Pobst, Cunningham and Cooper Break Qualifying Track Records En Route to Pirelli World Challenge Class Poles at the Cadillac Mid-Ohio Grand Prix

LEXINGTON, Ohio (August 3, 2012) - Randy Pobst, of Gainesville, Ga., Peter Cunningham, of Milwaukee, Wis., and Michael Cooper, of Syosset, N.Y., set new Pirelli World Challenge qualifying records at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in qualifying for Saturday's first race of the Cadillac Mid-Ohio Grand Prix Presented by StopTech.

Each class was allotted 12 minutes for qualifying. In the GT session, Pobst - who also led practice earlier in the day - easily broke Patrick Long's year-old qualifying record of 1:23.967 (96.809 mph) with a lap of 1:22.693 (98.301 mph) in the No. 6 K-PAX Racing Volvo S60.

It was the fourth pole position of the season and the 39th of Pobst's World Challenge career. He will be joined on the front row by his K-PAX Racing teammate, Alex Figge, of Denver, Colo.

"The phoenix has risen from the ashes," Pobst exclaimed. "We had a little fire problem back at Mosport with the No. 6 K-PAX Volvo and it's so good to be back with the car. It's better than ever. I mean, it was fast at Mosport, it's a fast race car, and we just did squeak out my teammate, Alex Figge, so it's 1-2 for the K-PAX Volvo team.

"We've got a rolling start for tomorrow, which is going to be a new wrinkle. We normally have a big advantage on the standing start and on a rolling start we don't have that because of our all-wheel drive, so it's going to be good to be on the front row. I've done a lot of starts here at Mid-Ohio. We're going to be in good shape. We're going to have to see if our cars can hold up in the heat and in the race tomorrow afternoon. Who knows? Maybe it'll even rain. Big credit to K-PAX Volvo for repairing this No. 6 car, bringing it back out and helping me get the S60 on the pole and Alex in second place. Front row for the K-PAX Volvos!"

Figge starts second on the strength of a lap at 1:22.744 (98.240 mph) in the No. 9 K-PAX Racing Volvo S60. He won the first race of the World Challenge doubleheader at Mid-Ohio last year and will be looking for a repeat of that performance on Saturday.

Andy Pilgrim, of Boca Raton, Fla., will start third in the No. 8 Cadillac