Good starting position for Porsche at the American Le Mans Series race in Lime Rock. At the sixth round of the race series featuring the world’s fastest sportscars, two RS Spyders start from the first row. Timo Bernhard (Germany) and Romain Dumas (France) secured pole position in the Penske Motorsports-entered RS Spyder with the starting number 7. Lining up alongside the championship front-runners for the race on Saturday are Chris Dyson (USA) and Guy Smith (Great Britain), who share driving duties at the wheel of the #20 RS Spyder run by Dyson Racing. This marks the best qualifying position in the American Le Mans Series for the Porsche-supported privateer team from the US.
Due to torrential rainfall the qualifying session on the 2.480 kilometre circuit in the US state of Connecticut had to be cancelled. Determining the grid line-up are the results from the first free practice on Friday morning, where Romain Dumas repeated last year’s success and turned the quickest lap of the field in the RS Spyder.
“We were well prepared and quickly found our pace with the car right from the start,” said Romain Dumas. “As this circuit is very short and narrow it’s difficult to overtake, so starting from pole is a huge advantage which we can hopefully make the most of in the race.”
In the second Penske Motorsports-run RS Spyder, title defender Sascha Maassen (Germany) and Ryan Briscoe (Australia) set the fifth fastest time. At the previous round in Salt Lake City, the duo celebrated an overall victory with their #6 RS Spyder. Andy Wallace (Great Britain) and Butch Leitzinger (USA) drove the ninth quickest time in their Dyson Racing RS Spyder with starting number 16.
As the best team in the GT2 class for modified production sportscars, Ralf Kelleners (Germany) and Tom Milner (USA) posted fourth in qualifying at the wheel of their Rahal Letterman Racing 911 GT3 RSR.
The race on Saturday takes off at 15.00 hours local time (21.00 hours CET) and runs over 2:45 hours.
Grid positions
1. Bernhard/Dumas (D/F), Porsche RS Spyder (LMP2), 46.659 minutes
2. Dyson/Smith (USA/GB), Porsche RS Spyder (LMP2), 0.517 behind
3. Brabham/Johansson (AUS/S), Acura ARX (LMP2), 1.140
4. Herta/Franchitti (USA/GB), Acura ARX (LMP2), 1.170
5. Maassen/Briscoe (D/AUS), Porsche RS Spyder (LMP2), 1.187
6. Fernandez/Diaz (MEX/MEX), Acura ARX (LMP2), 1.588
7. Capello/McNish (I/GB), Audi R10 (LMP1), 1.760
8. Pirro/Werner (I/D), Audi R10 (LMP1), 1.985
9. Wallace/Leitzinger (GB/USA), Porsche RS Spyder (LMP2), 3.202
10. Bach/Devlin (USA/GB), B07-46 Mazda (LMP2), 3.223