ALTON, Va. - Todd Lamb, of Atlanta, Ga., collected his seventh-career SCCA Pro Racing Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup pole in preparation for Saturday's Round Nine race at VIRginia International Raceway. Todd Buras, of Melbourne, Fla., qualified second to make it an all-AMG front row for the first half of an MX-5 Cup doubleheader, part of the Bosch Engineering Octoberfest weekend.
Round Nine at VIR will have an all-Todd front row (Al Merion photo).
After topping both of
Friday's practice sessions, it took Lamb and his AMG teammates some time to get
up to speed around the 17-turn, 3.27-mile road course for qualifying. With the BFGoodrich
tires warmed up on the No. 84 AMG/Traqmate/Luna-C Racing MX-5 and the course
clear of traffic, Lamb set a pole time of 2:13.350 (88.279 mph). As this is the
series’ first visit to VIR, the time set the official MX-5 Cup qualifying lap
record at VIR.
"The track, this morning, is
a little bit slower than it was yesterday,” Lamb said. “It was pretty cold and
the track temp was down. It took us a while to get heat in the tires and so it
took us about an extra lap to get up to speed. On our first flyer, we hit
traffic, so he had to abort that lap and regroup. We came back in the pits,
checked our tires pressures, went back out and laid down a couple fast laps.
We’re happy with what we did. Qualifying could have gone a little better, but
overall, an AMG one-two in qualifying is great!”
Lamb has an opportunity to
clinch the 2009 SCCA Pro Racing Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup Championship in this
afternoon’s race, should he finish far enough ahead of Marc Miller to build a
64-point lead or more heading into Sunday’s final race.
Returning to MX-5 Cup
competition for the first time since the 2008 season finale at Mazda Raceway
Laguna Seca, Buras qualified second in the No. 14 AMG MX-5. Arriving at the
track just minutes before the second practice session on Friday, Buras wasted
no time getting up to speed, setting the third-fastest time in practice session
two, and qualifying outside the front row this morning. Buras made it an
all-AMG front row with a lap of 2:13.508 (88.174 mph).
A trio of ALARA Racing cars
completed the top five, led by team owner Ara Malkhassian, of Sonoma, Calif.,
who will start third. Driving the No. 11 ALARA Racing MX-5, Malkhassian entered
a 2:13.620 (88.100 mph). Teammates Lyonel Kent,
of Powell, Tenn., and Justin Piscitell, of Patterson, N.Y.,
followed Malkhassian in the qualifying order. Kent will start fourth in the No.
13 ALARA Racing/eData Solutions MX-5, after entering a 2:13.666 (88.070 mph).
Piscitell qualified his No. 89 ALARA/DAMG Racing/MAZDASPEED MX-5 fifth with a
2:13.686 (88.057 mph).
Lamb’s chief rival in the
MX-5 Cup Championship, Miller, of Holland,
Mich., had qualified sixth,
but his No. 28 Team MER/MOCA/Race Now for Autism/MMP MX-5 failed post-race
technical inspection and will start at the back of the grid due to
non-compliant bodywork modification.
This moved Miller’s MER
teammates, Nick Mancuso, Zach Ply and Mark Jenkins, to sixth, seventh and
eighth, respectively.
Two MX-5 Cup newcomers, Ryan
Ellis and Dennis Bize, completed the top 10.
Round Nine of the SCCA Pro
Racing Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup, the first half of a doubleheader weekend, will
go green at 3:50 p.m. (EDT) today. Live
timing and lap notes are available at www.mx-5cup.com.
The race will air on syndicated cable and satellite networks at a later date.
MX-5 Cup is also on Twitter @MazdaMX5Cup.
