Action Express Racing Road Atlanta Post-Qualifying Report

BRASELTON, G.A. (October 3, 2015) - Action Express Racing will start the challenging 10-hour Petit Le Mans from the second and fifth starting positions on Saturday morning. Christian Fittipaldi qualified the Mustang Sampling Chevrolet Corvette Daytona Prototype in the second position while teammate Dane Cameron will start the Whelen/Team Fox Corvette DP from fifth position. 

For Action Express Racing, qualifying on Friday afternoon was about turning in decent laps while not risking the big picture with either of their championship contending Corvette DPs. For Fittipaldi and Cameron, it was mission accomplished as both turned respectable lap times placing their respective entries in the top-5 for Saturday's race. "It was pretty straight forward," said Fittipaldi.  "I think we had more of a race car than a qualifying car underneath us with our Mustang Sampling Chevrolet Corvette DP. The No. 90 (Richard Westbrook) just beat us fair and square, hats off to Westy who managed to put down a great lap.  "Overall, I'm happy.  This is a long race, and starting on the front row again is great.  Thanks to Action Express and Chevrolet. The first challenge tomorrow is that we have to last. After you last for eight or nine hours, then you position yourself for the very end of the race."Fittipaldi's teammate Dane Cameron was also focused on the idea of having to last throughout the season's final endurance race. Cameron, who qualified in fifth, understands the complexity of the event and the potential for heavy rain throughout the race. "We were pretty conservative," said Cameron.  "There's not a whole lot to gain in qualifying.  We have a 10 hour race in the wet, so we will wait for tomorrow. It's going to be really spectacular I think."Our Whelen Engineering guys were focused on tomorrow and focused on survival in qualifying.  The last thing we wanted to do was to make a lot of work for the boys tonight. I think we have a decent car no matter what the weather holds. So we will see who survives for 10 hours."With two cars tied at second place in the championship fight, team manager Gary Nelson knew there was a lot to lose in qualifying. Having both entries in the top-5 is a great place to start as the team will look to win both the IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship and the Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup (NAEC) for the second consecutive season. "We're on the front row with the Mustang Sampling Corvette DP, and we know the No. 31 Whelen Corvette DP is strong, we've seen that all throughout practice," said Nelson. "Both cars have consistently ran the same speeds throughout the weekend, but for the race we're pretty excited. Our team is in great shape for tomorrow."Action Express Racing trails the championship lead by six points going into the 10-hour endurance finale on Saturday. To claim the championship Action Express Racing will look to place both cars on the podium, in addition to winning the IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship, the team hopes to wrap up the NAEC title at the four-hour mark in the race. The 17th annual Petit Le Mans will get underway at 11:10 a.m. EDT. The race will be available in its entirety on IMSA.com, the IMSA mobile app and on radiolemans.com. FOX Sports 2 will televise the race from 11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m., from 2:30-7:00 p.m. and the final 40 minutes of the race beginning at 8:30 p.m.