Ryan Dalziel pulled out a stunning final lap of qualifying to steal pole position at Road America today for Extreme Speed Motorsports – earning back-to-back TUDOR United SportsCar Championship pole positions.

The Scotsman stopped the clocks at 1:55.166 – 3/10th of a second faster than Richard Westbrook’s Corvette Daytona Prototype.

“I thought the first lap was going to be good. But much like Indy, it’s kind of a shocking pole for us,” Dalziel said.

“I think with the P2 cars we can definitely put down big lap times with momentum. Everyone kind of knows at Road America downforce is what keeps those lap times strong. The race will be different for us. The closer we can start to the front on each weekend the better. I was definitely excited and enthusiastic after Indy to start on pole, but it’s going to be tough here for us, there is still a lot of difference between the P2 and the DPs do their laps.”

Dalziel’s qualifying lap both thrilled and terrified the Scottish driver.

“I put the car in places on the last lap that I don’t ever want to do again, so I’m happy the car is still in one piece,” he said.

Christian Fittipaldi was third fastest ahead of Oak Racing’s Olivier Pla.

In the Prototype Challenge class, former Champ Car Road America winner Bruno Junqueira scored the pole ahead of IndyCar racer Jack Hawksworth and Luis Diaz.

Top three in class (overall in parentheses):
(1) #1-P Ryan Dalziel (HPD ARX-03b) 1:55.166
(2) #90-P Richard Westbrook (Corvette DP) 1:55.487 (0.321-)
(3) #5-P Christian Fittipaldi (Corvette DP) 1:55.961 (0.795-)

(12) #09-PC Bruno Junqueira (Oreca FLM 09 Chevrolet) 1:59.411
(13) #08-PC Jack Hawksworth (Oreca FLM 09 Chevrolet) 1:59.493 (0.082-)
(14) #25-PC Luis Diaz (Oreca FLM 09 Chevrolet) 1:59.931 (0.520-)