Bradley Puts Eurasia Oreca-Nissan on Pole in Fuji

File Photo (John Dagys)

Richard Bradley captured his first Asian Le Mans Series pole of the season following a hard-fought qualifying session for Sunday’s Three Hours of Fuji.

The Eurasia Motorsport driver reeled off a 1:34.495 in his No. 27 Oreca 03-Nissan to edge out the No. 1 OAK Racing Team TOTAL Morgan-Judd of Ho-Pin Tung by just 0.010 seconds.

It marked a maiden overall pole for the Mark Goddard-run squad, with Bradley set to share driving duties in tomorrow’s race with Pu Jun Jin and John Hartshorne.

Tung and co-drivers David Cheng and Keiko Ihara, who becomes the first female driver to start an Asian LMS race, will roll off second, ahead of the GT class pole-sitting No. 90 Team AAI Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 in third overall.

Takeshi Tsuchiya recorded a best lap of 1:40.026 in his gull-winged beast, outpacing the team’s BMW and Nissan entries in the production-based ranks.

Craft-Bamboo Racing kept its 100 percent pole-winning streak alive, with Mathias Beche turning a 1:40.124 lap time to go quickest in CN.

A total of nine cars are now expected to start the second round of the season, thanks to the late addition of two Lamborghini Gallardo FL2s, which are competing in this weekend’s Lamborghini Super Trofeo Asia round at the same track.

Both cars, entered by The Emperor Racing, will run in the GT-Am class, with Max Wiser quickest in qualifying with a 1:42.617 lap time.

Of note, Lamborghini chief test driver Giorgio Sanna is among the drivers in the lineup.

The Three Hours of Fuji takes gets underway Sunday at 2:27 p.m. local  time (1:27 a.m. ET).

RESULTS: Qualifying

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John