Monterey, Calif. (3 May 2014) – Action Express Racing will open Sunday’s Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca from fifth on the grid following a quick 15-minute qualifying session Saturday evening. Christian Fittipaldi posted the fifth quickest time of the session in the No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette Daytona Prototype with a fast lap of 1:19.175-seconds.

With all four classes running together throughout Saturday’s practice sessions, traffic was a major factor around the 2.238-mile road course. But qualifying was a different story with the P cars having much more room to maneuver and find a fast lap. It was an intense session as the top-five cars had plenty of open track and swapped positions atop the chart with each lap. As the session continued, Fittipaldi posted his best lap late in the session on Lap 11 as the No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP continued to build speed through the session.

“We’ve definitely made improvements to the car,” said Fittipaldi. “Maybe we still lacked a little bit but I’m pretty happy. I think that the P2 cars really show their superiority here. In the same way that maybe we had a small advantage at Daytona, I think they have a small advantage on us here. Now we need another small gain for tomorrow. All in all I think it was a good effort for everyone and I’m really happy that two championship contenders are starting behind us. We need to look at the big picture. As I mentioned a couple of times, if tomorrow we are in a position to win the race, we’re going to fight with everything we have to win the race but if we’re not, we’re definitely going to score the points.”

Action Express Racing will look to maintain its championship lead with a solid result in Sunday’s Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix which begins at 2:45 PM (PST) and will be televised live on FOX Sports 1.