Number Five's On Top Again
August 6 - Scott Maxwell picked a fine time to take his first Grand-Am Cup Series pole position of the season, as the Canadian found the quick way around the tight confines of the historic Trois-Rivieres street course and will start from the inside of the front row in Sunday’s Trois-Rivieres Grand Sport (GS) 150.
Maxwell set a Grand-Am Cup Series track record with a lap at 1:11.855 (76.203 mph) in the No. 05 Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT to take the seventh Grand-Am Cup overall pole of his career, but his first since the race at Mosport International Raceway in September, 2002. He will share the No. 05 Mustang with co-driver David Empringham, who also started from the pole position for last weekend’s race at Barber Motorsports Park and is looking to extend his lead in the GS driver championship in Sunday’s race.
“I’m really happy,” Maxwell said. “I think this is an important race to be in the front if you can. Clean air is important, especially with the brakes. It’s a real tribute to our crew because we left Barber with two damaged race cars last weekend, and our crew did a great job getting them back in shape fast. I’m very happy to be on the front row, because this is one of the circuits where it’s really important to be up front.”
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Starting second will be Justin Marks in the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M3 following a best lap at 1:12.006 (76.044 mph). It was Marks’ fifth front-row qualifying performance of the season, but his first since taking the pole position for the Chemung Canal Trust 200 at Watkins Glen International in June. He and co-driver Bill Auberlen are looking for their third Grand-Am Cup Series victory of the season.
“I’m a little bit frustrated because we thought we had a shot at the pole, but we had a problem with lapped traffic,” Marks said. “Either way, front row is still really good. We’re chasing some handling and set up problems, but we’ve made progress. Starting up front is key, there’s going to be a lot of problems in the race with brakes and using up the cars too early. With that kind of opportunity for things to go wrong with cars, it’s good to be up front. Hopefully a lot of that stuff will happen behind us. It’s a short race, but it’s a long race just because a lot of stuff is going to go down equipment wise. I’m happy with the front row, the guys deserve it and hopefully we can win this race.”
Gunnar Jeannette made it two Multimatic Mustangs in the top-three on the grid following a lap at 1:12.156 (75.886 mph) in the No. 55 Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT. Jeannette is also looking for his third win of the season following victories at California Speedway with co-driver James Gue and at Mosport where he co-drove with Empringham. Jeannette will again share the No. 55 this weekend with Gue.
“It’s looking pretty good,” Jeannette said. “We did a spring change before this and the car worked a lot better. Third is a good spot to be starting, you definitely want to be near the front and I’m just really happy with the Mustang.”
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