They won the last race, scored the last pole, won here last year at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and now Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen are set to start from the top spot again after a brilliant effort from the Spaniard today in qualifying.

Garcia stopped the clocks at 1 minute, 22.373 seconds – a new class record for the track – to topple the BMW of John Edwards and the Porsche of Nicky Tandy in qualifying.

The Spanish/Danish duo won the previous round at Long Beach and 12 months ago began their successful championship charge with their first victory as a full-time pairing. They went on to win two more races last year en route to the title.

“Its a good sign. The car worked really good. It was really difficult for this practice situation where you actually never got any clear lap or any clear feel for the car,” Garica said.

“So we were just guessing or taking parts of every single lap we did on different parts just to make the car faster. It was a gamble, but I think I’m on the right team to do it.

“The car was really good out of the box. Jan did most of the practice but that paid off quite a lot because he kept working on the car and making it faster and even if I did just 10 laps in practice two, the car he gave me was really really good.

“The situation, that probably all the drivers got was no visualization of what a qualifying lap would be like because we never got a clear run. But you had to focus, and just close your eyes and take a little bit of risks, for sure. And I think i took most of it.”

Garcia is hopeful his Danish teammate will return the favor from Long Beach when the Spaniard handed over the car to Magnussen with a handy 10 second lead.

“I think the lap was pretty good, right on the limit, I mean the Corvette C7 worked really good. I hope to carry on the momentum that we have, now Jan knows what he needs to do, just give me the car with 10 seconds on the lead and I just finish,” Garcia said.

“This race track has a nice history with Corvette Racing. Last year we were up front and ended up winning. And now with the C7.R it looks like even better. I think the guys did tremendous work back home, and even if we have a very limited time of practice, maybe that is a good thing.

“Maybe if you give more time to the other people, they will get closer. The car worked really good, and I did a pretty good lap also.”