Simon Pagenaud, No. 1 Highcroft HPD ARX 01-c. Photo credit: Rick Dole for Michelin North America

They haven’t needed the pole en route to their last two American Le Mans Series victories, but in their quest for a third, Patron Highcroft Racing starts from the prime position in Utah. Simon Pagenaud secured his first pole of the season and fifth career. He also scored the overall pole at Miller Motorsports Park last year driving for de Ferran Motorsports.

“The key for us all is about momentum,” Pagenaud said. “We have to carry as much momentum as possible into turn one and try to carry it all the way around for the entire lap. David (Brabham) did a great job working on our set-up in the morning practice and I tried to build on that this afternoon. Michelin has done a great job. We ran the same set of tires in both the morning practice and in the afternoon. They were very consistent and we need that.”

Pagenaud waited until halfway through the session to set the mark. While four of the other five prototypes in LMP held the pole at some point, Pagenaud in the HPD ARX 01-c powered through with the three fastest laps of the session in succession.

The fastest, at 1:34.350 set on his seventh lap, was 0.536 of a second clear of Jonny Cocker in the Drayson Racing Lola Judd Coupe. It’s the best start in the ALMS for Drayson Racing as Cocker and Emanuele Pirro line up on the outside of the front row.

The pole changed hands between Pagenaud, Cocker, Chris Dyson in the Dyson Racing Lola Mazda Coupe, Klaus Graf in the Muscle Milk Team CytoSport Porsche RS Spyder, and Jon Field in the Intersport Lola AER. Until Pagenaud’s time, the top three were separated by less than three tenths of a second.

Gunnar Jeannette, in his home race aboard the Green Earth Team Gunnar Oreca FLM09, secured the LMPC class pole and will start seventh overall. It is Jeannette’s second pole of the season (Sebring). He edged Christophe Bouchut in the Level 5 car by 0.210 of a second.