Alon Wins Third PC Pole Of Season For PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports

Making a late-season charge into Prototype Challenge (PC) championship contention, Robert Alon won his third TOTAL Pole Award of 2016 in the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Professional Security Consultants/Westfield ORECA FLM09. Alon tamed the 20-turn, 3.4-mile circuit in 2:01.847 (100.4 mph), leading a session that saw the four fastest cars separated by only 0.458 seconds.

“I think the biggest thing is coming out and testing beforehand so we had a bit of a leg up,” said Alon, a two-time winner this season co-driving with Tom Kimber-Smith. “Keeping the car within the limits was key today. It was very easy to overdrive the car with the heat. It was also about keeping a clean lap.”

Alon and Kimber-Smith have a streak of three podium finishes. Their victory in the most recent event at Road America enabled them to close to within seven points of leaders Alex Popow and Renger van der Zande, 293-286.

Jose Gutierrez was second, with a lap of 2:02.271 (100.1 mph) in the No. 7 Starworks Motorsport Aviation Gin ORECA co-driven by Gustavo Yacaman, followed by teammate Popow, 2:02.274 (100.1 mph) in the No. 8 entry co-driven by van der Zande.

Matt McMurry was fourth with a lap of 2:02.305 (100.0 mph) in the No. 20 BAR1 Motorsports Gas Monkey Energy/Southwest Funding/Top1 Oil ORECA co-driven by Bruno Junqueira.

View full results via Al Kamel Systems at Results.IMSA.com

NOTEBOOK​

• No track records were broken. Alex Brundle holds the Prototype record with a lap of 1:57.809 (103.897 mph). In PC, the record is 2:00.528 (101.553 mph). Both marks were set in 2014.
• The PC session was red-flagged and checkered with four minutes remaining when the No. 88 Starworks Motorsport Popcorn Sutton ORECA of Mark Kvamme went off course into a gravel trap at Turn 15.​
• Saturday’s on-track activities for the WeatherTech Championship begin with a 20-minute warm-up session beginning at 8 a.m. CT.
• The Lone Star Le Mans will be televised live on FS1 beginning at 12:30 p.m. ET.