Sebring Shocker : ACURA's Scott Dixon steals the pole position from Audi and Peugeot

66 : Scott Dixon - XM Radio de Ferran Acura ARX-02a

SEBRING, Florida : March 19, 2009 - Scott Dixon shocked Sebring International Raceway on Thursday with the overall pole position for the 57th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh from Florida, upsetting factory diesel powers Audi and Peugeot in the first round of qualifying for the 2009 American Le Mans Series.

66 : Scott Dixon - XM Radio de Ferran Acura ARX-02a

The 2008 Indianapolis 500 winner turned a fast lap of 1 minute, 45.278 seconds (126.522 mph) in de Ferran Motorsports’ new Acura ARX-02a that makes its race debut this weekend.

It was the first ALMS pole for Dixon, who beat four-time Sebring winner and Audi ace Tom Kristensen by just 0.082 second. Dixon will drive alongside team owner Gil de Ferran and Simon Pagenaud in the first Sebring race for all three.

Kristensen is part of Audi's lineup that is debuting a brand new diesel-powered R15 TDI. He drives alongside Rinaldo Capello and Allan McNish.

The top five qualifiers were within 0.281 second of each other around the bruising 17-turn, 3.7-mile circuit. Peugeot’s Christian Klien was third fastest in one of the two French 908 HDi coupes at 1 minute, 45.462 seconds (126.301 mph). The former Formula One racer is teamed with Nicolas Minassian and Pedro Lamy.

In LMP2, Adrian Fernandez in the Lowe’s Fernandez Racing Acura ARX-01b gave Acura a second pole position. He earned his first ALMS pole position with a lap of 1 minute, 49.686 seconds (121.438 mph) to outpace Dyson Racing’s two new Mazda-powered Lola B09/86 coupes.

Fernandez will drive with Luis Diaz for the third consecutive season. The pairing finished third overall in last year’s race before their Acura was excluded in postrace technical inspection.

Chris Dyson was Dyson Racing’s quickest qualifier at 1 minute, 51.534 seconds (119.425 mph) in the Lola he will share with Guy Smith and Andy Lally. Butch Leitzinger was 0.306 second behind in the sister entry that he will drive with Marino Franchitti and Ben Devlin.

Oliver Gavin captured his 18th career ALMS pole position and third at Sebring in Corvette Racing’s final 12-hour race with the GT1 class Corvette C6.R. Gavin’s best lap of 1 minute, 57.882 seconds (112.994 mph) beat Jan Magnussen in the second Corvette by 0.321 second.

Gavin and Olivier Beretta are looking for their third Sebring victory together and first with new teammate Marcel Fässler.

Magnussen and Johnny O’Connell are the defending race winners, and their victory at Sebring last season was the first of eight on the season and sent them to the GT1 championship. They will drive this year with Antonio Garcia as Corvette Racing prepares for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Dirk Werner put Farnbacher Loles Racing and Porsche on the GT2 pole in another tight battle. The German’s lap of 2 minutes, 3.051 seconds (108.248 mph) in the team’s Porsche 911 GT3 RSR was enough to knock off Jörg Bergmeister in the first of Flying Lizard Motorsports’ two Porsches by 0.382 second.

Werner teams with defending class co-champion race winner Wolf Henzler--part of the Flying Lizard lineup in 2008--and Richard Lietz. The German gave Porsche its first fast qualifier in GT2 since 2004.

Bergmeister, Henzler’s teammate last season, is driving with Patrick Long and Marc Lieb.

Ferrari was third on the grid thanks to Gianmaria Bruni’s lap of 2 minutes, 3.487 seconds (107.866 mph) in the Advanced Engineering Pecom Racing Ferrari F430 GT that he will drive with Mathias Russo and Luis Companc.

[Source : Autoweek]