Trois-Rivieres: Alex Job Racing qualifying notes

Trois-Rivières
qualifying, Aug. 2, 2002

one-two

Alex Job Racing qualified first and second in the GT class for the first American Le Mans Series race in Trois-Rivières, Qué., scheduled for Saturday afternoon. Lucas Luhr qualified on the class pole in the No. 23 McKenna Xybernaut Porsche, covering the 1.52-mile street circuit in one minute 6.740 seconds. The effort brought him within one championship point of his co-driver, GT points leader Sascha Maassen. Jörg Bergmeister and Timo Bernhard will start second in class after Bergmeister qualified the No. 22 Porsche in 1:06.894.

"I had an easy job," Luhr noted. "I just did one timed lap. I think it could have been a little bit better if I'd done two warm-up laps because the circuit is really short, so the front tires weren't up to temperature as they should be. But it was still okay. The car is good and we have good setup, so now we start working for the race."

Bergmeister was happy with his time, also set in one fast lap. "We made some changes on the car that were pretty good," he said. "I still had some problems with turn-in understeer, but that's okay for one lap. I'm happy with P2 [position 2], just one-tenth [of a second] behind Lucas."

tops in tennis

Q: When does a GT driver finish ahead of a prototype driver? A: When they play tennis.

Sascha Maassen was the victor in a match with Audi driver Tom Kristensen on Thursday. "He was already practicing when I got there and he chose the racquets," Kristensen explained. "He is certainly a great player and he would have gone far in that world if he'd chosen that route. Next time, I'll play with my right hand!"

Maassen replied, "He's absolutely right. I'm very happy he knows every excuse possible - I have no problem letting him practice his excuses, as well as tennis."

-ajr/sp-