Braselton, Georgia. Spencer Pumpelly, Bryan Sellers, and Andy Lally – all Porsche 911 race car specialists who live in the Atlanta area, were the stars of Petit Le Mans qualifying for the Porsche customer teams at Road Atlanta. Pumpelly, who drives for the GTC class Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 Cup team, put the car he shares with Nelson Canache, Jr. (Venezuela) and Madison Snow (Lehi, Utah), put his car on the pole position for tomorrow’s 10-hour race at Road Atlanta. Pumpelly and Canache, Jr. are in second place in the GTC season standings, and they have a mathematical chance for the title, but they need a victory tomorrow. “The competition is very tough. All the cars are equal. No one is sandbagging. Every time we get to the race track; qualifying, racing or even a wet practice, it’s a contest between us. That’s one of the things I enjoy the most about it. At the end of the day, when you can get the pole with such a good field, it really feels good,” said Pumpelly. Second in GTC qualifying was Jeroen Bleekemolen (Monaco), who leads the points with co-driver Cooper MacNeil (Hinsdale, Ill.) in the Alex Job Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cu., They only need to finish seventh or above to clinch the title. Andy Lally took the Dempsey Racing Porsche which he will share with Patrick Dempsey (Malibu, Calif.) and Joe Foster (Suwanee, Ga.) to third place on the grid. The Dempsey car is also headquartered in the Atlanta area. “I missed the peak of the tire, which was unfortunate, because I was in traffic in qualifying,” Bleekemolen said. “It was really unnecessary. There are only eight cars in the class and you shouldn’t have traffic in qualifying. We had the car to get the pole. I proved on the last lap when the tire had lost its peak that we were able to set a time good for second. I drove my heart out to get the pole, but didn’t get it. We just want to win the championship, but we want to win the race as well. The car is absolutely quick and strong. We have a strong team with Cooper and my brother, so we are looking good for the race,” he said. In GT, Bryan Sellers was the top Porsche 911 GT3 RSR qualifier in the Team Falken Tire entry he shares with Nick Tandy (GB) and Wolf Henzler (Germany). Sellers, who lives in Braselton right near Road Atlanta, qualified sixth. Weve been here all week working on the car, making sure we have a good solid car for the race. In qualifying we had a pretty good race car. Our times are all really close to the front-runners. We have a few tweaks we can make and, hopefully, going into the race well have something that will be fast for the long duration and give us a chance, said Sellers. Patrick Long (Playa del Rey, Calif.) qualified eighth in the CORE autosport Porsche 911 GT3 RSR in the car he is sharing with Michael Christensen (Denmark) and Colin Braun (Ovalo, Tex.), while Bryce Miller (Summit, NJ) was tenth in the Paul Miller Racing Porsche with co-drivers Emmanuel Collard (France) and Marco Holzer (Germany). “The time to establish a setup was limited by weather but most of the other teams were working with the same situation,” said Long. “We didn’t have huge hopes coming into qualifying. It’s the same situation as VIR; over a single lap we aren’t the fastest, but we feel the longer the race the better. Qualifying is really just about measuring your speed and trying to start as far forward as possible to avoid trouble. But realistically, in an endurance race after the first 10 minutes, nobody is going to remember qualifying. It’ll all be about how well the car handles over a complete stint. We’re focused on analyzing the data and understanding how the track will change between now and the race,” he said. The 2013 Petit Le Mans event will be carried live by a combination of Fox Sports 1 and Fox Sports 2, with a delayed summary on Fox Sports 2 on Sunday. Live Race Broadcast: FOX Sports 2 – Saturday, October 19 - 11 a.m. – 12 p.m. EDT FOX Sports 2 – Saturday, October 19 - 11 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. EDT FOX Sports 1 – Saturday, October 19 - 11 a.m. – 6:30 p.m. – 8 p.m. EDT FOX Sports 2 – Saturday, October 19 - 11 a.m. – 8 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. EDT Re-Air of Race Highlights Package FOX Sports 1 - Sunday, October 20, 2013 – 4:00 p.m. EDT Live Race Streaming: ALMS – Saturday, October 19, 2013 – 11:30 a.m. EDT Qualifying results (qualifying driver underlined) GT class 1. #62 Matteo Malucelli (Italy); Olivier Beretta (Monaco); Robin Liddell (GB); Ferrari F458 Italia – 1:18.861 2. #93 Jonathan Bomarito/Monterey, CA; Kuno Wittmer /Montreal, QC; Tommy Kendell (New Smyrna Beach, Fla.); SRT Motorsports Viper GTS-R – 1:18.888 3. #91 Mark Goossens/Geel, Belgium; Dominik Farnbacher/Ansbach, Germany; Ryan Dalziel (Orlando, Fla.); SRT Motorsports Viper GTS-R – 1:19.017 4. #3 Jan Magnussen / Roskilde, Denmark; Antonio Garcia/Barcelona, Spain; Jordan Taylor (Apopka, Fla.); Corvette C6 ZR1 – 1:19.128 5. #56 Dirk Müller/Tägerwilen, CH; Jonathan Edwards (Louisville, KY); Bill Auberlen (Redondo Beach, Calif.); BMW Z4 GTE – 1:19.228 6. #17 Wolf Henzler/Nürtingen, Germany/Bryan Sellers/Braselton, GA; Nick Tandy (GB); Team Falken Tire Porsche 911 GT3 RSR – 1:19.386 7. #4 Oliver Gavin/Northhamptonshire, England; Tommy Milner / Leesburg, VA; Richard Westbrook (GB); Chevrolet Corvette C6 ZR1 – 1:19.440 8. #06 Patrick Long/Playa del Rey, CA; Colin Braun/Ovalo; Michael Christensen (Denmark); CORE autosport Porsche 911 GT3 RSR – 1:19.947 9. #55 Joerg Mueller/Germany; Maxime Martin, Brussels, Belgium; Uwe Alzen (Germany), BMW Z4 GTE – 1:19.954 10. #48 Bryce Miller/Summit, NJ; Marco Holzer/Bobingen, Germany; Emmanuel Collard (France); Paul Miller Racing Porsche 911 GT3 RSR – 1:20.497 11. #23 Leh Keen/Charleston, SC/Bill Sweedler, Westport, Conn.; Johnny Mowlem (GB); Ferrari F458 Italia – 1:20.506 GTC – all Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars 1. #45 Nelson Canache Jr./Caracas, Venezuela; Spencer Pumpelly/Atlanta, GA; Madison Snow, Lehi, Utah); Flying Lizard Motorsports – 1:24.118 2. #22 Jeroen Bleekemolen/Monte Carlo, Monaco, Cooper MacNeil/Hindsdale, IL; Sebastiaan Bleekemolen (The Netherlands); Alex Job Racing – 1:1:24.433 3. #27 Patrick Dempsey/Malibu, CA; Andy Lally, Atlanta, GA; Joe Foster/Suwanee, Geo.); Dempsey Racing – 1:24.480 4. #11 Jan Heylen/Tampa, FL, Mike Hedlund/Woodside, CA, Jon Fogarty /Bend, Ore.); JDX Racing – 1:24.923 5. #66 Damien Faulkner/Mouille, Ireland, Ben Keating, Port Lavaca, TX; Craig Stanton/Long Beach, Calif.; TRG – 1:24.926 6. #31 Nicolas Armindo/France/Angel Andres Benitez (Venezuela); Christina Nielsen (Denmark); NGT Motorsports – 1:25.237 7. #10 Charles Putnum (Mills, Wyo.); Darren Law (Phoenix, Ariz.); Charles Espenlaub (Lutz, Fla.); Dempsey Racing – 1:25.368 8. #44 Seth Neiman/San Francisco, CA; Dion von Moltke/Coral Gables, FL; Brett Sandberg (Allendale, NJ); Flying Lizard Motorsports – 1:28.039
Posted on: Fri, 18 Oct 2013 21:17:26 +0000
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