It was an all-out brawl in ALMS Prototype Challenge (PC) qualifying today with CORE autosport emerging with the second and fifth starting spots for the six-hour American Le Mans Series Monterey Presented by Patrón at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.
After standing atop the charts for today’s two practice sessions with a fast time of 1:19.376 around the 2.238-mile, 11-turn track, #06 Soloson Import ORECA FLM09 driver Tom Kimber-Smith quickly set a fast time in the incident-shortened qualifying, but the competition also rose to the occasion. In the 13-minute session (versus scheduled 15 minutes), the two-time Le Mans winner was able to set a best time of 1:18.092, a mere 0.2 seconds off of the PC-class pole position time. Kimber-Smith, along with lead #06 driver Alex Popow, will line up second in the PC class, seventh overall.
This is Kimber-Smith’s first visit to Mazda Raceway and his first pairing with PC championship leader Popow. Popow has co-driven the #06 to victories in the first two American Le Mans Series (ALMS) events of 2012, the 12 Hours of Sebring in March and the street race at Long Beach in April.
The sister #05 Composite Resources machine also got faster as the day went on. Qualifying duties were given to Colin Braun, who was able to set a fast time of 1:18.423, good for a fifth place starting spot (10th overall). Braun is partnered with CORE autosport founder and owner Jon Bennett, who has seen his small Rock Hill, SC-based team emerge as a powerful force in ALMS competition since the team’s entry in the series in 2011, when it won both driver and team PC championships.
The cost-contained ALMS PC class, with a combination of standardized engines, chassis and tires, as well as requiring a combination of amateur and professional co-drivers, has proven to be very popular among drivers and fans, and boasts close competition and increased field sizes. The first eight PC class cars qualified within 0.9 seconds of each other, each driver fighting to shave a tenth of a second around the challenging course.
Source : CORE autosport