Watkins Glen, N.Y. (28 June 2014) – Action Express Racing is going for an unprecedented third consecutive victory in the Sahlen’s 6 Hours of the Glen on Sunday, and the team made progress towards that goal on Saturday as Christian Fittipaldi qualified the No. 5 Corvette Daytona Prototype on the outside of the front row for the classic six-hour IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship endurance race at Watkins Glen International.
The sister No. 9 Corvette DP of Jon Fogarty will start the race from the fourth row after he posted a time of 1:39.454-seconds during his qualifying run. The weekend marked his first time back in a Daytona Prototype since joining Action Express Racing at Sebring International Raceway in March.
The team worked through a variety of set-ups with both cars through three practice sessions at the 3.4-mile New York road course on Friday and Saturday, but faced limited practice time on Saturday when multiple red flag periods for on track incidents shortened the green flag running.
But the team made the most of every lap on offer, finding the necessary speed for the 15-minute qualifying session held Saturday evening. Fittipaldi’s fast lap of 1:38.560-seconds was enough to secure the second starting position for he and co-driver Joao Barbosa.
“I’m pretty happy because it’s not like in other places where either we didn’t get a clear run or we made a mistake,” said Fittipaldi of the run. “The car was very good. This was our reality. We’ll take it, the car is very good and we’ll work very hard tomorrow to go for a ‘three-peat’!”
With six hours of racing set for Sunday, Action Express Racing is confident of a strong performance from both team cars as the two-time defending champions not only pursue a ‘three-peat’ but also aim to extend its lead in the North American Endurance Cup Championship.
“We have six hours to go racing for the three of us who haven’t been in the car since Sebring, so it gives us a little bit of time to just settle in and just try to run a smart race,” said Fogarty, who will share the No. 9 Corvette DP with Burt and Brian Frisselle. “Qualifying was comfortable, just a little bit off the pace. I think I know what the car needs to go quicker and I don’t think it will compromise the drivability or comfort. So just little changes and just try to claw our way back up to speed with a paddock of guys who have been running all season. But otherwise the car is good and we’re looking forward to tomorrow.”
Action Express Racing will have a 20-minute warm up session Sunday morning ahead of the race. The Sahlen’s 6 Hours of the Glen will go green at 11:15 AM ET with FOX Sports 1 carrying live television coverage beginning at 11:00 AM ET.
MRN will also broadcast the race on www.mrn.com.
Live timing and scoring is available at scoring.imsa.com.
