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SCC: Mid-Ohio: Qualifying summary

Segal Takes Pole for Sunday's Grand-Am Cup 200 at Mid-Ohio LEXINGTON, Ohio (June 24, 2006) -- Jeff Segal posted a lap time of 1:34.450 (86.065 mph) in the No. 90 Engine Studios/Land Air BMW M3 for Automatic Racing to claim the pole position for ...

Segal Takes Pole for Sunday's Grand-Am Cup 200 at Mid-Ohio

LEXINGTON, Ohio (June 24, 2006) -- Jeff Segal posted a lap time of 1:34.450 (86.065 mph) in the No. 90 Engine Studios/Land Air BMW M3 for Automatic Racing to claim the pole position for Sunday's Grand-Am Cup 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

It is the first career Grand-Am Cup pole position for Segal, who is co-driving this weekend with Portugal's Joao Barbosa. The duo's best finish of the season came at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, where Segal and Barbosa drove to a third-place overall finish.

"The first few laps were pretty slow," said Segal. "I thought Lap 1 or 2 would be the good ones, but they weren't. I was a little bit disappointed with how slow they were. I just went back out there and really went for it after the black flag. I put a lap together, made a couple of mistakes, but it was pretty good, so we'll take it. We have one podium so far this year, a couple DNFs, so we want to put together a good run. I'm driving with Joao Barbosa, so I know he's going to do a great job. Hopefully, we'll just be there at the end and I'm sure we'll be up front."

Dwain Dement qualified second in the No. 03 Bernheim Law Offices Porsche 996, logging a time at 1:34.563 (85.962 mph). Dement shares the No. 03 machine with team owner/co-driver Steve Bernheim, and the duo has scored top-10 finishes twice this season.

"Once again, the crew at Vision Motorsports that sets the car up initially and then the crew with Bernheim Racing here put us together a car that works," said Dement. "I point it and stab it and it goes where we want it to go. This is a really technical race track. A lot of patience is involved here. This car sets perfect and shoots down the straightaway just like you want it to go, so I'm really happy with it."

Qualifying third was Anders Hainer in the No. 97 Turner Motorsport BMW M3, with a lap at 1:34.675 (85.860 mph). Hainer is co-driving the machine with Joey Hand, who is filling in for regular driver Boris Said. It is the best qualifying position of the season for Hainer, who scored his only career Grand-Am Cup victory in 2004 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Automatic Racing's second machine qualified fourth, as Emil Assentato posted a lap at 1:34.742 (85.799 mph) in the No. 91 Engine Music Studios/ Imported Car Store/Fikse Wheels BMW M3 he is sharing with Nick Longhi. Series points co-leaders Andy Lally and Spencer Pumpelly will start fifth, as Lally posted a lap at 1:34.845 (85.706 mph) in the No. 49 Porsche of Lexington/ TGB Scooters/ Formal Transportation Porsche 997. Lally and Pumpelly come into the weekend holding a slim three-point edge over Hainer and Said in the current point standings (118-115).

POINTS LEADER HOLTOM PUTS NO. 01 COBALT ON MID-OHIO POLE

Canada's Jamie Holtom, the Grand-Am Cup Series Street Tuner points co-leader, made another championship statement Saturday, posting a qualifying best lap time of 1:38.184 (82.791 mph) in the No. 01 Scadapack/GM Performance Division Chevrolet Cobalt SS to claim the ST class pole position for Sunday's Grand-Am Cup 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

Holtom and co-driver Eric Curran have three ST class victories in five events this season, including wins at Virginia International Raceway and Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, as well as at Lime Rock Park last time out. The duo currently leads the Grand-Am Cup ST point standings by a healthy 27-point margin over No. 95 Turner Motorsport BMW 330i co-drivers Will Turner and Don Salama (163-136).

"That was a really great run," said Holtom. "I really strung together the perfect lap there. I didn't push too hard, the car stayed under me the whole time, the brakes were amazing, and the directional control of the car was amazing. I was able just to really drive the car on the edge and maintain it throughout the lap and pull it off. Hopefully, we'll be able to lead from the pole and maybe build up a gap. I heard that the times were very, very competitive. Hopefully, we'll be able make a train and sort of settle things toward the end of our stint."

Defending Grand-Am Cup ST champion David Haskell qualified second, logging a lap time of 1:38.309 (82.686 mph) in the No. 70 SpeedSource Mazda RX-8. Haskell and co-driver Sylvain Tremblay drove to a series-best five victories in 2005, but their best class finish of this season is fifth--at Lime Rock and Phoenix International Raceway.

"It's real nice," said Haskell, who also shared the 2004 ST title with Tremblay. "I love doing this for the guys, because they work so hard. It's just been a tough year for us, but we're not going to give up. We've been in worse situations before, and anything can happen. I think we had a shot at the pole, we just got stuck in some traffic. I'm not making any excuses, and we'll take second, believe me. Congratulations to Jamie on his pole. It's a long race tomorrow, so we'll see. We've got to stay out of trouble. It's a tough race. This track is just tough. Everybody is really close, so I think whoever comes through clean will be in good shape at the end."

Mike Speck qualified third in the No. 41 HRPworld.com/GOJO/Hawk/Hagemeyer Dodge SRT4, in his first Grand-Am Cup Series start of the season, with a time of 1:38.511 (82.517 mph). Turner was fourth in the No. 96 BMW, posting a time of 1:38.543 (82.490 mph), followed by Travis Walker in the No. 75 Skunk2/Hondata/Hawk/KHF Acura RSX-S for Kensai Racing.

-garra

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