Petit Le Mans – Practice & Qualifying Report

Neel Jani just prior to his pole qualifying effort at Petit Le Mans. [Photo by Jack Webster]

After a very wet and miserable day on Thursday, the weather improved drastically on Friday at Road Atlanta and the cars of the American Le Mans Series finally got the chance to stretch their legs and get in some quick lap times in qualifying for Petit Le Mans.

Neel Jani in the Rebellion Racing Lola B12/60 Toyota topped the charts in P1 qualifying, with Lucas Luhr in the Muscle Milk Honda HPD ARX-03c
second.

In the other ALMS classes, David Brabham was awarded pole position in the P2 class after Marino Franchitti, who had the best lap of the session spun, causing a red flag. Since he was the cause of the red flag, his best lap was disallowed, promoting Brabham to the top spot.

In the GT Class, Matteo Malucelli put the Risi Competizione Ferrari F458 Italia on the class pole and in GT Challenge, Spencer Pumpelly put his Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car on pole.

Finally, in the LMPC Class, Dane Cameron put the PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca FLM09 in the top spot.

Hopefully, the dry conditions of Friday will extend into Saturday’s race. Temperatures are forecasted to be cool, with a slight chance of afternoon showers.

Unlike the majority of the 2013 ALMS season to date, it looks like the Muscle Milk squad of Lucas Luhr, Klas Graf and third driver for Petit Le Mans Romain Dumas will have their work cut out for them in securing the overall victory in the final race of the American Le Mans Series. The Rebellion Racing Lola of pole sitter Neel Jani, along with teammates Nick Heidfeld and Nicolas Prost look to give Rebellion Racing back-to-back victories at Petit, having won the event in 2012 as well.

As Neel Jani said after qualifying, “It’s nice to be back racing in America, cause we have a fight again the Muscle Milk. In qualifying we have been quicker, but we have seen the race is just a different game. With GTCs and the safety cars, the visibility in our car is difficult, but that just means the race is that much closer.”

Of course, one driver who would like to deny Rebellion Racing back to back victories at Petit Le Mans is Lucas Luhr of Muscle Milk, who will be going for his record 50th and final American Le Mans Series win.

After Saturday’s 10 hours or 1000 miles, all questions will be answered and the record books will close on the American Le Mans Series.

Eddie LePine

Eddie 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).

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