Fittipaldi wins Petit LeMans pole

Fittipaldi

Richard Prince for Chevy Racing

Christian Fittipaldi is in prime position for his first championship in 23 years, picking up the IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship TOTAL Pole Award Friday for the Petit Le Mans powered by Mazda at Road Atlanta.

Fittipaldi, who enters the event with co-driver Joao Barbosa leading the Prototype standings by 22 points in the No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP, posted the fastest time with a lap of 1:14.508 (122.725 mph), 0.289 seconds ahead of Ricky Taylor.

The 15-minute session was stopped twice, with the longest stemming from an incident involving the No. 9 Action Express Racing Corvette DP of Brian Frisselle and the No. 70 Mazda Prototype of Tristan Nunez.

“You have to react to situations and in this case experience helped," said Fittipaldi, who won the Formula 3000 title in 1991 before moving to Formula One, CART and NASCAR. “The track was not nearly as good as it was yesterday, so it was just a matter of pushing and getting two to three laps as fast as I could get, in case we went red again. It all worked out for us this time."

The TUDOR Championship’s GT Le Mans (GTLM) class proved once again to be one of the most competitive sports car classes in the world with Nick Tandy becoming the 11th different pole winner in 11 races this season in the No. 911 Porsche North America Porsche 911 RSR.

Tandy set the pace with a best lap time of 1:18.350 (116.707 mph) 0.337 seconds over ex-Formula One driver Giancarlo Fisichella in the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari F458 Italia.

“We really went aggressive on the set up knowing that we only had about 2 laps in which to hit the peak of the rear tires," said Tandy. “This is the best the car has been in qualifying trim all season long. I guess this makes 11 different pole winners this year in this class. I’m proud to be part of that – it shows how good this class is."

Bryan Sellers was third in the No. 17 Falken Tire Porsche 911 RSR, only a scant .020 seconds back of the Ferrari driver.

In GT Daytona (GTD), James Davison came out on top once again in the TRG-AMR Aston Martin Vantage, picking up his fourth consecutive TOTAL Pole Award. He progressively lowered his times throughout the session, finally pitting after setting the class’ best time of 1:22.254 (111.168 mph).

Said Davison: “This track has always been good to me, but the way the track was washed off made it very easy top overdrive. Hopefully we can get a good race result tomorrow to end the season well."

IndyCar veteran Jack Hawksworth topped the Prototype Challenge (PC) class charts with a lap 1:16.210 (119.984 mph) in RSR Racing’s No. 08 entry, beating teammate Bruno Junqueira by 0.261 seconds.

Tom Kimber-Smith rounded out the top three in the No. 25 8Star Motorsports entry.

The Petit Le Mans powered by Mazda goes green Saturday at 11:15 a.m. ET with a live stream available worldwide on IMSA.com. FOX network will have a two-hour telecast Sunday (check your local listings).

Results