Patrick Long took the GT class pole at Lime Rock in the No. 45 Flying Lizard Porsche 911 GT3 RSR. Photo credit: Rick Dole for Michelin North America

Rain affected both the LMP and GT sessions of qualifying for Saturday’s Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park, the fifth round of the 2010 American Le Mans Series season. In changeable conditions, as the rain intensified over the 20-minute session, Patrick Long secured his first and Flying Lizard Porsche’s second pole of the year.

It’s been a long wait for the lone American factory Porsche driver, as the last time he was fastest qualifier was in 2006. The top four were separated by only 0.659 of a second, but Long netted 0.474 of a second over second fastest, the No. 17 Porsche driven by Wolf Henzler.

“The car was all around hooked up,” Long said. “If it’s dry tomorrow that makes things a bit of a challenge but it will be the same for everybody, so with that I’m confident.”

Jaime Melo was third quickest in the No. 62 Risi Ferrari, ahead of the No. 3 Corvette (Jan Magnussen qualified) and No. 61 Risi Ferrari (Mika Salo). The second Corvette and the two Extreme Speed Ferraris were next up, so Michelin technical partner teams secured seven of the top eight positions on the grid.

Before things settled in, the pole changed hands between Corvette, Ferrari and Porsche among five different teams (01, 3, 17, 62 and 45).Long went to 1:03.904, the pole time, on his fifth lap to secure the top spot.

One red flag when Cosmo’s No. 02 Extreme Speed Ferrari spun and stopped on track at the top of the hill halted the session for six minutes, which threw a potential curveball at the teams. If the session did not have 10 minutes of guaranteed green flag track time, times would be erased and set by practice times, and if such a situation arose the No. 62 Risi Ferrari was quickest in practice. But this was remedied by a green flag and all the set times were able to stand.

GTC saw Jeroen Bleekemolen capture his third straight pole in the Black Swan Racing Porsche GT3 Cup in the reduced six-car class.