Cocker Captures 2nd Consecutive ALMS Pole for Drayson Racing at Road America
21 August 2010
Cocker Captures 2nd Consecutive ALMS Pole for Drayson Racing at Road America
ELKHART LAKE, WI, USA – Drayson Racing captured its second, consecutive American Le Mans Series (ALMS) pole position today here at Road America. With a lap of one-minute, 49.554 seconds over the 4.048-mile/6.51Km, 14-turn, Wisconsin facility, Jonny Cocker (Guisborough, Yorks, UK) earned the team’s second-career ALMS pole in decisive fashion. The No.8 Drayson Racing Lola Coupé with Judd Power dominated the Le Mans Prototype (LMP) qualifying taking the top spot by a remarkable 1.321 seconds over the field! Paul Drayson (Gloucestershire, UK) will start tomorrow’s two-hour and 45-minute, multi-class race before handing over the British Racing Green, closed-cockpit racer to Cocker for the finish.
Through his commanding performance, Cocker became the first driver this year to take pole position more than once this season. Whilst other entries have won two pole positions, no one-driver has done so. Like the 6 August overall pole position at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, both of Drayson Racing’s two quickest laps today would have placed the Dale White (Bozeman, MT, USA) managed team first on the grid for Sunday’s 14:05 (CT) start.
Despite the dominant performance in qualifying, Sunday’s race at the picturesque circuit - considered among America’s best race courses - promises to be heated. Whilst Drayson Racing is yet to win overall – the United Kingdom-based programme has a career-high, second-place finish scored earlier this year at Salt Lake City – the organisation has pressed the more veteran and manufacturer teams regularly throughout the year. Road America’s long, front-straightaway and fast turns are a perfect match to the Lola-Judd’s strengths and Paul Drayson and Jonny Cocker’s driving styles. All combined; the car, engine and Michelin tyres work extremely well here and that has shown in the team’s performance throughout practice and qualifying.
Live timing and scoring of all sessions can be found at www.americanlemans.com. The live radio call by Radio Le Mans can be heard at www.radiolemans.com and on Sirius Channel 127 and XM Channel 242. Television coverage of Sunday’s feature can be seen live in North America on SPEED at 3:05 pm (ET). UK and European viewers can view the broadcast on tape delay, 29 August on MotorsTV at 17:00 (UK)/18:00 (CET).
Quotes
Paul Drayson/Owner/Driver: “Brilliant performance by Jonny again. He just keeps getting quicker and quicker! We are delighted by the way the whole team has performed this week and that’s been underlined by the great qualifying result today. Road America is a one of the world’s best circuits and the Lola-Judd is electrifying to drive here. It’s so fast!”
Jonny Cocker/Driver: “It’s a fantastic feeling to be on the pole here at Road America and knowing that the car is in great shape for the race tomorrow. Everybody at Drayson Racing has done a fantastic job and the car keeps on getting better and better. The Michelin Tyres were absolutely spot-on today as they have been all year. The remainder of the season should be very exciting.”
Dale White/Team Manager: “Two in a row! That’s great. Jonny had an incredible run, Paul’s time are right there and the team has done a terrific job all week. We really have found our momentum and we are looking forward to carrying it into the race tomorrow.”
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