Scott Atherton, president of the International Motorsport Association, gave assurances on the grid that the Continental Sportscar Showcase at the scenic Road America circuit will be a classic and, two hours and 40 minutes later, he was proven right by some frantic fights at the top of the GT-LM ranks, as well as some late-race incidents to top it all. Not to mention yet another case of Mazda shooting themselves in the foot.
Though far from the pace of the LMP2s or LMP1s from half a decade ago, the Lola-based Mazda No. 55 of Jonathan Bomarito was fast enough around the 2.5-mile long road course located near Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, to snatch the pole. Under clear skies, Mazda’s finest set a scorching 1:54:507, over a second faster than anyone else in the Prototype class. Early on, the three Corvette DPs got involved in the fight for pole but, at the end of the 15-minute-long session, Christian Fittipaldi’s best time that put him second on the grid was a pedestrian 1:55:659. It wasn’t all plain sailing, though, as John Pew was back at it again going off in the No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Ligier which caused a short interruption with red flags being waved as the LMP2 car was rescued from the sand traps of Turn 3. Ricky Taylor was third at the end of it all, just 34 thousandths of a second behind Fittipaldi.
With identical cars in the Prototype Category, it’s always very hard to pick a pole sitter and this time in Wisconsin it was no different, with local James French taking a hotly-contested pole from under Jose Guttierez’s nose. His time, a 1:59:133, was slightly quicker than that of the No. 7 Starworks Racing driver who, in turn, beat Misha Goikhberg’s best effort of 1:59:462.
Porsche was on the prowl for some good results at Road America after a tough first half of the season. The North American works team was looking to rebound after managing to get IMSA’s approval to use the 2015-spec rubber, as opposed to the rest of the field that used medium compound Michelin rubber that’s also used by GTE cars in the FIA World Endurance Championship. Early on, Giancarlo Fisichella and Ford’s Dirk Mueller traded the coveted pole position between themselves in the 2:03 region before Patrick Pilet slotted ahead with a 2:02:912 in the No. 911 Porsche. The Frenchman was, by session’s end, only headed by Mueller who bounced back to set a pole time of 2:02:451. The two works Corvettes and the two BMWs sat rather dejected from sixth to ninth on the grid.
Viper, Lamborghini, Porsche and Audi all fought for pole in GT-D, the times dropping from over 2:10 to under 2:08 by the time Alex Riberas set the pole lap, a 2:07:520. This was quicker than both of Stevenson Motorsport’s Audis as well as the Lamborghinis, and the No. 33 Viper of Ben Keating.
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