LEXINGTON, OH, Friday, August 5, 2011: CORE autosport continued its championship-seeking ways when it claimed the Le Mans Prototype Challenge (LMPC) class pole position for this weekend’s Mid-Ohio Sports Car Challenge American Le Mans Series (ALMS) event.

Gunnar Jeannette, driving the #06 Excel Consultants / Composite Resources ORECA FLM09 laid down a fast lap of 1:17.281, a mere .05 seconds ahead of the second place LMPC car driven by Kyle Marcelli. Frankie Montecalvo, driving the sister #05 Bayshore Recycling / Composite Resources car is starting sixth.

This is the second pole position in a mere five races for the new LMPC team, who currently lead both the driver and team points championship in ALMS LMPC.

The CORE autosport team spent the two practice sessions fine-tuning the ORECA machines for the 2.258-mile 13-turn Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Both cars and their respective drivers, Jeannette in the #06 with teammate Ricardo Gonzalez and Montecalvo in the #05 with co-driver and team owner Jon Bennett, encountered traffic and dirt on course caused by the GT and GTC machines. In the end, the CORE autosport engineering team found a solid balance for race day – aiming to repeat the one-two finish at Mosport the team enjoyed two weeks prior.

Bennett and Gonzalez will both take “first shift” piloting their respective machines for Saturday’s two hour and 45 minute race.

The Mid-Ohio Sports Car Challenge will be aired live on ESPN3.com on Saturday, August 6 at 3:15 p.m. EST. ESPN2 will televise a tape-delayed highlight of the event on Sunday, August 7 at 10 p.m. EST. International viewers can see the race live on MotorsTV, Fox Sports Middle East and Fox Latin America Networks. Live radio broadcasts are available at www.americanlemans.com.

 

Gunnar Jeannette

“I’m thrilled to get this result. The CORE autosport guys did awesome. Our engineer Tom Brown, our lead mechanic Adam (Wearing) and 1st mechanic Neal (Everhart) have been kicking butt and making the car better.
“It is extremely difficult racing in the ALMS, it’s such a challenge and it’s so rewarding when you get it right because there isn’t much difference between the GT cars and the LMPC cars right now. They’re super quick through some sections and through some of the higher-speed sections our downforce allows us to carry a lot more rolling speed, but as you’re trying to pass them down a straightaway and heading toward a braking zone, you may have some difficulty out there.
“But it’s all good. I have a great teammate in Ricardo. He’s been doing an even better job than he normally does – he’s been faster than I have up until just now, so we’ll have to duke it out during the race tomorrow to see who’s fastest.”

 

Ricardo Gonzalez

“I think the trick for the race is going to be staying out of trouble. From all of the tracks that we’ve been to I find this to be the most difficult in traffic.
“We’re having a lot of dirt thrown on the track from the GT cars putting wheels off, so it’s going to be very tricky to keep the car pointed the right way after two hours and 45 minutes of throwing dirt onto the track.
“But I think we have the pace where we can get into a rhythm where we can pull out being careful and that’s the trick.”

 

John Bennett

“Another great result for CORE autosport! As team owner, I am just thrilled with Gunnar’s consistency. He’s lightning fast all the time and it’s really great for the team overall.
“As a team, the #06 car actually helps the #05 car when it comes to setup and tuning, and with Ricardo and Gunnar behind the wheel and the feedback they provide, we can only get better. A great team result and I’m very happy.
“For tomorrow, it’s going to be an interesting time for me as I’ve pretty new to this track, but the knowledge of my CORE autosport co-drivers and team has made my learning curve very short. I cannot wait to get out there and get another top finish for the team.”

 

Frankie Montecalvo

“Well, I definitely didn’t qualify where I wanted to. We made a bunch of changes to the car during practice sessions which I think helped, and out in qualifying we went the fastest the car has gone, so that’s an improvement.
“We’ll continue to search out things we can do to the car to pick up a little time and we’ll see how it is for the race and try to set up a good race car.
“In practice I think everything went fine out there, but I’m finding that you’ve got to make sure to set the slower cars up and get by them cleanly. You’ve got to know where they are, where you can pass and make sure you know where you are on the track so there are no surprises.”