Hand Tops Road America TUDOR Qualifying

Joey Hand taking the overall pole position at Road America. [Photo by Jack Webster]

The skies finally cleared (at least somewhat, as it was still somewhat cloudy but thankfully the rain had stopped) at Road America Saturday for qualifying for the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship race.

Qualifying on the pole overall was the Riley DP Ford EcoBoost driven by Joey Hand, who put in a stellar performance. He was quite happy about it. As Joey said: “It’s my first pole in the TUDOR Championship and first pole with Chip Ganassi and the first one for our team this year. I’m super excited to be a part of this team and be the guy that does something for them.”

LMPC pole sitter James French. [Photo by Jack Webster]

GTLM Pole winner Earl Bamber in the Porsche 911 RSR. [Photo by Jack Webster]

GTD pole winner Patrick Lindsey in the Porsche 911 GT America. [Photo by Jack Webster]

In the LMPC class, James French, driving the Oreca FLM09 Chevrolet for Performance Tech Motorsports snatched the pole position on his very last flyer before the checkered flag. From Sheyboygan, French is a local fan favorite and was cheered wildly as he took the checkered flag. He said: “The laps leading up to the final lap, everything felt good, but it wasn’t all quite there. I was pushing harder…I got to the final lap and they said this is your last chance…I put my head down and was able to get a good lap together.”

In the GTLM class the 2015 overall winner of Le Mans Earl Bamber put the Porsche 911 RSR on point. He said: “I think there is big momentum with Porsche. To get a win at Le Mans for the 17^th time was incredible. Then we come back here and immediately get some good results.”

In the GTD class Patrick Lindsey put the Park Place Motorsports Porsche 911GT America at the head of the GTD field. “I got my flyer in and then put my head down for a perfect lap. This is a really hard track to do that on, I was able string one together on my fourth flyer, and I knew that was it. I took one more lap and parked it and it was good enough to hold up for pole.”

Tomorrow’s race is a 2 hour and 40 minute affair, starting at 2:05pm. It is looking like the weather will be just about perfect, with partly cloudy skies and temperatures in the mid 80’s. And unlike the start of the weekend on Friday, it looks like there is only a slight chance of rain.

It is going to be a good race.

Eddie LePine & Jack Webster

Jack Webster has been shooting motorsports since the early 1970’s, covering Formula One, CanAm, F5000, TransAm, GrandAm and American Le Mans races, among others. In addition to his photography, he has also worked on racing teams, both in IMSA and IndyCar, so has a complete knowledge of the inner workings of motorsport. Both his photography and writing can be seen here on racingnation.com. Eddie LePine has been involved in motorsports for over 30 years as photographer, columnist, and driver. Eddie also is now a retired racer (well, retired unless a good ride pops up). You can usually find Eddie in the paddock area, deep in conversation with a driver.

racingnation.com

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