O’Connell Storms to Sprint Pole in Monterey

Photo: John Dagys

Johnny O’Connell kept his streak of at least one Pirelli World Challenge pole in every season alive by taking top qualifying honors for Sunday’s season-ending round at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

The four-time and defending series champion stormed to a 1:23.960 lap in his No. 3 Cadillac ATS-V.R, which was rebuilt by the Pratt & Miller crew following an accident in Thursday’s test session.

It marked O’Connell’s 18th career pole but first of the season, as he keeps his slim championship hopes alive by picking up the seven bonus points for P1.

Patrick Long came 0.024 seconds from pole in his No. 58 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R, with Cadillac’s Michael Cooper completing the top-three.

Long heads into tomorrow’s title decider nine points behind GT championship leader Alvaro Parente, who qualified sixth.

The No. 99 GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing McLaren 650S GT3 of Jon Fogarty qualified fourth, with Austin Cindric completing the top-five in GT.

Martin Fuentes delivered his tenth GTA class pole of the season, taking his No. 07 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 to a quick lap of 1:24.814.

Fuentes locked up the class championship last month at Sonoma Raceway.

He edged out the No. 16 Wright Porsche of Michael Schein by 0.215 seconds, with Cooper MacNeil qualifying third in class in the No. 79 Alex Job Racing Porsche.

GT Cup saw a first-time class pole-sitter in Corey Fergus, who denied Sloan Urry for the top spot in the Porsche-only class.

Fergus edged out Urry buy 0.336 seconds for his third career PWC pole.

The Sprint title-decider gets underway Sunday at 1 p.m. PT, with live coverage on Motor Trend on Demand and World-Challenge.com.

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