Rennsport One’s Spencer Pumpelly claimed the pole for Friday’s IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge Alan Jay Automotive Network 120 on Thursday afternoon. Pumpelly’s lap of 131.611 seconds (102.301 mph) gives him his second consecutive overall pole to start the season.
For Pumpelly, getting the pole was crucial.
“For us, getting on the pole was really important because of the way it gets around the race track; it needs to be in clean air,” Pumpelly said after the session. “If we get stuck in the pace, I don’t think we’ll have a good shot at [the win].
“The first couple of laps…it just didn’t feel like the rear [tires] were coming up [to temperature] like I wanted them to,” Pumpelly continued. “Lap after lap, it got a little more stable in the rear. I was able to lean on it a little bit harder. On the last lap, I heard purple a couple of times and I knew I had a shot at [the pole]. I was fortunate enough to get the car to do what I wanted it to do. Boy, I just eked it out.”
Pumpelly won the pole by just six-hundredths of a second over Ramsey Racing’s Alexandre Premat in the No. 92 Mercedes. Multimatic Motorsports’ Patrick Gallagher will start third, followed by the McLaren of Motorsport in Action’s Corey Fergus. Compass Racing’s Paul Holton rounds out the top five.
Carbahn Motorsports’ Tyler McQuarrie will start sixth, followed by BimmerWorld Racing’s James Clay and the Ford of Chase Briscoe. Martin Barkey will start ninth, while Winward Racing/HTP Motorsport’s Kris Wilson will start 10th.
In TCR, Britt Casey Jr. continued his swell form from Daytona by putting his Trumpf-sponsored Audi on the class pole with a lap of 136.415 seconds (98.699 mph). That lap, good enough for 23rd overall, was nearly two full seconds quicker than teammate Rodrigo Sales. Roy Block will start third to complete the Compass Racing 1-2-3.
In Street Tuner, MINI JCW Team’s Nate Norenberg claimed the class pole with a lap of 143.941 seconds (93.538 mph). That time was nearly a full second faster than Mike LaMarra in the No. 73 MINI. BimmerWorld Racing’s Nick Galante will start third in class.
IMSA CONTINENTAL TIRE SPORTSCAR CHALLENGE ALAN JAY AUTOMOTIVE NETWORK 120 STARTING LINEUP
The Alan Jay Automotive Network 120 is scheduled to go green at 2:45 p.m. The race will be livestreamed at both IMSA.com and FansChoice.tv.
About the author
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
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