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| The Preferred Line - Laguna Seca Touring Car Qualifying report |
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Pobst is second quickest for the first time of the day
Randy Pobst gained more ground on Pierre Kleinubing by qualifying 2nd to Kleinubing's 4th which moves Pobst within 9 of Pierre for the championship.
Pobstrecorded a 1:35.767 in his MazdaSpeed/Tri-Point Engineering Mazda 6 which held up for 2nd with Jeff Altenburg 3rd in the #72 Tri-Point Mazda 6 with a time of 35.828.
We have felt so good in the Mazdas and they are handling so well, Randy said of the blue and white Mazdas. Tri-Point has really done some brainy stuff to make that car handle better.
Unfortunately like Atlanta Curran managed to pip us. What happened was towards the middle of the season where the Acuras were consistently winning they adjusted the TSX but not the RSX. And the RSX is just a strong car and Curran is doing a great job.
We had an almost identical qualifying as we did at Atlanta, said Jeff Altenburg who pointed out that the top qualifiers are exactly the same as they were for the previous race at Road Atlanta. Hopefully we will have a different first turn.
I have to win, Pobst said of his chances to beat Kleinubing out of the championship. If Pierre has a decent race I have to race. I have Jeff with me who is a great wingman but we will need someone else in there to finish ahead of Pierre. We will just have to see how the race plays out. We want no yellows. We want the race to go all green like it did at Atlanta.
Altenburg did his best lap on his second hot lap as he seemed to get balked in turn 3 on his first one.
The session was stopped when Kuno Wittmer's engine exploded coming into turn nine. The Autohaus Mercedes C230 dropped a liberal coating of oil which promptly deposited James Sofronas' Tecmark BMW into a gravel trap.
I was evidently the first to get there and as I was coming though 9 the car just snapped out on me just as they were telling me oil in nine' over the radio, Sofronas said. The car did a big lazy spin and hit the gravel and just dug in! I was afraid it would roll.
James had to quickly get out of the car and hightail it on foot back to the pits to get into his GMG Porsche for that qualifying session!
That is unbelievable that it happened to him again, said Pobst of Wittmer's engine failure in qualifying. He's a good driver and a great kid. It is too bad that the car keeps blowing up on him!
Randy Pobst was first in line while the cleanup went along with Kleinubing right behind him but before the session resumed Pierre backed his #42 RealTime Racing Acura TSX out of line.
There was time for one more attempt and Pobst Altenburg and Chip Herr gave it a shot. All three came close but did not improve their times.
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