Olivier Pla Powers New Krohn Racing Ligier To TOTAL Pole Award In Qualifying For Twelve Hours Of Seb

Olivier Pla translated his domination of pre-event practice to his first TOTAL Pole Award, leading qualifying for Saturday’s 63rd Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida.

The French driver ran a lap of one minute, 51.152 seconds (121.131 mph) on the challenging 3.74-mile Sebring International Raceway circuit in the No. 57 Krohn Racing Ligier JS P2/Judd, earning the first TUDOR United SportsCar Challenge pole. The race is the second round of the Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup, which opened with January’s Rolex 24 At Daytona and will continue with the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen in June and Petit Le Mans powered by Mazda at Road Atlanta in October.

“I knew we have a very good package and a strong car,” said Pla, who led three of the four practice sessions for the event. “It’s always nice to start on pole, especially the pole at Sebring. Of course, 12 hours is a different story. I have done this race three times, and it was never easy. This is a very demanding track and we need to be very clever with our strategy.”

Team owner Tracy W. Krohn has been with the Ligier project “since it was just on a piece of paper,” and is very happy with his new car.

“[Ligier builder] Onroak Automotive did a great job delivering the car on time and on budget,” Krohn said. “I felt good early in the week when Olivier said, ‘The car is good.’ Our thought process this year is to race this car over in Europe in the ELMS. But if we win here and get points for the Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup, that could change the thought process. This is a very competitive series, with great drivers and fantastic tracks. I don’t remember when we won our last pole – it’s been a long time.”

Ryan Dalziel will start from the outside of the front row after running 1:51.455 (120.802 mph) in the No. 1 Tequila Patrón ESM Honda HPD co-driven by Scott Sharp and David Heinemeier Hansson.

Defending TUDOR Championship Prototype titlist Joao Barbosa was third fastest in the No. 5 Action Express Racing Mustang Sampling Corvette DP, running 1:52.128 (120.077 mph). He will co-drive with Christian Fittipaldi and Sebastien Bourdais. Ozz Negri – TOTAL Pole Award winner at the Rolex 24 – timed in fourth fastest, 1:52.170 (120.032 mph) in the No. 60 Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian Tire Kingdom Service Centers Ligier JS P2/Honda co-driven by John Pew and Justin Wilson.

Media Contact:

Nate Siebens

nsiebens@imsa.com

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