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

Pos CPos No Class Drivers Time Speed Behind Make
1 1 5 P Barbosa/Fittipaldi/Bourdais 1:14.508 122.725 0.000 Corvette DP
2 2 10 P R.Taylor/J.Taylor/Angelelli 1:14.797 122.251 0.289 Corvette DP
3 3 90 P Westbrook/Valiante/Rockenfeller 1:14.920 122.050 0.412 Corvette DP
4 4 01 P Pruett/Rojas/Dixon 1:15.224 121.557 0.716 Ford EcoBoost/Riley
5 5 0 P Meyrick/Legge/Chaves 1:15.317 121.407 0.809 DeltaWing DWC13
6 6 60 P Negri Jr./Pew 1:15.346 121.360 0.838 Ford EcoBoost/Riley
7 7 31 P Curran/Said/Papis 1:16.052 120.234 1.544 Corvette DP
8 1 08 PC Hawksworth/Cumming/Mitchell 1:16.210 119.984 1.702 ORECA FLM09
9 2 09 PC Ende/Junqueira/Heinemeier Hansson 1:16.471 119.575 1.963 ORECA FLM09
10 3 25 PC Rayhall/Lux/Kimber-Smith 1:16.599 119.375 2.091 ORECA FLM09
11 4 54 PC Bennett/Braun/Gue 1:16.612 119.355 2.104 ORECA FLM09
12 5 52 PC Jeannette/Montecalvo 1:16.848 118.988 2.340 ORECA FLM09
13 6 87 PC Plowman/Drumwright/Drissi 1:17.082 118.627 2.574 ORECA FLM09
14 7 85 PC C.Miller/Simpson/Goikhberg 1:17.203 118.441 2.695 ORECA FLM09
15 8 88 PC Papadopoulos/Mowlem/D.Cheng 1:17.367 118.190 2.859 ORECA FLM09
16 9 38 PC Ostella/French/Mee 1:17.533 117.937 3.025 ORECA FLM09
17 1 911 GTLM Tandy/Bergmeister/Pilet/Christensen 1:18.350 116.707 3.842 Porsche 911 RSR
18 10 7 PC Fuentes/Jo.Martin/Merzon/Eversley 1:18.412 116.615 3.904 ORECA FLM09
19 2 62 GTLM Fisichella/Kaffer/Beretta 1:18.687 116.207 4.179 Ferrari F458 Italia
20 3 17 GTLM Henzler/Sellers/Holzer 1:18.707 116.178 4.199 Porsche 911 RSR
21 4 93 GTLM Bomarito/D.Farnbacher/R.Bell 1:18.804 116.035 4.296 Dodge Viper SRT
22 5 912 GTLM P.Long/Christensen/Bamber/Pilet 1:18.848 115.970 4.340 Porsche 911 RSR
23 6 3 GTLM Magnussen/Garcia/Briscoe 1:18.979 115.778 4.471 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R
24 8 70 P Tremblay/T.Long/Devlin 1:19.074 115.639 4.566 Mazda Prototype
25 7 56 GTLM Müller/J.Edwards/Werner 1:19.143 115.538 4.635 BMW Z4 GTE
26 8 91 GTLM Wittmer/Goossens/Hunter-Reay 1:19.146 115.533 4.638 Dodge Viper SRT
27 9 4 GTLM Gavin/Milner/Briscoe 1:19.256 115.373 4.748 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R
28 10 57 GTLM Krohn/Jonsson/Bertolini 1:19.621 114.844 5.113 Ferrari F458 GT
29 11 55 GTLM Auberlen/Priaulx/Hand 1:20.467 113.637 5.959 BMW Z4 GTE
30 11 8 PC Schultis/van der Zande/Popow/Jo.Marti 1:20.665 113.358 6.157 ORECA FLM09
31 1 007 GTD J.Davison/Nielsen/Block 1:22.254 111.168 7.746 Aston Martin V12 Vantage
32 2 58 GTD Ma.Snow/Heylen/Dempsey 1:22.395 110.978 7.887 Porsche 911 GT America
33 3 73 GTD Lindsey/Siedler/Estre/Skeen 1:22.471 110.875 7.963 Porsche 911 GT America
34 4 33 GTD J.Bleekemolen/Keating/S.Bleekemolen 1:22.579 110.730 8.071 Dodge Viper SRT
35 5 94 GTD Cameron/Palttala/Nygaard 1:22.682 110.592 8.174 BMW Z4
36 6 23 GTD James/M.Farnbacher/Riberas 1:22.776 110.467 8.268 Porsche 911 GT America
37 7 27 GTD Dempsey/A.Davis/Foster 1:23.121 110.008 8.613 Porsche 911 GT America
38 8 22 GTD MacNeil/Keen/Stanton 1:23.237 109.855 8.729 Porsche 911 GT America