Honda, Pla Win TOTAL Pole Award For Season-Ending Petit Le Mans

Olivier Pla followed up Michael Shank Racing’s dominance of practice at Road Atlanta, capturing the TOTAL Pole Award for Saturday’s 2016 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season-ending Petit Le Mans presented by Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort at Road Atlanta (FOX Sports GO, FS1, Live, 11 a.m. ET).

Pla ran a lap of 1:13.061 (125.1 mph) on the 2.54-mile circuit in the No. 60 Curb Records/AERO Honda Ligier JS P2 co-driven by Ozz Negri and John Pew. The team had led all four of the weekend’s practice sessions prior to Friday’s 15-minute qualifying session.

“From the beginning, the team has done a great job,” said Pla, who won the pole for the team earlier this season for the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida. “They gave me a very competitive car and we kept improving each time. I was expecting that more or less. The other things will come tomorrow. It will be a real possibility for the win. We have nothing to lose, we want to put on a good show for the fans, so we will go for it.”

Tristan Nunez will join Pla on the outside of the front row after running a best lap of 1:13.520 (124.3 mph) in the No. 55 Mazda Motorsports Castrol/ModSpace Mazda Prototype co-driven by Jonathan Bomarito and Spencer Pigot.

Dan Cameron qualified third with a lap of 1:13.903 (123.7 mph) in the No. 31 Action Express Racing Whelen Engineering Corvette Daytona Prototype co-driven by Eric Curran and 2016 IndyCar champion Simon Pagenaud. Cameron and Curran enter the finale with a one-point lead over Action Express Racing teammates Christian Fittipaldi and Joao Barbosa, 285-284. Fittipaldi qualified fifth.

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

NOTEBOOK

• The top eight Prototype qualifiers bettered Christian Fittipaldi’s two-year-old track record of 1:14.508 (122.725).
• Sunday’s on-track activities begin with a 20-minute warm-up at 8:40 a.m. ET. Petit Le Mans will be streamed live from 11 a.m.-9:30 p.m. ET on FOX Sports Go with FS1 authentication. Live television coverage begins from 11 a.m.- noon ET on FS1, resuming from 2:30-6 p.m. on FS2. There will be a three-hour highlight program on FS1 on Monday, Oct. 3, at 7 p.m. ET.