 Detroit: Qualifying Report
Acura stole the thunder on and off the track Friday at Detroit's Belle Isle circuit. Hours after announcing its entry into the LMP1 category for next year, David Brabham put his No. 9 Patron Highcroft Racing Acura ARX-01b on the overall pole for Saturday's Detroit Sports Car Challenge presented by Bosch. Simon Pagenaud in the de Ferran Motorsports machine turned the second quickest time, making it an all-Acura front row.
Intermittent rain showers left teams with little to no dry track time around the 14-turn, 2.069-mile Belle Isle temporary circuit prior to qualifying. Adapting to the conditions proved costly for some, while others fell back on past track experience from last year. For Brabham and co-driver Scott Sharp, though, the duo was quick right out of the box, even in the wet practice sessions.
Brabham's lap time of 1:13.483 in qualifying was just shy of Ryan Briscoe's qualifying record set last year, a remarkable feat considering the conditions. Brabham said he found damp spots on the track during his run, which affected how far he took his LMP2 contender into the braking zones.
"We’ve been on a good run, and getting pole today keeps that momentum going," Brabham said. "There has been a lot of progress since then and I was confident coming in here that we had a fast car. I think some cars got caught out because the gap is larger through the field than it usually is. We’ve got a strong package, and our goal is to win the next three races and snatch the championship from Penske."
Brabham and Sharp are coming off their fourth class victory of the season and are now only 10 points behind Penske Racing's Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas in the drivers' standings. Wins in the final three races of the year, regardless of where Bernhard and Dumas finish, would award the title to the Highcroft duo.
The No. 66 de Ferran Motorsports Acura of Pagenaud and Gil de Ferran will start alongside in second, after the Frenchman's lap time of 1:13.660 set in the session. Guy Smith clocked the third quickest time in qualifying, the best of the Porsche RS Spyders. Smith's 1:14.209 lap time was 0.726 seconds slower than pole sitter Brabham, but Dyson Racing's best qualifying run of the season.
The No. 15 Lowe's Fernandez Acura of Adrian Fernandez was fourth, ahead of the Franck Montagny in the No. 26 Andretti Green Racing Acura in fifth. P2 championship leaders Bernhard and Dumas will line up sixth following suspected engine problems in qualifying. Its sister car of Patrick Long and Ryan Briscoe were seventh overall.
One team that struggled to come to grips of the Belle Isle circuit was Audi Sport North America. Despite having experience here last year, the team's two Audi R10 TDIs were unable to match the pace of the P2 cars, having to settle for eighth and ninth on the grid for Saturday. Lucas Luhr in the No. 2 entry edged Emanuele Pirro to claim the LMP1 class pole.
"It’s really tough here for us and we really didn’t have the best opportunity in qualifying," Luhr said. "I did the first laps around here in qualifying and didn’t take 100 percent of what the car has in it. It’s very tough for us here. The layout is not so bad here. What hurts us are the bumps because of our weight. We could have been a little closer but it’s an impressive gap to the Acura."
Luhr said the team was unable to fall back on its race setup from last year because of the number of changes the R10 TDIs has had over the course of the season. Aerodynamic improvements, as well as Michelin's new "street soft" tire have made the Audis better adapted to street circuits in general. But the lack of track time today in the dry cost them a chance to fine-tune the cars.
There's also work to be done in the Corvette Racing camp, which still managed to score a 1-2 in GT1 qualifying, but just barely. Jan Magnussen turned a 1:24.477 lap time, some three seconds slower than last year's pole time. The Dane and co-driver Johnny O'Connell elected to sit out the morning practice session and only recorded 13 laps in the second practice due to the rainy conditions.
"We’re still not as fast we were last year," Magnussen said. "We had five laps to do our best lap. We’re not as fast as we should be. For the GT2 cars to be within a half-second shows that we didn’t get the best out of our car and they got the best out of their cars."
The sister No. 4 Corvette of Oliver Gavin and Olivier Beretta were second quickest, followed by the No. 008 Bell Motorsports Aston Martin DBR9 in third.
The fight for the GT2 class pole turned out to be the most exciting moment of the day. Jamie Melo, Dirk Muller and Wolf Henzler all battled for the top spot throughout the 20-minute session, with Henzler in the No. 45 Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 RSR putting in a heroic effort to claim the pole position, his third of the season.
"The team found the right setup that was good enough for pole position," Henzler said. "I didn’t push too much and the tire pressure was a little low. The team called me in and I told them I could go quicker. I had two laps left and knew I had to push. I did two good laps and went quicker again. It was just enough to being on pole again."
Melo ended up second quickest in the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari F430 GT, followed by the No. 71 Tafel Racing Ferrari of Muller. The best times set by these three were all quicker than the No. 4 Corvette, and less than a second adrift from Magnussen's GT1 pole sitting entry.
Twenty-seven cars took time today, with the No. 11 Primetime Race Group Dodge Viper the only entry not to turn a hot lap. The team was reported to have suffered suspension problems in the final practice. Robertson Racing's Doran Ford GT-R brushed the wall in the afternoon session but made it out to qualify. The same was the case for the No. 20 Dyson Racing Porsche, which led during the morning practice but also hit the wall in the afternoon.
Warm-up is next on-tap, scheduled for 9:50 a.m. The 25-minute session will most likely prove crucial, as many teams are already behind the 8-ball with developing a dry race setup. Forecasts for tomorrow call for sunny skies, and no rain, thankfully. | 
