Extreme Speed Motorsports dominated qualifying at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for this week’s TUDOR United SportsCar Championship round – recording its first 1-2 qualifying result today.

Scotsman Ryan Dalziel took the pole with the No.1 ESM Honda HPD machine ahead of teammate Johannes van Overbeek.

Oak Racing’s Gustavo Yacaman made it a 1-2-3 result for the P2-style prototypes by qualifying third. The result surprised the ESM team who expected to struggle against the heavier but more powerful Daytona Prototype machines at the Indy road course layout.

Christian Fittipaldi led the DP machines in fourth ahead of Richard Westbook and Scott Pruett. Championship leaders Jordan and Ricky Taylor were only seventh fastest.

In the GTLM class, Ferrari and Risi Competizione bounced back into contention with pole to Giancarlo Fishichella. The Italian – who finished third in the Indianapolis Formula 1 race here in 2006 – outpaced BMW’s John Edwards and Dodge Viper driver Jonathan Bomarito to score the pole.

“It’s a great day! I’m so happy for everyone at Risi Competizione, the mechanics, the team, Giuseppe Risi and for all our partners,” Fisichella said.

“It was very important for us to get the new Balance of Performance for here, and everyone’s done a great job. The car is much better and I was so comfortable and confident in the car that I think I drove well.

“Pierre (Kaffer) is really strong and on the pace too so I think we can do well for the race tomorrow. That, of course, will be the real test and it might not be quite so easy but we have got a good start for the weekend.”

Other class pole winners included the championship-leading CORE autosport squad in PC with Colin Braun and Turner Motorsport’s Dane Cameron in GTD.

Top three in class:
(1) #1-P Ryan Dalziel (HPD ARX-03b) 1:17.603
(2) #2-P Johannes van Overbeek (HPD ARX-03b) 1:17.879 (0.276-)
(3) #42-P Gustavo Yacaman (Morgan Nissan) 1:17.908 (0.305-)

(10) #54-PC Colin Braun (Oreca FLM 09 Chevrolet) 1:19.849
(11) #09-PC Bruno Junqueira (Oreca FLM 09 Chevrolet) 1:20.076 (0.227-)
(12) #25-PC Luis Diaz (Oreca FLM 09 Chevrolet) 1:20.111 (0.262-)

(22) #62-GTLM Giancarlo Fisichella (Ferrari F458 Italia) 1:22.378
(23) #56-GTLM John Edwards (BMW Z4 GTE) 1:22.442 (0.064-)
(24) #93-GTLM Jonathan Bomarito (Dodge Viper SRT) 1:22.491 (0.113-)

(32) #94-GTD Dane Cameron (BMW Z4) 1:26.058
(33) #33-GTD Jeroen Bleekemolen (Dodge Viper SRT) 1:26.149 (0.091-)
(34) #555-GTD Townsend Bell (Ferrari F458 Italia) 1:26.220 (0.162-)