Road America: the qualifying race for the Generac 500 (part 1)
Acura’s top racing drivers, David Brabham and Stefan Johnson, suffered through a rough testing session last Thursday, a day before the qualifying class for Saturday’s Generac 500 race. Brabham’s Acura racing car, a no. 9 Highcroft Acura ARX-01a sports car, was calculated to be two and a half seconds behind the pace of their Porsche rival.
However, the team was able to successfully treat the understeer problem, and by Friday of the qualifying, Brabham was already able to lower his lap times, and to set the third-fastest time among the rest of the other teams.
Brabham, sharing the race with Johansson, posted a lap time of 1 minute, 49.767 seconds on the 14-turn track. First and second placers are from the Porsche teams, Romain Dumas and Ryan Briscoe. In the 20-minute session race, Brabham was even able to take the lead for a while with a 1:49.973 reading before settling for third. The four-hour Generac 500 is set to start this Saturday, 4:00 in the afternoon.
Trailing at the no.4 spot is another Acura representative from the Andretti Green Racing, Marino Franchitti. Franchitti and his No. 26 XM Satellite Radio Acura ARX-01a posted a lap time of 1:50.100. Franchitti was also quick in the early segments of the LMP2 qualifying grid, but encountered a slight off-course excursion. Franchitti would be partnering with Sebring winner Bryan Herta on Saturday’s race.