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Luhr Breaks Qualifying Record To Win ALMS Road America Pole

Elkhart Lake, WI (August 8, 2008) – Road America is a track drivers love to drive on, speed, fun, the best, are some of the adjectives mentioned by many experienced drivers who have raced extensively in North America and Europe. One of those drivers is Germany’s Lucas Luhr who broke the track record in the P1 (prototype) class Audi R10 TDI #2 turbo diesel for Saturday’s Generac 500 American Le Mans Series race. Luhr won his fourth career pole at Road America with a time of 1:46.935 (136.277 mph) which gave him a 0.41-second margin over Andretti Green Racing’s Franck Montagny who’ll share the front row with Luhr.

Luhr posted his fast lap with about 30 seconds left in qualifying session loves the four-mile picturesque track, “This is one of the best tracks in Mnorth America. It’s fun coming here ” Luhr spoke about his run for the pole however reamined focused on tomorrows four hour race, “A pole is always nice. And achieving a small record makes it of course even sweeter. Personally, I don’t care too much about this, I always want to be as far in front as possible. We’ve done that. The car was good. I made a small mistake on my quickest lap, it would have probably been possible to be one or two tenths faster. But nevertheless I am happy and satisfied. We even do not have to do much more for the race because we already have a good race set-up too.” When asked what was the difference between this year and on his time being 0.73 seconds faster than Allan McNish’s qualifying record from last year of 1:47.665 (135.353 mph). Luhr jokingly pointed to himself. He added, “I should have backed off a bit,” Luhr cracked. “I’ll make sure Nishy gets a note that I broke his record. I think this is one of the best race tracks in America and I really like it. It’s just good fun to come here.”

Luhr will be teaming with Marco Werner in the #2 Audi who feels good about their chances tomorrow, “Congratulations to our record man! Lucas (Luhr) has done a good job: pole position with a great time. I think it looks good also for the race. It will certainly be a difficult race as it is four-hours long. We are in a good shape starting from pole position, even if this is not so important in such a long race. It is critical that we are consistently fast in the race. And we should be.”

Many railbirds were surprised by the strenghth of the P2 class #26 Andretti-Green Racing XM Radio Acura ARX-01b. Driver, Franck Montagny won his first Series (P2) pole position. Montagny will be making his third start with his third different teammate – James Rossiter tomorrow. The Frenchman’s time of 1:47.345 (135.757 mph) vanquished the record of the Porsche RS Spyder of Romain Dumas’ class record from last year by 1.488 seconds as well as the P1 record of McNish.

The 20-minute qualifying session was clean with the exception of Marino Franchitti, who went off course at turn 14 and bogged down in the sand trap. The P2 Dyson Racing #20 Porsche RS Spyder will start the race tenth.

Oliver Gavin earned his 17th career GT1 Series pole position and his third at Road America with a lap of 2:01.235 in the Corvette C6.R that he will drive with Olivier Beretta. The Englishman was 0.641 seconds quicker than ex-F-1 pilot, Jan Magnussen who drives the sister ‘Vette. The duo was a comfortable three seconds quicker than Bell Motorsports’ Aston Martin DBR9.

“We’re pleased for the four-hour race tomorrow,” Gavin said. “The track is quick, it’s challenging and its fun. It’s a real proper circuit. It hasn’t been sliced up and cut up like other tracks. But this is definitely a good place. It’s been one of the years where nothing has gone right for us. Even with everything that happened at Mid-Ohio we couldn’t break through. We’ll have to wait and see. We will keep pushing and keep trying.”

The Corvette team looks at this race as a near perfect test for their ultimate goal: LeMans. Gavin said there were adjustments and developments targeted for next year’s 24 race, where Corvette has won the classic five times in class since 2000.

“There will be some other developments but this is the best place in the US to develop those kinds of simulations,” Gavin said. “We want to be as strong as possible there for 2009.”

Tafel Racing’s Ferrari F430 GT driven by Dirk Mueller won his first GT2 Series pole position in seven years. His lap of 2:06.083 was 1.108 seconds under Jamie Melo’s previous class record from 2007. The top four in GT2 were under last year’s pole time.

“We knew from this morning that it would be close,” said Mueller, who has won three times this year with teammate Dominik Farnbacher, including two weeks ago at Mid-Ohio. “The Porsches gained a lot between the last practice session and qualifying. We were out for a three-lap run. I came in after two laps and was really impressed. We don’t have a qualifying setup and were focusing on the race tomorrow.”

The Generac 500 at Road America presented by Time Warner Cable is scheduled for Saturday, August 9 from Elkhart Lake, Wis. The four-hour race will start at 4 p.m. CT with SPEED televising the race starting at 2 p.m. ET on Sunday,

Generac 500 presented by Time Warner Cable
Road America, Elkhart Lake, Wis.
Friday’s qualifying

1. Marco Werner, Germany; Lucas Luhr, Germany; Audi AG R10/TDI (P1), 1:46.935, 136.28
2. Franck Montagny, Brignoles France; James Rossiter, England; Acura ARX-01B (P2), 1:47.345, 135.76
3. Marcel F

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