Mazda Captures Pole For ALMS Feature At Long Beach
- Updated: April 15, 2011
Long Beach, Calif. – Guy Smith pushed the Dyson Racing Mazda Lola B09-86 to the pole position for Saturday’s Tequila Patron American LeMans Series race on the street course at Long Beach.
The Brit jockeyed back and forth with fellow LMPC1 competitors Klaus Graf throughout the 15-minute qualification session with the top spot changing hands nine times. For Smith, he claimed his second career pole. His time around the 1.98-mile circuit was 1:14.001.
“The Mazda performed great and the credit goes to the engines,” Smith said. “You constantly play with set-ups as the track changes all the time. Qualifying was close and I just kept pushing. Tomorrow the real work starts.”
The GT pole went to Joey Hand in the BMW E92 M3 fielded by Rahal Letterman.
The LMPC fast qualifier was Gunnar Jeannette, who drove an Oreca FLM09 for CORE Autosport.
Jeroen Bleekemolen took pole honors in the GTC class driving a Porsche GT3 Cup car.
The 2-hour race will start at 4:30 p.m. PT on Saturday.
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