Scott Pruett is riding tall in Texas after winning the Prototype pole for Saturday’s Lone Star Le Mans at Circuit of the Americas. Pruett notched his first TUDOR series pole of the season and the second of his career with a best lap of 1:58.441 (103.343 mph) in Ganassi Racing’s No. 01 Ford EcoBoost Riley DP.

“It’s been a tough season for us,” said Pruett, the defending race winner at COTA. “We haven’t got to Victory Lane yet this season, so all we’re focused on is winning. Hopefully we can repeat in front of the crowd here in Austin.”

Pruett edged Ozz Negri in the MSR Racing Ligier-Honda P2 for the pole by a scant seven hundredths of a second. Team owner Mike Shank explained that his strategy to beat the heat at COTA will be to start Negri, put co-driver John Pew in for the middle stint, and then finish the race with Negri at the wheel – a plan that commits the team to an additional driver change. The Michael Shank Racing entry is flying the Union Jack and special graphics in tribute to the late Justin Wilson.

A quartet of Corvette DPs qualified third through sixth, with Christian Fittipaldi, Jordan Taylor, Eric Curran, and Michael Valiante in pursuit of Pruett. Valiante briefly beached the championship-leading No. 90 Corvette DP at the apex of Turn 1 with an apparent fuel problem, but was able to restart and continue.

Chris Cumming put RSR Racing’s No. 11 Oreca on the pole in the Prototype Challenge class. Cumming edged Matt McMurry in the No. 85 JDC/Miller Motorsports Oreca by .475 seconds to take his second PC pole of the season and third of his career.

The Lone Star Le Mans, Round 11 of the 2015 TUDOR Championship, will be televised live on FOX Sports 2, beginning at 12:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, Sept. 19. The race will be rebroadcast on FOX Sports 1 on Sunday, Sept. 20, beginning at 1:30 p.m. ET.