It’s been a long time since David Brabham qualified in the top overall spot in the American Le Mans Series. He proved Friday that he still has what it takes with a thrilling final-lap pass to claim the pole position for Saturday’s Lone Star Grand Prix at JAGFlo Speedway at Reliant Park in Houston. Brabham turned in a time of 1:01.824 for Highcroft Racing’s Acura ARX entry, the first for the team and second straight overall pole for Acura.
Brabham knocked Audi’s Allan McNish from the top spot by 0.006 seconds. It marks the second straight week that an LMP2 car has taken pole position.
“I can’t tell you the effort that has gone into this team, ” Brabham said. “They went from a small team to a large team. It’s a whole new experience for Duncan (Dayton) and his team. There is something special happening for the team and you can sense it. We’ve been close all season. “
The top five cars were within 0.5 seconds of each other. After McNish came Penske Motorsports’ two Porsche RS Spyders with Romain Dumas leading the factory effort with a time of 1:01.876. He was a tenth better than Ryan Briscoe in the other Penske entry.
Brabham is the only driver in Series history to win pole positions in four different classes. He sat on the overall pole twice in 1999 in a factory Panoz prototype: Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta and Las Vegas. He drove a Panoz Esperante GTLM last year at Houston and is well aware of the challenges and bumps at the Houston street circuit.
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