Utah: Series warm-up report

              FAMILIAR FACES IN FAMILIAR PLACES IN UTAH WARMUP

                Pole-sitter Pagenaud quickest Sunday morning

Simon Pagenaud went quickest in Sunday morning's 25-minute warmup for the American Le Mans Series' Larry H. Miller Dealerships Utah Grand Prix, a day after he took pole position for the fourth round of the season. The star Frenchman turned a lap of 1:34.183 (116.505 mph) in the XM Acura ARX-02a prototype that he will drive with teammate and team owner Gil de Ferran.

De Ferran and Pagenaud made their American Le Mans Series debut a year ago at Miller Motorsports Park with a third-place overall and LMP2 finish. They moved up to LMP1 for 2009 and were winners at Long Beach in the most recent Series round.

Three of the four fastest drivers in class also won pole positions in Saturday's qualifying.

Class championship co-leader David Brabham was 1.081 seconds in the Patron Highcroft Racing Acura that he is driving with Scott Sharp. The pairing scored Acura's first LMP1 victory at St. Petersburg in the second race of the year. Intersport Racing's AER-powered Lola B06/10 of Clint Field, Jon Field and Chapman Ducote was third in class and sixth overall at 1:37.002 (113.119 mph).

Dyson Racing put both its Mazda-powered Lola B09/86 coupes on top in LMP2. Chris Dyson went fastest in the prototype that he will drive with Guy Smith thanks to a best lap of 1:36.249 (114.004 mph) that was third fastest overall. Dyson was 0.377 seconds quicker than the sister car of Butch Leitzinger and Marino Franchitti.

Pole-winners were also fastest in both the GT2 and new Challenge classes. Jorg Bergmeister went quickest in GT2 for Flying Lizard Motorsports. His time of 1:48.524 (101.109 mph) in the Porsche 911 GT3 RSR that he will drive with Patrick Long was good enough for a 0.439-second gap to the Farnbacher Loles Racing Porsche of Wolf Henzler and Marc Lieb.

Carl Skerlong posted the best Challenge class time in the Gruppe Orange Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car that he will drive with Nick Parker. Skerlong's best lap was a 1:57.120 (93.689 mph). He was comfortably ahead of the second Gruppe Orange entry of Bob Faieta and Wesley Hoaglund.

-credit: alms