John Edwards was supposed to be the “super sub” – the stand-in for BMW’s DTM star Joey Hand who could step in to to fill the gap when Hand was busy in Europe.

Today at Lime Rock Park Edwards showed he was more than capable of keeping the seat warm for Hand by taking his first American Le Mans Series pole and heading a BMW 1-2 in qualifying.

“We knew the car was going to be quick here and we also know that it’s going to be tough for us to pass during the race, so qualifying position was really important for us,” Edwards said.

“We thought that if we can get to the front row, that we can stay there. Ultimately that’s what happened as our Michelin tires came coming up during the session all the way to my fast lap. Now we just have to deal with the variables of traffic in the race. Hopefully we can carry this to the first win for the number 56 car.”

Edwards, co-driving with GT points leader Dirk Müller, took the pole with a time 50.996 seconds on his ninth lap of the 1.474-mile, seven-turn Lime Rock circuit. He was the only driver to break into the 50 second bracket.

Maxime Martin, driving the No. 55 Z4 GTE he shares with Bill Auberlen, chased Edwards throughout the 15-minute session ultimately finishing second with a lap of 51.157 seconds, only .161 seconds behind Edwards.