Luhr gives Muscle Milk HPD ALMS pole-952

Lucas Luhr took a commanding pole position for Pickett Racing's HPD as the American Le Mans Series resumed at Lime Rock after its Le Mans 24 Hours break.

With its early season rival Rebellion opting out of the ALMS this weekend, Pickett has become a strong favourite for a second straight title. Remaining opponent Dyson Racing has yet to score this season, and Chris Dyson was 0.8 seconds off Luhr's pace in qualifying on Friday afternoon.

“We have by far the quickest car on the track,” said Luhr, after winning his 20th career ALMS pole. “We'll get two or three good quick laps at the beginning of the race if we're lucky, but then we're stuck in traffic all day long. The big job is to stay calm, don't go crazy in traffic and wait for our chances.”

In LMP2, Level 5 duo Ryan Briscoe and Marino Franchitti beat the Extreme Speed cars, while Andy Meyrick put the DeltaWing (shown leading an SRT Viper, ABOVE) 12th overall.

“It was surprising how much quicker we went in qualifying than in practice,” Briscoe said. “It was a whole second quicker – and around this place, a second is a ton.”

Briscoe will drive to Pennsylvania following Saturday's race, and will start Sunday's inaugural IZOD IndyCar Series race at Pocono Raceway from the back row after missing today's qualifying.

The Rahal Letterman Lanigan BMWs fended off their rivals in the typically close GT session. John Edwards beat Maxime Martin as the two BMWs went head to head for pole.

“We knew the car was going to be quick here,” Edwards said. “We've been good in practice and qualifying, so I think we can fight to stay up there for the race. If we can work through the traffic – which will be a nightmare here – we can fight for the win.” 

The Corvettes start third and fifth, separated by the Risi Ferrari, with CORE leading the Porsche challenge from sixth.

CORE took LMPC pole, recovering from an off by Jon Bennett late in final practice to get the car ready for Colin Braun to put up front in class. Bruno Junqueira was his closest rival in the RSR entry.

Spencer Pumpelly gave former GT top dog Flying Lizard its first GTC pole, narrowly defeating Alex Job man Jeroen Bleekemolen.