Mid-Ohio: Porsche qualifying report

Alex Job Racing, Petersen Motorsports grab top GT spots for Porsche at Mid-Ohio Alms Race scheduled for Sunday; live on The Speed Channels.

ATLANTA, Georgia - June 29 - The Alex Job Racing Xybernaut McKenna Porsches 911 GT3 RS looked to be headed for a one-two GT qualifying result Saturday at Mid-Ohio, but British veteran Johnny Mowlem ran a fast lap near the end of the 20-minute session to put the Petersen Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 RS in second place.

German driver Sascha Maassen put the #23 Alex Job Racing Porsche on the pole by running only two laps, and Maassen said it was just what they wanted to accomplish.

"On the first lap, the car felt really go - the best it had all weekend - so I decided to push like hell on my second lap and turned my fastest lap of the weekend. Since we have to start on the same tires we use for qualifying, I came back in right away and we held on to the pole," said Maassen.

Timo Bernhard, in the #22 Alex Job Porsche, looked like he had secured second place for himself and co-driver Jorg Bergmeister, had come back in after three laps when Mowlem took his Petersen Motorsport Porsche and turned a fast lap near the end of the session to gain second. Bernhard was third, with the #79 J3 Racing Porsche of Mike Fitzgerald/Justin Jackson fourth.

Peter Baron put the #43 Orbit Racing Porsche in the fifth position, while Kevin Buckler, recent winner at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, was sixth in The Races Group Porsche he qualified for himself and local formula car champion B.J. Zacharias from Cincinnati.

After turning the fastest time yesterday in one of the practice sessions, The Larry Schumacher Racing Porsche 911 GT3 RS with David Murry fell to seventh on the grid in qualifying. Eight was the Porschehaus Racing Porsche of Adam Merzon/Robert Julien, while the Tony Kester/Gary Schultheis Orbit Porsche was ninth.

Only 2.9 seconds separate all nine GT cars for tomorrow's event.

The American Le Mans Series Grand Prix of Sonoma will be broadcast live on the Speed Channel network starting at 2:00 PM Eastern time on Sunday, June 30. The race will be broadcast in Europe on a tape-delayed basis on Sunday, July 7, at 20:00 Central European Time on the Eurosport television network. The Mid-Ohio event will be broadcast live online on the American Le Mans Radio Network, which can be accessed on the Web at www.imsaracing.net. That same American Le Mans Series/IMSA web site will also have live timing and scoring during the race event.

The official Porsche web site - www.porsche.com - will have information on the Mid-Ohio event for all the Porsches entered, and will file stories and photos during and after the race.

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