Bill Auberlen scored BMW’s second American Le Mans Series pole position today as BMW Team RLL locked out the front row in the GT class for tomorrow’s Grand Prix of Baltimore.

He and teammate Joey Hand were 1-2 in qualifying with Corvette Racing’s Tommy Milner and CORE autosport’s Pat Long on the second row.

“The car was really good. The Z4, we knew if it was going to work, it would work here. Its not a big straightaway track and the car handles really well,” Auberlen said.

“We beat up on the car really hard for qualifying but we will go a little easier on it during the race. I made a great lap, but made a huge mistake in turn nine, that was still good enough for pole.

“Then we got one more lap where I lowered my time and then the red flag came out. The race will be tough to pass tomorrow, you have to make a pick or get in a train if you’re going to want to get to the front. Or make up time in the pits. Having the pole here will really give us an advantage.

“You don’t know how you competed against Michelin, until you have them under your car. We’ve raced with lots of different tire manufacturers over my career, but once we came to grips with the super-soft street tire, the one unknown we had going in to this weekend, we really got a handle on the car.”