Jani puts Rebellion on Long Beach pole

Neel Jani claimed another American Le Mans Series pole position for Rebellion with a dominant performance at Long Beach.

The Swiss driver, whose team-mate Nick Heidfeld had topped the practice session, was the only driver to dip below the 1m13s barrier; his best time a 1m12.600s.

That put him almost seven tenths clear of Guy Smith’s Dyson Racing Lola, which hit the tyre wall at Turn 8 at the end of the session.

However, Smith and team-mate Chris Dyson will start ahead of the Pickett Racing HPD of Lucas Luhr and Klaus Graf after outqualifying them by a mere 0.04 seconds.

Luhr’s bid to improve was scuppered when he got caught up behind a slower LMP2 car on a late flier.

Ryan Briscoe was comfortably fastest in LMP2, his Level 5 HPD more than a second clear of Scott Sharp’s best effort in the Extreme Speed machine, and the only P2 car to beat the rapid LMPC pack.

SRT’s Dominik Farnbacher delivered a first ALMS pole for Viper since Adelaide 2000 in a tight GT session.

Farnbacher edged out Bryan Sellers’ Falken Porsche and Jonathan Bomarito in the second Viper during a frantic mid-session battle.

Jan Magnuseen was first of the two Corvettes in fourth. Bill Auberlen headed the BMW entries in fifth, while Olivier Beretta was seventh in the Risi Ferrari.

The Paul Miller Racing Porsche had topped practice but suffered a right-rear puncture in the hands of Marco Holzer and only completed one flying lap in qualifying.

Bruno Junqueira just held on to the LMPC pole for RSR. The Brazilian watched from the pitlane as Colin Braun’s bid for pole in the CORE Autosport machine came up short by six thousandths of a second.

Alex Job’s Jeroen Bleekemolen snatched GTC pole from Long Beach debutant Sean Edwards with his last lap of the session.

Pos  Cl   Qual driver            Team/Car                   Time       Cl. Gap
  1.  P1   Neel Jani              Rebellion Lola-Toyota      1m12.600s
  2.  P1   Guy Smith              Dyson Lola-Mazda           1m13.282s  + 0.682s
  3.  P1   Lucas Luhr             Pickett HPD                1m14.004s  + 1.404s
  4.  P2   Ryan Briscoe           Level 5 HPD                1m16.014s
  5.  PC   Bruno Junqueira        RSR FLM                    1m16.167s
  6.  PC   Colin Braun            CORE FLM                   1m16.222s  + 0.055s
  7.  PC   Luis Diaz              PR1 Mathiasen FLM          1m16.630s  + 0.463s
  8.  PC   Kyle Marcelli          BAR1 FLM                   1m16.654s  + 0.487s
  9.  PC   Tristan Nunez          Performance Tech FLM       1m16.834s  + 0.667s
 10.  PC   Rusty Mitchell         BAR1 FLM                   1m17.176s  + 1.009s
 11.  P2   Scott Sharp            Extreme Speed HPD          1m17.390s  + 1.376s
 12.  P2   Johannes van Overbeek  Extreme Speed HPD          1m17.432s  + 1.418s
 13.  GT   Dominik Farnbacher     SRT Viper                  1m18.845s
 14.  GT   Bryan Sellers          Falken Porsche             1m18.967s  + 0.122s
 15.  GT   Jonathan Bomarito      SRT Viper                  1m18.984s  + 0.139s
 16.  GT   Jan Magnussen          Corvette                   1m19.047s  + 0.202s
 17.  GT   Bill Auberlen          RLL BMW                    1m19.063s  + 0.218s
 18.  GT   Tommy Milner           Corvette                   1m19.083s  + 0.238s
 19.  GT   Olivier Beretta        Risi Ferrari               1m19.184s  + 0.339s
 20.  GT   Joey Hand              RLL BMW                    1m19.258s  + 0.413s
 21.  GT   Townsend Bell          West/AJR Ferrari           1m19.533s  + 0.688s
 22.  P2   Scott Tucker           Level 5 HPD                1m19.711s  + 3.697s
 23.  GTC  Jeroen Bleekemolen     Alex Job Porsche           1m22.850s
 24.  GTC  Sean Edwards           NGT Porsche                1m22.971s  + 0.121s
 25.  GTC  Spencer Pumpelly       Flying Lizard Porsche      1m23.014s  + 0.164s
 26.  GTC  Damien Faulkner        TRG Porsche                1m23.355s  + 0.505s
 27.  GTC  Jan Heylen             JDX Porsche                1m23.701s  + 0.851s
 28.  GTC  Craig Stanton          TRG Porsche                1m23.745s  + 0.895s
 29.  GTC  Dion von Moltke        Flying Lizard Porsche      1m24.239s  + 1.389s
 30.  GTC  Bob Faieta             Dempsey Del Piero Porsche  1m24.583s  + 1.733s
 31.  GTC  Joe Foster             Dempsey Del Piero Porsche  1m25.091s  + 2.241s
 32.  GT   Marco Holzer           Miller Porsche             1m27.491s  + 8.646s
 

Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/real-world-racing/3rdparty/jani-puts-rebellion-on-long-beach-pole

Yves Giraud Cabantous Ignazio Giunti Timo Glock Helm Glöckler Paco Godia