Road Atlanta: Michelin qualifying notes

Audi; Prodrive Ferrari and AJR Porsche all Claim Poles with Michelin.

* Keeping its season long American LeMans Series performance stampede at full roar, Michelin teams dominated today's qualifying for the Petit LeMans at Road Atlanta, claiming the poles in all three classes Michelin entered.

* Taking the overall race pole and LMP 900 honors was the #1 Audi R8 of Frank Biela who scorched the 2.540 mile track at an average speed of 128.899 miles per hour to nip Audi teammate Tom Kristensen by just over one tenth of a second.

* Topping the Corvettes and Saleens to claim its second GTS class pole in the last three ALMS races was the Prodrive Ferrari Maranello 550 driven by Tomas Enge.

* Taking the GT class pole was the Alex Job Racing #22 Porsche driven by Jorg Bergmeister.

* Today's race pole completes a sweep of the overall race and LMP900 poles at all ten ALMS events by Michelin teams.

* Michelin fitted teams have also swept the GT class poles at all ten ALMS events.

* Earlier this year, Michelin teams swept the poles in all four classes at the 24 Hours of LeMans. Michelin teams have won the famed endurance classic for the last five consecutive years.

* "We have been spending most of our time here working on race setups, not qualifying, so we are very pleased that our teams will be starting up front in the Petit LeMans,"said Herb Johnson, Director of Motorsports for Michelin North America. "Our partner teams were able to set quick times in a very limited number of laps (Audi-4 ); (Ferrari-6) and (Porsche-5) which is a good sign," said Johnson.

* A team of 36 Michelin engineers, tire fitters and operations managers are on site with over 3,000 tires to support the 14 Michelin entries at Road Atlanta for the 10 Hour/1,000 mile Petit LeMans. Michelin dedicates an engineer to each of its teams. "We are pleased to have claimed three poles, now we want to follow those up with the wins," said Johnson

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