Plowman Gives BAR1 Motorsports Second Consecutive PC Pole With Last-Lap Charge

Martin Plowman gave BAR1 Motorsports its second consecutive Prototype Challenge (PC) TOTAL Pole Award in dramatic fashion, once again at the expense of Colin Braun. The British driver ran a lap of 1:55.257 (116.817 mph) in the closing minutes to lead qualifying in the No. 16 Southwest Reality Advisors/Autosport Design Inc./Top 1 Oil ORECA FLM09 co-driven by Marc Drumwright, Tomy Drissi and David Cheng.

Johnny Mowlem put the No. 16 car on the pole for the Rolex 24, knocking Braun from the pole with a final lap flyer.

“It was a very difficult session,” said Plowman, who learned he would drive at Sebring only nine days ago. “The cars are very difficult to drive. I told the team as long as they give me a fast car, I’ll hustle it around and I’ll get a good result. This is a very competitive class. Any time you can beat Colin Braun and the CORE autosport car, you know you’re having a good day. Today when the car was at its peak, I hit every apex and the time appeared out of nowhere”

Braun will start second after running 1:55.327 (116.746 mph) in the defending race-winning No. 54 CORE autosport Flex-Box/Composite Resources entry co-driven by Jon Bennett and James Gue.

Tom Kimber-Smith qualified third with a lap of 1:55.416 (116.656 mph) in the Daytona-winning No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Cuttwood/Spyder ORECA co-driven by Mike Guasch and Andrew Palmer.

The surprise of the session was Connor Daly. The son of two-time Sebring winner Derek Daly placed fourth with a lap of 1:55.748 (116.322 mph) in his first appearance in the No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports Ric Man Construction/GO-PUCK ORECA co-driven by Jerome Mee and James French.

“You can tell how competitive this class is,” Daly said. “It’s certainly close. We’re about four-tenths from pole and we’re fourth. It’s good to be close; we just missed it by a bit. It was just nice to see where we stacked up. Now we just focus on the race.”

Fans can follow the action in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida flag to flag. Coverage begins on FOX Sports 1 from 10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m., before moving to FOX Sports 2 from 12:30 -7 p.m., IMSA.com from 7-10 p.m., and finishing on FOX Sports 2 from 10-11 p.m. A two-hour special highlights show will be aired on FOX Sports 1 on Sunday, March 22, from 8-10 a.m.

Media Contact:

Nate Siebens

nsiebens@imsa.com

#sebring #12hoursofsebring