Pruett Leads Ford Sweep in Long Beach Qualifying

Photo: Darren Pierson

Scott Pruett claimed pole position for Saturday’s Tequila Patron Sports Car Showcase at Long Beach, leading a Ford 1-2 in qualifying for the third round of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship.

The Chip Ganassi Racing driver stormed to the top of the time charts early in the 15-minute session and kept his No. 01 Riley-Ford on the point, despite challenges from a half-dozen other Prototype contenders.

A red flag for the stationary No. 1 Extreme Speed Motorsports HPD ARX-03b of Ryan Dalziel set up a three-minute shootout, which saw the top seven of the eight Prototype entries make improvements.

Pruett’s 1:15.325 lap time, set on his final flying lap, edged out the No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Riley-Ford of Ozz Negri by just 0.041 seconds.

It marked a sweep of the front row for the Blue Oval and its first pole in TUDOR Championship competition.

The No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP of Christian Fittipaldi and Joao Barbosa will line up third overall and in class, followed by the No. 42 OAK Racing Morgan-Nissan, the best of the P2 cars in fourth, thanks to a flying 1:15.668 lap time by Olivier Pla. The Frenchman’s time was within four-tenths of the pole.

Ricky Taylor completed the top-five in his No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP, with the No. 90 Spirit of Daytona Corvette of Michael Valiante qualifying sixth.

The two ESM HPDs will roll off seventh and eighth in class, with trouble hitting the pole-contending No. 1 machine of Dalziel, who stopped on track after losing drive.

The Tequila Patron Sports Car Showcase is set for Saturday at 6:10 p.m. ET, with live coverage 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