LAKEVILLE, Conn. (AP) South Africa's Stephen Simpson raced to his first IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship pole Friday, topping qualifying for Saturday's Northeast Grand Prix Lime Rock Park.
Simpson had a lap at 108.172 mph in the No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports ORECA that held up during a qualifying session that included a stoppage for an incident involving Todd Slusher's No. 16 BAR1 Motorsports entry and ended with light rain falling on the 1.5-mile circuit.
Simpson was followed by James French in the No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports entry with a lap of 106.775 mph. French's co-driver is rising star Conor Daly.
Chris Cumming, who turned a lap of 106.200 mph in the No. 11 RSR Racing car he shares with former Indy 500 pole-sitter Bruno Junqueira, qualified third. All the Prototype Challenge cars use ORECA FLM09 chassis and Chevrolet V-8 engines.
In the GT Daytona class, the other IMSA class running Saturday, Dion von Moltke ran a lap of 98.259 mph in his No. 48 Paul Miller Racing Audi R8 LMS, edging out Ben Keating's 98.243 mph in his No. 33 Riley Motorsports Dodge Viper SRT GT3-R.
