WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. – Andy Lally will start on pole for Sunday’s Trans-Am Series presented by Pirelli event at Watkins Glen Int’l as he makes his series debut in the No. 50 GoShare/ Axalta Chevrolet Camaro.
Also starting in front of their respective groups in the 102-mile, 30-lap multiclass competition will be Cindi Lux, in the No. 45 Lux Performance Dodge Challenger, and Brian Kleeman in the No. 07 DWW Motorsports Ford Mustang.
Lally captured pole by way of a 1:46.934-lap, shattering the existing qualifying track record 1:51.725-lap turned by Paul Fix in 2016, a mark passed by seven TA class qualifiers. For Lally, a veteran of all forms of motorsport, Sunday’s race marks the fulfillment of a long-standing desire to step behind the wheel of a TA class car.
“I’ve been wanting to race in this series for 21 years,” said Lally. “I got to go to Long Beach with Bob Ruman back in ‘96 and met Tommy Kendall there. I was just coming up the open wheel ranks and had been doing some sports car stuff at the same time, and really loved what I saw in Trans-Am. Back as a kid, being in the pits… it was pretty wild. It took 21 years to find a ride here; I’ve been fortunate to find rides and race all kinds of stuff but I had never found a Trans-Am ride. It’s an amazing car. It’s a lot of fun; the Burtin Racing guys have been great. It’s cool to be able to relate with some buddies of mine like Tony Ave and Amy Ruman and go out and mix it up with some of the guys I’ve been watching for the past couple years.”
“I was here two months ago in the Acura NSX in the Six Hours of The Glen and boy it’s quite a different ride,” said Lally. “I’ve run here in a Monster Energy Cup car, an XFINITY car, in prototypes — this is kind of a cross between an XFINITY car and a Daytona Prototype —it’s a little higher center of gravity and a little boxier but does it have a ton of horsepower. That’s the fun part. I like cars that are built tough, look like the cars you see on the street and have a ton of horsepower — and that’s this Series in a nutshell.”
Starting alongside Lally in Sunday’s race will be current points leader and winner of six races this year Ernie Francis Jr., who turned a 1:47.494-lap of his own. Francis has only missed pole in three Trans-Am competitions this season and was victorious in two of those competitions, finishing on podium in the third.
Paul Fix, making a Trans-Am return in the No. 4 StopFlex/Classic Tube/ Car Coach Chevrolet Corvette, completed the TA class qualifying top three with a time of 1:48.530.
In TA3, veteran Cindi Lux, in the No. 45 Lux Performance Dodge Viper, captured her first pole of the 2017 season with a 1:55.040-lap, also a new track record. Lux’s time eclipsed the prior TA3 qualifying record, a 2:05.900 set last year — showcasing the new Pirelli tire package and the Viper’s V10.
In TA4, Brian Kleeman stretched his pole tally to six across seven races from behind the wheel of the No. 07 DWW Motorsports Ford Mustang with a record 2:00.699 lap of his own, breaking the existing record by over six seconds.
Source : speedsport.com
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