Tudor Championship: Brundle takes Oak Morgan-Nissan to the pole at Glen
OAK Racing broke through to score its first TUDOR United SportsCar Championship pole, following a blistering lap set by Alex Brundle in qualifying for Sunday's Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen.
The 23-year-old second-generation driver reeled off an impressive 1:37.902 time in his Morgan-Nissan, outpacing the competition by seven-tenths. He was the only driver to break the 1:37 barrier.
Brundle, who only turned his first laps of the historic 3.4-mile circuit on Friday, wound up 0.658 seconds quicker than the No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP of Christian Fittipaldi in second.
It was only the second pole position by a P2 car this season but first for the French-based squad. Brundle will share driving duties with Gustavo Yacaman and Ho-Pin Tung on Sunday.
The No. 90 Spirit of Daytona Racing Corvette DP of Michael Valiante completed the top-three overall and in the Prototype class with a 1:38.692 lap.
Scott Pruett, meanwhile, pedaled his No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Riley-Ford to fourth, with Scott Sharp completing the top-five in the No. 1 Extreme Speed Motorsports HPD ARX-03b.
In Prototype Challenge, Colin Braun claimed his second pole of the season following a heated battle for top qualifying honors in the spec prototype class.
Braun took his No. 54 CORE autosport Oreca FLM09 to a best lap of 1:40.562, set on his final flying lap.
The No. 25 8Star Motorsports entry of Tom Kimber-Smith made a late-session improvement to second, displacing Renger van der Zande, who will roll off third in class in his No. 8 Starworks Motorport machine.
PC debutante John Martin qualified fourth in his No. 7 Starworks entry, with PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports' Gunnar Jeannette completing the top-five in class.
BMW Team RLL will start from the pole in GT Le Mans, following a quick lap by Andy Priaulx in qualifying.
The BMW factory driver stormed to the top of the time sheets late in the 15-minute session, turning a 1:44.084 lap in the championship-leading No. 55 BMW Z4 GTE.
Priaulx's lap displaced teammate Dirk Mueller, who held the provisional pole with a 1:44.376 lap at the time. The German driver dropped to third late in the session.
It marked the first pole for the Bavarian manufacturer in the GTLM class. Priaulx will share driving duties of the No. 55 car on Sunday with Bill Auberlen.
Jan Magnussen made a late improvement to put his No. 3 Corvette C7.R second in qualifying, ahead of Mueller's BMW, which will start third.
The No. 912 Porsche North America Porsche 911 RSR of Michael Christensen was fourth, while Jonathan Bomarito's No. 93 SRT Motorsports Dodge Viper SRT GTS-R will roll off fifth on the grid tomorrow.
The top-eight in class were separated by less than one second in the heated qualifying run for the factory-backed class.
Leh Keen, meanwhile, gave the Porsche 911 GT America its first-ever pole position in GT Daytona.
The Alex Job Racing driver reeled off a fast lap of 1:48.831 in his No. 22 WeatherTech-sponsored entry he'll share with Cooper MacNeil and Philipp Frommenwiler.
Keen was the only driver to dip into the 1:48 range, with Dane Cameron second best with a 1:49.023 in the No. 94 Turner Motorsport Z4 GT3, which joined the session late following an issue in final practice.
Lining up third in class, and making it three different manufacturers in the top-three, is the No. 33 Riley Motorsports Dodge Viper GT3-R of Jeroen Bleekemolen.
Spencer Pumpelly (Flying Lizard Motorsports) and Andy Lally (Magnus Racing) completed the top-five in class after battling for the provisional pole early in the session.
The Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen gets underway Saturday at 11 a.m. ET, LIVE on FOX Sports 1.
