Kelly Collins qualified the No. 07 Banner Pontiac GXP.R in second on May 18 for the May 19 running of the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series in Mexico City. Jon Fogarty at the wheel of the No. 99 GAINSCO Riley Pontiac was the top qualifying Pontiac Daytona Prototype (DP) car in fourth.
Collins posted a time of 1:26.631 in his No. 07 GXP.R that will see him on the outside of the front row of the GT grid for the start of the 250 mile race tomorrow afternoon. Collins shares the 07 yellow and black Banner Pontiac with Paul Edwards.
“It was close for the pole,” Collins said. “I was driving as hard as I could. We have some small handling woes, but that is really the difference to being on the pole here. It is not good at all to be starting on the outside of the front row. I hope I don’t get hung out on the first turn and end up going into turn three in like fifth. I will keep it up toward the front and then let Paul bring it home.”
Andrew Davis qualified the No. 57 Stevenson Motorsport Pontiac GXP.R in fourth with a time of 1:26.980. Davis followed up a strong qualifying effort in the last race where he posted a second place effort. Davis will start and then turn over the driving duties to teammate Robin Liddell.
“It is not the pole,” Davis said. “We made some changes since the morning practice and developed some over steer. We didn’t run that much faster than we did in practice, we needed to be on the pole. It is a fine line with our handling right now, we just need to figure out what the car wants. We are lacking some stability in the esses.”
In the No. 72 Autohaus Pontiac GXP.R Tim Lewis Jr. was at reins for qualifying. Lewis put up a time of 1:27.558, good for a seventh place starting spot. Lewis shares the 72 with fellow Floridian Lawson Aschenbach.
“The car is pretty good,” Lewis said. “I missed my mark in a braking zone on my fast lap and threw it away. We are splitting hairs on the setup. We could be a little better. The car has some power down over steer. We have a good car for the race and the team will make another adjustment for the morning warm-up.”
Team owner Leighton Reese qualified his number No. 06 Banner Pontiac in tenth with a time of 1:28.181. Reese shares the ride this weekend with sports car legend Ron Fellows.
“I went faster than last year’s pole time here,” Reese said. “That just shows how competitive the GT series and the drivers are this year. It is tough, the whole field is almost a second faster than last year. We are trying a couple things on the setup. We have gone from push to oversteer, so we are running the gamut on setup.”
The No. 99 GAINSCO Pontiac Riley will start from the second row in DP based upon Jon Fogarty’s time of 1:19.706. Fogarty and teammate Alex Gurney are the returning race winning champions from 2007.