Jonathan Bomarito speeds through turn seven on his way to a track record at Road America. [Andy Clary Photo]
Elkhart Lake, WI – Jonathan Bomarito not only broke the track record at Road America on Saturday afternoon, he crushed the field in doing so.
Driving the #55 Mazda Prototype, Bomarito’s quickest lap of 1 minute 54.507 seconds was 1.152 seconds faster than his closest competitor, Christian Fittipaldi in the Corvette DP.
Only slowed by a red flag when John Pew’s Honda needed to be pulled out of the sand trap in turn three, Bomarito had already set a new track record. In the four minutes left in the session following the red flag, Bomarito went out and bested that record with another record lap, just over fourth tenths of a second faster.
Fittipaldi moved ahead of Ricky Taylor in the Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette in the final portion of the session, but had nothing for Bomarito’s Mazda.
Quickest in the PC class, driving the Oreca FLM09, was James French. French toured the track in 1 minute 59.133 seconds, just 75 hundredths of a second faster than Jose Gutierrez. Misha Goikhberg had a flying lap as time ran out and jumped up to third quickest in the session.
Dirk Mueller in the Ford GT bested the GTLM class with the fastest qualifying lap. Mueller was .461 seconds quicker that Porsche 911 driver Patrick Pillet. Ryan Briscoe in the other Ford GT was third quickest in the class and was followed by Giancarlo Fisichella in his Ferrari.
In GTD qualifying, Alex Riberas bested Audi r8 driver Andrew Davis by just over two tenths of a second. Riberas will lead the GTD class in his Porsche 911. Matt Bell was third quick in his Audi R8.
Round nine of the WeatherTech Championship kicks off on Sunday at 3:05 p.m. CT at Road America.with the Continental Tire Road Race Showcase. The race is scheduled for two hours and forty minutes on the four mile natural terrain road course.
John Wiedemann is the owner, editor and developer of the RacingNation.com website.
A motorsports fan from his earliest memories, John started going to local short tracks and the Milwaukee Mile with his parents, brother and sister. John enjoys drivers racing side by side and battling for the same piece of real estate on the racetrack as much as he appreciates the technical aspects of the sport.