Cameron, Team Sahlen on Pole at Lime Rock Park

Photo: John Dagys

Dane Cameron will go down in the history books as the final pole-sitter in GRAND-AM history, after taking his Team Sahlen Riley-BMW to the top spot for today’s Rolex Sports Car Series finale at Lime Rock Park.

Cameron reeled off a best lap of 48.795 seconds to score his second pole position of the season. He edged out the No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP of Christian Fittipaldi by 0.409 seconds in an action-packed DP qualifying session that saw two stoppages for incidents.

“I didn’t really know what to expect,” Cameron told Sportscar365. “We showed up pretty good yesterday morning and were second out of the box, which we were more than pleased with.

“We tried something big for second practice to [try] something we hadn’t done before. We didn’t like that very much and were 9th, so we went back to how we were when we were 2nd and hope for the best. It worked out pretty good.”

Cameron and co-driver Wayne Nonnamaker will be looking to give the Sahlen team its first Rolex Series overall victory this afternoon. The team has won in every GRAND-AM class it has competed in except DP.

While scheduled for 15 minutes, DP qualifying ended early when the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Riley-BMW of Memo Rojas spun and became stranded near Turn 3. Rojas’ best time, which initially good for second on the grid, was stripped due to bringing out the black flag. He will start 7th.

Championship leader Max Angelelli will roll off two positions ahead of their title rival in 5th.

The No. 90 Spirit of Daytona Corvette DP of Ricky Taylor also spun and brought out a stoppage early in the session.

Super sub Lawson Aschenbach took the No. 31 Marsh Racing Corvette to the pole in GT, thanks to a 53.404-second lap time. Aschenbach was a last-minute addition to the team after regular co-driver Boris Said was delayed with other commitments in England.

Aschenbach will share the wheel of the No. 31 Corvette with Eric Curran this afternoon.

The top-three in GT was completed by the No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari of Leh Keen and the John Edwards-driven No. 57 Stevenson Motorsprots Camaro. Both teams have fielded second entries this weekend in efforts to bolster their title hopes.

Top qualifying honors in the GX class went to the No. 70 SpeedSource Mazda6 of Tom Long with a 56.916-second lap time in the clean diesel-powered machine.

Like the DP session, GT/GX qualifying ended early when Bob Doyle crashed his No. 18 Muehlner Motorsports Porsche. The car sustained considerable damage and is unlikely to start this afternoon’s race.

The Rolex Series finale takes the green flag today at 1:30 p.m. ET, Live on FOX Sports 2.

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