Panoz Take Pole Position

ROUND FOUR, AMERICAN LE MANS SERIES
PORTLAND INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY, OREGON

QUALIFYING - Saturday, 4th August 2001
Panoz Take Pole Position

In a thrilling 20 minute qualifying session dominated by the red Panoz LMP-1 Roadsters, David Brabham upheld the hopes of the entire Panoz Motor Sports team and its legion of fans around the world by taking pole position for tomorrow's Grand Prix of Portland.

His time of 1m 04.121 was two tenths of a second quicker than the pole time set last year by Rinaldo Capello's Audi, set a new track record, and is the team's first pole since Las Vegas in 1999.

Klaus Graf, who topped the timing sheets for the first half of the session in the #51 car, completed the second half of the Audi 'sandwich'.  His best time of 1m 04.508 secured he and his team mate, Franck Lagorce, 4th place on the grid.

David Brabham, who shares the car with Dane Jan Magnussen, has been working on race set up in the practice sessions but decided to "see what he could do" in qualifying.  Wearing a smile as wide as Sydney Harbour Bridge, he said afterwards:  "It was awesome.  At the beginning of the year, I thought we wouldn't see a pole position again so this is very special.  It's for the whole team who really deserve it.  Michelin gave us some fantastic tires here and a big thank you to them.  I just can't wait for the race."

Klaus Graf had an eventful qualifying session and held of the challenge from the Champion Audi throughout.  His final lap ended with a 360 degree spin at the final turn on the 1.944 mile track but he was able to return to the pits with no damage to his car