Fischer Scores IPC Pole at Road Atlanta

TJ Fischer has grabbed pole for Friday’s IMSA Prototype Challenge presented by Mazda race at Road Atlanta.

In his first appearance to the 2.54-mile circuit, the driver of the No. 47 Forty7 Motorsports Norma M30 to a quick lap of 1:19.169 to claim his second pole of the season.

It was 0.047 seconds ahead of the LMP3 class points leader Kris Wright in the No. 30 Extreme Speed Motorsports Ligier JS P3.

“It was a lot of learning,” said Fischer, who will once again co-drive with Austin McCusker.

“I just kind of stuck with the program. The guys from Forty7 Motorsports have been awesome. We just worked together the whole way, looked at some data, some video, and then it was a pretty on the limit hanging it out there in Turn 5 on the curbing, but it worked out.”

Fischer missed the season opener at Daytona, but has co-driven with McCusker since, with the duo winning earlier this season at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

Points leader Wright will start on the outside of the front row and will be joined this weekend by veteran Nic Jonsson as Wright enters the final event of the season with a 23-point lead over McCusker.

Rodrigo Pflucker rounded out the top three in the No. 74 Alianza Motorsports Norma M30 run in partnership with Forty7 Motorsports he will co-drive Friday with Anthony Simone.

In the MPC class, Michal Chlumecky scored the pole with a lap of 1:23.041 in the No. 31 Eurosport Racing Elan DP02.

It was a back and forth battle between Chlumecky and the No. 11 Performance Tech Motorsports entry of Dr. Robert Masson, who will again co-drive this weekend with son Kyle Masson.

Both Chlumecky and the elder Masson spent time at the top of the leaderboard, but it was Chlumecky who was able to claim the top spot by 0.314 seconds.

“Getting out in the dry today makes it so much sweeter,” said Chlumecky.

“The opportunity to go out and show the team what they’ve done for the car, and they’ve put a wonderful car together, is great. I just kept practicing and was able to knock a little off every lap because we didn’t get to practice in the dry.”

In the final race for the MPC class, the championship may come down to the final laps of Friday’s race.

Coming into this weekend’s race, the No. 86 Mazda-powered Elan DP02 driven by Dave House leads seven cars within nine points of the championship lead, with four of those cars within five points.

The one-hour and 45-minute race gets underway Friday at 8 a.m. EDT with live coverage on IMSA.tv.

RESULTS: Qualifying