BMW Team RLL will start from the second and fifth starting positions in tomorrows 2.75-hour Brickyard Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. The race is the seventh round of the 2014 TUDOR United Sports Car Championship and marks the first time BMW Team RLL has raced at the most famous racetrack in North America.
John Edwards qualified the No.56 BMW Z4 on the outside of the GTLM class front row with a time of 1:22.442 minutes around the 2.439-mile, 14-turn circuit only .064 seconds from the pole winning Ferrari of Giancarlo Fisichella. The result is the third time this season the No. 56 Z4 has qualified second. Edwards and co-driver Dirk Müller stand fifth in GTLM driver points.
Bill Auberlen qualified the No. 55 BMW Z4 fifth with a time of 1:22.563 minutes, .185 seconds from the pole time. The entire 10-car GTLM class qualified within .859 seconds, the top-seven within some .300 seconds. Auberlen and co-driver Andy Priaulx currently stand in a tie for second in GTLM driver points.
I think the team did a good job today, said Jay OConnell, VP Technology RLL.
John certainly got the most out of 56 car by putting in a really strong performance and qualifying second. Bill was equally strong in the 55 car with some fast sectors, but just couldnt put a complete lap together. Having the top seven cars qualify within three tenths of a second is impressive. It should be quite a race tomorrow.
John Edwards, driver No. 56 Z4 GTLM (2nd) This is a hard track to get a rhythm, and that makes it hard to get every sector put together for the whole lap. There are three really hard braking zones, and that is where things can get a little wrong. If you get two right and one just a little off, when the times are half a tenth separating most of the positions, that can make a huge difference. It was a little nail biting and I think the guys on the timing stand may have written us off when we were down in P6. It didnt look like we were going to go any quicker. Fortunately I got all my sectors together in the end and we are just a half a tenth off P1. I think we can be happy with our effort today.
Bill Auberlen, driver No. 55 Z4 GTLM (5th) Andy and I have been P1 most of the time in todays free practice. In the first session we were P1 right to the very end until we dropped a place or two, but knew we had a good car. In the second session we were solidly in P1, but now we qualified P5. We tried a bit of a gamble and it did not pay off. We are making the change back and should go racing with a very strong car.
The Brickyard Grand Prix will take the green flag at 5:45 p.m. ET Friday, July 25th. The race will be broadcast live on Fox Sports 1 with coverage beginning at 5:30 p.m. ET. Follow BMW Team RLL on Twitter at @BMWUSARacing for from-the-pit-box updates all weekend. More information on the program can be found at www.bmwusa.com and www.imsa.com.
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