Pruett Captures First TOTAL Pole Award Of 2015 In Ford EcoBoost/Riley DP At Circuit Of The Americas

Knowing that his best chance in qualifying would be at the beginning at the 15-minute session, Scott Pruett clicked off two quick laps at Circuit of The Americas on Friday and then parked the No. 01 Ford EcoBoost/Riley DP.

His best lap of 1:58.441 (103.343 mph) stood up for the TOTAL Pole Award. It was the veteran Californian’s first pole since Long Beach in 2014, but the second consecutive award for Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates following co-driver Joey Hand’s pole at Road America.

Pruett is looking for his first victory in 2015 TUDOR United SportsCar Championship competition. He won at Circuit of The Americas in 2014, co-driving with Memo Rojas.

Surprise qualifier Ozz Negri was second with a lap of 1:59.066 (158.512 mph) in the No. 60 Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian AERO Ligier JS P2/Honda – a car usually qualified by co-driver John Pew. Negri was looking to give the team its first pole since the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona.

Christian Fittipaldi will start third after a lap of 1:59.008 (102.850 mph) in the Mustang Sampling Corvette DP he shares with Joao Barbosa. He will be joined on the second row by Jordan Taylor, 1:59.033 (102.829 mph) in the No. 10 Konica Minolta Corvette DP co-driven by his brother Ricky.

Cumming Holds Off McMurry For Second PC Pole

After seeing three potential TOTAL Pole Awards erased in the final minute, Chris Cumming’s time stood up in Prototype Challenge (PC) qualifying. Cumming ran a lap of 2:02.222 (100.146 mph) in the No. 11 RSR Racing AutoMaxUSA ORECA FLM09.

Cumming’s second pole of the season had its drama earlier in the day, when RSR Racing changed engines following the final practice session. Cumming also won the pole at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in early May.

Matt McMurry – on the eve of his 100th professional race – qualified second with a lap of 2:02.697 (99.758 mph) in the No. 85 Vroom.com/Red Line Oil/The Amazing Candle/Name Silo ORECA FLM09 co-driven by Mikhail Goikhberg.

James French – who ousted Cumming from the pole in three of the last four qualifying sessions on his final lap – came up short on Friday. He qualified third in the No. 38 Ric-Man Construction/GO-PUCK/Braille Batteries ORECA co-driven by Conor Daly with a lap of 2:03.586 (99.040 mph).

· Prototype points leader Michael Valiante qualified sixth in the No. 90 VisitFlorida.com Corvette DP. He and Richard Westbrook enter the race with a one-point lead over Fittipaldi and Barbosa, 248-247. Another point back in third is Eric Curran, who qualified fifth in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering/Team Fox Corvette DP co-driven by Dane Cameron.

· PC points leader Jon Bennett qualified fourth in the No. 54 Flex-Box Composite Resources entry. Bennett and co-driver Colin Braun enter the event leading PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports drivers Mike Guasch and Tom Kimber-Smith by five points – 253-248 – with Guasch qualifying sixth in the No. 52 Cuttwood entry.

· Defending Austin PC winner Sean Rayhall was left without a ride when the No. 88 Starworks Motorsport entry was withdrawn following an incident Friday morning practice. Rayhall landed the opportunity to co-drive with Alex Popow late on Wednesday, but the car was too badly damaged to repair at the circuit after Rayhall was collected by another competitor.

· Saturday’s activity begins with a 20-minute warm-up session at 9 a.m. ET. Live coverage of the Lone Star Le Mans begins at 12:30 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 2. The race will be rebroadcast Sunday on FS1 at 1:30 p.m. ET.

QUOTES:

Scott Pruett – Driver, No. 01 Ford EcoBoost/Riley

“This has been a tough season for us, without a doubt. We were close at Road America, but had a mechanical issue. It’s nice to unload and be fast. All the continual work the team has done overall, we’ve done updates. All those things together have put us first {in qualifying for the] last race and first here. Hopefully we can get a repeat victory here tomorrow. The nice thing is we’re coming into this race just focusing on winning. The last few years we were working on a championship, so it was about not making mistakes, and going fast, and staying out of traffic. If you get second or third, it doesn’t matter, now we’re going for the victory.”

Chris Cumming – Driver, No. 11 ORECA FLM09

“I was determined not to be beaten by thousandths of a second, which I had been a few times this year. I was in extra qualifying mode and it paid off today.”

Paul Gentilozzi – Owner, No. 11 ORECA FLM09

“It was a tense period after practice this morning. We found a small piece of thread from a fluid fitting in our oil pump. We don’t know if the engine was damaged, but in the heat of a championship battle you can’t take a risk. Even though we don’t practice engine changes at the track our guys are so good at it, we were able to change engines with plenty of time to spare before qualifying.”

Contact:

nsiebens@imsa.com

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