Mueller Puts Ford on GTLM Pole at Road America

Photo: Brian Cleary/BCPix.com

Ford Chip Ganassi Racing’s Dirk Mueller has claimed the GT Le Mans class pole for Sunday’s Continental Tire Road Race Showcase at Road America, in a dominant effort for the Blue Oval in qualifying.

Mueller laid down a best lap of 2:02.451 lap time in the No. 66 Ford GT to edge out the No. 911 Porsche 911 RSR of Patrick Pilet by 0.461 seconds.

It marked the German driver’s first WeatherTech SportsCar Championship class pole, and the team’s third of the season after a pair of top qualifying runs from teammate Richard Westbrook earlier this year.

Mueller, who claimed GTE-Pro class pole at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, will share driving duties with fellow Le Mans class winner Joey Hand in tomorrow’s two-hour and 40-minute race.

The No. 67 Ford of Ryan Briscoe qualified third in class, ahead of the fourth-placed No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE of Giancarlo Fisichella, who was on top of the time sheets early in the 15-minute session.

The top-six in GTLM were separated by less than one-second, but with both Corvette C7.Rs and BMW M6 GTLMs struggling and set to start from the rear of the field.

Alex Riberas scored his third class pole of the season in GT Daytona, in the No. 23 The Heart of Racing/AJR Porsche 911 GT3 R.

The Spaniard reeled off a best lap of 2:07.520 to edge out the pair of Stevenson Motorsports Audi R8 LMS cars, which qualified second and third in class.

Andrew Davis put the No. 6 Audi in second, 0.239 seconds behind Riberas, with Matt Bell third, thanks to a 2:07.785 lap in the No. 9 entry.

The No. 33 Riley Motorsports Dodge Viper GT3-R of Ben Keating will start fourth, with Christina Nielsen completing the top-five in the championship class-leading No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3.

The Continental Tire Road Race Showcase gets underway Sunday at 4 p.m. ET, live on FOX Sports 1.

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