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Porsche North America: Patrick Pilet, Nick Tandy

Qualifying

Porsche North America: Patrick Pilet, Nick Tandy
, Tudor United SportsCar Championship, round 8 at Danville/USA, Qualifying
Danville: Two Porsche 911 RSR lock out the first grid row

Two Porsche 911 RSR racers take up round eight of the Tudor United SportsCar Championship from the front of the field on Sunday. In the qualifying session on the 5.263-kilometre circuit near Danville in the US state of Virginia, Porsche works driver Nick Tandy (Great Britain) secured pole position in the GTLM class for the second time this season. The Le Mans overall winner shares the cockpit of Porsche North America’s 911 RSR with Patrick Pilet (France), with whom he has won the last two races at Bowmanville and Road America. Tandy is the first GT driver since the Tudor United SportsCar Championship began in 2014 to have secured the front grid spot for a race three times.

Porsche factory pilot Jörg Bergmeister (Germany) planted the second 911 RSR campaigned by Porsche North America on position two. His teammate is Le Mans outright winner Earl Bamber (New Zealand), who recently set pole position at Road Atlanta. Porsche works driver Wolf Henzler (Germany) and Bryan Sellers (USA) take up the race from the fourth grid row at the wheel of the 911 RSR fielded by the Falken Tire customer team.

Qualifying quotes
Steffen Höllwarth, Programme Manager Tudor United SportsCar Championship: “This was an incredibly strong performance by the entire squad. Now the hard work that we’ve invested in this project over the last days and weeks is paying off. To have both cars on the first grid row – there’s no better starting position for a race than that. Together we will do our utmost to get the most out of it.”
Nick Tandy (Porsche 911 RSR #911): “Everything came together again in this qualifying. Both 911 RSR were optimally setup for this track and the tyres fitted perfectly as well. It seems we have the best overall package at the moment.”
Jörg Bergmeister (Porsche 911 RSR #912): “I didn’t expect us to be so far up the grid. My first qualifying laps weren’t so great. Still, we only narrowly missed out on the pole. It’s a great starting position.”

The race starts on Sunday at 13.05 hrs local time (19.05 hrs CEST) and runs over 2:40 hrs. It will be broadcast on the Internet under www.imsa.com.

Qualifying result
GTLM class
1. Pilet/Tandy (F/GB), Porsche 911 RSR, 1:42.532 minutes
2. Bamber/Bergmeister (NZ/D), Porsche 911 RSR, + 0.097 seconds
3. Kaffer/Fisichella (D/I), Ferrari F458 Italia, + 0.590
4. Edwards/Luhr (USA/D), BMW Z4 GTE, + 0.792
5. Auberlen/Werner (USA/D), BMW Z4 GTE, + 0.824
6. Magnussen/Garcia (DK/E), Chevrolet Corvette, + 1.036
7. Gavin/Milner (GB/USA), Chevrolet Corvette, + 1.265
8. Henzler/Sellers (D/USA), Porsche 911 RSR, + 1.602

GTD class
1. Haase/von Moltke (D/USA), Audi R8 LMS, 1:49.220 minutes
2. Lindsey/Pumpelly (USA/USA), Porsche 911 GT America, + 0.010 seconds
3. Sweedler/Bell (USA/USA), Ferrari 458 Italia, + 0.257



All reports on the previous season can be found in our archive.