Rob Dyson obviously hopes it will be the same this year.

Côté GT, c’est BMW et le Rahal Letterman Lanigan qui s’en est le mieux tiré, avec un Bill Auberlen qui boucle un tour en 50 »290, la veille de son 100e départ en American Le Mans Series. Mais Corvette et Porsche are not far away. “We were very strong in the first free practice session, and even better in the second, explains Auberlen. When the lights turned green, we managed to complete a quick lap. Then the red flag was waved (exit from the track Ferrari 458 of Extreme Speed ​​Motorsport), but fortunately, we had already signed our time.”

In LM P2, it was a Frenchman who stood out, in this case Christophe Bouchut (46”539), at the wheel of the Level 03 Motorsports HPD ARX 5b which he shares with Scott Tucker. The Franco-American duo will start third on the starting grid. “Our car was good, explains Bouchut. We took it step by step. I improved my time lap after lap, session after session. We're always looking for pole, but it's never easy. Even Scott's time (Tucker. Editor’s note) was incredible, since only five tenths lower than mine. So we know we have some great cars this weekend. There is no room for error here. If you make a mistake, you pay it in cash.”.

In LM PC and GTC, pole position respectively went to the Oreca 09 FLM Merchant Services Racing in the hands of Kyle Marcelli and the Alex Job Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup of Leh Keen.