The No. 66 Ford GT will start on the front row for the third race in a row at Saturday’s BUBBA burger Sports Car Grand Prix at Long Beach.
Driver Joey Hand qualified p2 with a 1:17.001 lap in the No. 66 Ford GT.
“I feel good about second today,” Hand said. “I threw down everything. I knocked the mirror of the car off again. I put some Long Beach racing stripes on it, but that’s what you have to do here. You have to maximize. I got everything I could. We were close to pole, but we can race from No. 2.”
The No. 67 Ford GT had worse luck. In an attempt to get every bit of performance out of the car, driver Richard Westbrook clipped a tire wall in turn six, causing damage to the rear and wing. He’ll start the race at p8 with a quick lap of 1:17.487 in the race that features the GTLM, GTD and prototype categories.
Hand qualified p1 at the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season-opener, the Rolex 24 At Daytona. Then Ryan Briscoe earned the pole in the No. 67 at the 12 Hours of Sebring in a Ford GT front-row lock-out, with Dirk Müller and the No. 66 starting p2 in Florida.
“Joey got everything out of the car he possibly could,” said team manager Mike O’Gara. “There were segments we were faster, but overall lap time, we were just a tenth short overall. Richard was trying to wring everything he could out of the No. 67 car and unfortunately clipped a tire and tore up the back of the car. We’ll get it fixed for tomorrow. It gives us a great opportunity to try a new strategy to get to the front.”
