It has taken the driver 103 races and his team nearly a full three seasons but Johannes van Overbeek and Extreme Speed Motorsports are now ALMS pole winners.

The quick Californian was fastest in final practice and repeated the performance in qualifying to stop the clocks at 1 minute, 45.988 seconds to lead Joerg Mueller and GT points leader Oliver Gavin.

The 2012 season marks a season of firsts for the Florida-based Extreme Speed Motorsports.  In July, ESM earned the team’s first win (Mosport), the first GRAND-AM Rolex Road Racing Series pole (Detroit in June) and has earned a season-best four ALMS podium finishes (Long Beach, Mosport, Road America and Baltimore).

The team’s win in Canada came after the Flying Lizard Motorsports duo of Joerg Bergmeister and Patrick Long were excluded for failing the engine stall test post-race.

After demonstrating today’s speed – van Overbeek and team owner Scott Sharp have a strong chance of earning another win on the road.

“The Ferrari 458 is works really well around here,” van Overbeek said.

We’ve really been working hard to make it better.  Scott did a great job advancing the set-up of the car.  I’m pleased to get the first ALMS pole for ESM and this is a good track to be on pole because passing is really hard and really difficult.  We’ve had some great finishes, we haven’t been so quick in qualifying, so hopefully now that we have some pace in qualifying, that will translate to moving up the podium a little more often.

“I’m thrilled to get my first ALMS pole as well. I’ve been so close so many times over the years. Today is certainly very rewarding.

“Tomorrow we need to get a good start and steer clear of all the errant prototype challenge cars and if we do that, I think we’ll have a good run.  Ultimately it is a four hour race and a lot can happen.  Pole is good for the opening stint and beyond that it doesn’t matter much.”