Long Beach Grand Prix, Pirelli World Challenge Qualifying Quotes
Robert Thorne// #6 K-PAX Racing with Flying Lizard Motorsports McLaren 650S GT3
Qualified P2 // Best Time of 1:19.506
Great qualifying session. We’re sitting P2 and P{3, so we’ll have the McLaren on the front row. I’m really excited to be up there, and I’m really happy with the car and the team. Everyone really did a great job. Hopefully the race will go as well as qualifying did, and we’ll get the two cars on the podium. Starting qualifying up front in the running order really helped. We had a really strong practice session, and I had no one in front of me to hold me up. I could just run my own pace, and that gave me a lot of confidence and free room to try things. I was able to find the speed I was missing
Kevin Estre // #9 K-PAX Racing with Flying Lizard Motorsports McLaren 650S GT3
Qualified P3 // Best Time of 1:19.563
Qualifying today went well for us with P2 and P3 results. I’m P3, and I think there was a bit more in it. I definitely had the speed to do Pole Position, but I couldn’t get a lap in with the traffic. I’m a bit disappointed, but I could have done better. At the end of the day, we’re still on the second row, so it’s okay. We need a good start and a strong race. I’m sure the team will work perfectly as usual, and give us a good car.
Ryan Dalziel // #31 EFFORT Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R
Qualified P5 // Best Time of 1:19.872
It was a pretty good qualifying. I think we’re roughly where we expected to be. The car was perfect. We’re going to look at the other guys where the other guys were quicker and see if we can make any improvements. We’re starting 5th, and hopefully have a good start for the Porsche. We’ll try to get another podium. There are a couple guys out here that are consistently fast, not much we can do about that. We’ll try to get in front of them at the start and defend like crazy.
Michael Lewis // #41 EFFORT Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R
Qualified P7 (P1 in Class) // Best Time of 1:20.162
Bright and early wake up call this morning for qualifying. I was really trying to be mentally prepared and exercise those deep braking zones. I felt that if I could be confident in turn one, turn six, and the last sector I could lay down a lap, and I did. So we’re Pole in GTA, which is great. Great to be starting in the front in that class and in the top 10 overall. I couldn’t be happier right now. Thanks to my engineer Stefan, Ricki, and my teammate Ryan for helping me prepare for this race and get everything dialed in. The Porsche was quick and we’ll try to get off the line well tomorrow.
