CORE Autosport have claimed the first Prototype Challenge (PC) pole of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship era on the speedway at Daytona.
This is the team’s first visit to Daytona and will be hoping that the merger between the American Le Mans Series and Grand-Am won’t stop them from claiming a fourth PC title.
CORE put regular driver Colin Braun behind the wheel of the Oreca FLM 09 and their faith was rewarded as Braun clocked a time of 1:41.777 – faster than three Prototype class cars, all of which were LMP2 machines.
Indeed Braun has experience of qualifying on pole at Daytona, he scored pole position in 2009 in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and is excited about being the first driver to score PC pole at the Florida track:
“The car felt really good, but it’s a bit surprising to get the pole, because I feel like we have a better race car than a qualifying car.
“The PC qualifying sessions are tough. Sometimes it seems like the best laps come early, other times, the best laps come late. For us, we focused on driving the car to the limit at the end. The goal was to put in the best lap at the end and that worked out perfect.
“The PC class has always been pretty tough with strong teams and drivers. I think at Daytona, the field is always deeper. That’s what’s cool about coming here and merging everyone together. This is the top level of sports cars in the U.S.
“This is my 10th Rolex 24, but I’ve never been on the pole before. It’s also fun that it’s the first race of the merged series, so I guess I’m the first driver to record a pole in PC!”
