2014 News

Front Row Start for ESM Patrón at Detroit

31 May 2014
detroit qualDalziel a mere 0.018 seconds from pole position  
 
DETROIT, Mich. – Extreme Speed Motorsports (ESM) will start on the front row Saturday for the Chevrolet Sports Car Classic presented by the Metro Detroit Chevy Dealers. Ryan Dalziel in the No. 1 Tequila Patrón Honda Performance Development ARX-03b (HPD) clocked a lap time of 1:25.029 (99.495 mph) just moments before the end of Friday’s qualifying. It looked as if ESM was about to score its second consecutive pole position in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship. Unfortunately, another race car ousted Dalziel and the Tequila Patrón team by just 0.018 seconds.
 
The No. 1 Tequila Patrón team of Dalziel and Scott Sharp will start second, the outside pole, for Saturday afternoon’s race. After two practice sessions, the No. 1 Tequila Patrón HPD made the right adjustments to optimize its qualifying performance. Sharp will start the race for the No. 1 machine and Dalziel will drive to the checkered flag in the 100-minute race.
 
Johannes van Overbeek, co-driver of the No. 2 Tequila Patrón Honda Performance Development ARX-03b (HPD) with Ed Brown, posted the seventh quickest lap of the 15-minute qualifying session. Van Overbeek lapped the 13-turn, 2.35-mile temporary street layout with a best time of 1:26.192 (98.153 mph). Brown is slated to start and van Overbeek will wheel the car second.
 
The Chevrolet Sports Car Classic presented by the Metro Detroit Chevy Dealers is the fifth race of 2014 TUDOR United SportsCar Championship. Green flag is 12:15 p.m. ET on Saturday, May 31.  
 
Television coverage of the Chevrolet Sports Car Classic starts at 1:30 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1. The race will also stream live on IMSA.com.
 
 
RYAN DALZIEL
“Detroit is not somewhere you can come and drive at 90 percent. It is 110 percent. The car has been great all day. I think every on the No. 1 team really needed a nice qualifying run. I thought we had the pole but it was just the way the checkered flew and I made a little bit of a mistake on my last lap. I’m really happy with the run. We get to be on the front row and hopefully we can get this HPD up front for ESM and Tequila Patrón.
 
“Since we rolled of the truck, we’ve made minimal changes. We find ourselves at our default setup which was good at Long Beach and we feel like we’ve made a step forward on Detroit’s track. We really don’t have any complaints. We’re a little bit disappointed not to get the pole, but for a street course we weren’t sure where we were going to stack up time-wise. I think we made huge steps since Long Beach to have a good car.
 
“Front row here is good. I think it will be hard to pass here. It would have been nice to have both cars on the front row. I think we’re going to have a strong race. We always have a reliable car with Honda and we have momentum with the No. 2 car winning at Laguna Seca, so hopefully, we can get that double-podium here and a victory for the No. 1 team.”  
 
 
JOHANNES VAN OVERBEEK
“We lost our radio at the start of qualifying, so I was a bit out of sorts with where we were on the timing sheets. The No. 1 car did a great job in getting the front row. We just missed it a little bit today.
 
“The track is hard to drive. We’re all over the place – a little oversteer and a little understeer, so we need to give some thought to it tonight and make the appropriate changes from tomorrow. I think we know what we need to do to make the car better. The No. 2 crew put together a great race car for us at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and they will do the same for us here.”