August 20, 2005 – It was almost 50/50, but it ended up plus one. On the fiftieth anniversary year for Road America, James Weaver won the 51st pole for Dyson Racing in qualifying for tomorrow’s Generac 500 here at the fastest road course in America. It was Weaver’s 13th ALMS pole, his sixth in LMP1 and the second pole of the year since his front row start at Road Atlanta in April. It was the second pole in a row here for the #16 Thetford/Norcold Dyson Racing entry with Butch Leitzinger taking the honors last year with a record time.
Chris Dyson in the #20 car will start third, a half second behind his teammate. Dyson immediately set the pace and was fastest for the first half of the qualifying session, setting a time that was a half second better than his best practice time. “I think we could have been on the front row, but we lost time with traffic,” observed Dyson. “This is the longest track we run on and it is an interesting challenge to find a set up that is optimal over four miles and the fourteen turns that all have their own personalities.”
And to revisit our number 50 one more time, during a lull in the questions at the post qualifying press conference, Weaver opined, “I was hoping someone would say that they represented “The Over 50 Club,” and they wanted me to be their president.” Such an organization could not find anyone faster.
Pos | Car# | Class | Drivers | Speed | Car Make |
1. | 16 | P1 | J.Weaver/B.Leitzinger | 1:53.042 | Lola EX257/AER |
2. | 1 | P1 | J.Lehto/M.Werner | 1:53.346 | Audi R8 |
3. | 20 | P1 | C.Dyson/A.Wallace | 1:53.556 | Lola EX257/AER |
4. | 2 | P1 | E.Pirro/F.Biela | 1:53.619 | Audi R8 |
5. | 37 | P2 | C.Field/G.Fisken | 1:56.259 | Lola B05/40/AER |
6. | 10 | P2 | Macaluso/McMurry/Bucknum | 1:58.760 | Courage C6-R/AER |
7. | 12 | P1 | M.Lewis/B.Willman | 1:59.369 | Riely & Scott Mk III |
8. | 4 | GT1 | O.Gavin/O.Baretta | 2:00.382 | Corvette C6-R |
9. | 3 | GT1 | R. Fellows/J.OConnell | 2:01.152 | Corvette C6-R |
10. | 63 | GT1 | T. Borscheller/J.Mowlem | 2:01.741 | Saleen S7R |
Sunday’s race will be seen on SPEED Channel from 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM EDT. There is also live radio available at www.americanlemans.com.