The sixth pole of the season for the No. 56 M3 GT has been won at this afternoon’s qualifying session for the American Le Mans Monterey to extend the BMW Team RLL qualifying streak to a total of seven consecutive poles in 2011 by MW Team RLL driver Joey Hand.
He had a lap of 1:22.226 minutes around the 2.238-mile, 11-turn Laguna Seca circuit that bested the 12-car GT field by a margin of .898 seconds. The GT driver point standings with a total of five podium finishes that include three consecutive victories to start off the season have been lead by hand and co-driver Dirk Muller.
In the meantime, their Teammate Bill Auberlen qualified the No. 55 M3 GT in the third position with a 1:23.132 minute lap, and Auberlen and co-driver Dirk Werner have finished on the podium in three of the last four races, including a second at Road America and stand third in GT driver points.
“Joey nailed the laps. It’s a big margin to be ahead. Like Dirk Werner did at Baltimore…Joey found a shortcut. I am really pleased the cars have been up front all weekend long, we just need to stay there tomorrow. We just hope for a problem free race” said the Team Principal, Bobby Rahal.
The GT Manufacturer, Team and Tire championship standings were led by BMW, BMW Team RLL and Dunlop, having only two more races to go.
Joey Hand’s words after the results: “On the pole again! It’s great! I have a cold and haven’t been feeling great this week but didn’t want that to be an excuse. So I gave it everything I had. It’s a testament to our team how the car came out of the trailer, we were on the money from the beginning. We kept fine tuning through the practice sessions and the guys really nailed it. The No. 56 BMW M3 GT has led every session and we have one more very important session to lead: the race. My wife and kids are here, we have a lot of Crown Plaza and Avnet friends here and we want to give them a great race at my home racetrack.”
The six-hour Modspace American Le Mans Monterey is scheduled to take the green flag at 1:30 p.m. PDT Saturday.
