From ALMS
Scott Dixon shocked Sebring International Raceway on Thursday with the overall pole position for the 57th 12 Hours of Sebring, upsetting factory diesel powers Audi and Peugeot in the first round of qualifying for the 2009 American Le Mans Series. Dixon captured the overall pole for Acura and de Ferran Motorsports. With much of the attention on the factory diesel powers, the reigning IndyCar and Indianapolis 500 champion turned a fast lap 1:45.278 in de Ferran Motorsports' new Acura ARX-02a.
The diesel Audis and Peugeots had been the quickest in every session this week. But on a track that is notorious for changing by the minute, Dixon found his comfort level. Tom Kristensen qualified second as part of an Audi line-up that is debuting a brand new diesel-powered R15 TDI. The top five qualifiers were within 0.281 seconds of each other around the bruising 17-turn, 3.7-mile circuit. Peugeot's Christian Klien was third fastest in one of the two French 908 HDi at 1:45.462. In LMP2, Adrian Fernandez in the Lowe's Fernandez Racing Acura ARX-01b gave Acura a second pole position in the Series' first race for the first time. The Mexican star earned his first American Le Mans Series pole position with a lap of 1:49.686 to outpace Dyson Racing's two new Mazda-powered Lola B09/86 coupes. Oliver Gavin captured his 18th career Series pole position and third at Sebring in Corvette Racing's final 12 Hours race with the GT1 class Corvette C6.R. Gavin's best lap of 1:57.882 beat Jan Magnussen in the second Corvette by 0.321 seconds. Dirk Werner put Farnbacher Loles Racing and Porsche on the GT2 pole in another tight battle. The German's lap of 2:03.051 in the team's Porsche 911 GT3 RSR was enough to knock off Jörg Bergmeister in the first of Flying Lizard Motorsports' two Porsches by 0.382 seconds. Photos: Audi & Acura
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