Ford, Porsche on pole for BMW Performance 200 at Daytona
Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge season opener runs Friday afternoon.
Photo by: Art Fleischmann
DAYTONA BEACH – The last time Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge team owner and co-driver Jeff Mosing missed a race, it was a painful occasion: Back spasms kept him out of the cockpit at last year’s event at Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca. Still, he and his teammate, Eric Foss, went on to win the season championship.
For the first race of the 2015 season, Mosing is again among the missing, but this time, it’s a happier occasion: Fill-in driver Justin Piscitell said Mosing’s wife is pregnant, and due to give birth right about the time the green flag drops on Friday’s BMW Performance 200.
But there is a reason by Piscitell, of Patterson, New York, is earning a reputation as being a “super sub” in the sports car series: He put the Murillo Racing Porsche Cayman on the pole for the 31-car Street Tuner class during qualifying Thursday.
“The car felt great,” he said. The qualifying lap, he said, benefitted from the draft from cars in front of him. His speed of 102.157 mph was just ahead of the second-place BimmerWorld Racing BMW 328i of Jason Briedis and James Clay, with a 102.150 mph lap. In third was another Porsche Cayman, the number 18 RSI entry driven by Jon Miller and Adam Isman with a lap at 102.134 mph.
Maxwell back on top in GS
In the faster Grand Sport class, Ford Mustang specialist Scott Maxwell put the Multimatic Ford Mustang Boss 302R on the pole, his ninth, with a fast lap of 109.990 mph around the 3.56-mile road course. Maxwell said he didn’t need the draft to set fast time – “I went out by myself,” he said, because in the end, relying on the draft can help you, or hurt you.
Second was the Rum Bum Porsche 911 of Matt Plumb and his brother Hugh, with a lap of 109.746 mph. Third was the Stevenson Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro Z/28.R of Andrew Davis and Robin Liddell, which was the fastest car in the second practice session Wednesday. They came up a little short with a lap of 109.594 mph. Twenty-two cars in the GS class took time.
The season-opening, 150-minute BMW Performance 200 starts at 1:45 p.m. on Friday.
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