Fogarty snatches the Montreal pole in Gainsco BSR’s Corvette

Jon Fogarty nailed his hot lap in the No. 99 Chevrolet Corvette with a time of 1:33.135 on Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Quebec. Snatching the pole was the first step of his and Alex Gurney’s hopes of earning their first Daytona Prototype (DP) 2012 win on Saturday. GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing’s drivers are the defending victors in the Grand American Rolex Series race on the temporary street course in Canada.

After earning his fourth pole this year, Fogarty said, "We've taken a little bit of a different approach to find the time around here than a lot of the other competitors, but it seems to have worked. We're just happy to be up front, especially in a slightly shortened race like we're having. Hopefully we can just keep it up there."

Just missing the pole position by 0.087 seconds was Memo Rojas in the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing BMW Riley. Rojas’ best was a 1:33.222 on the 2.709 mile circuit. The Mexican had a wild moment when spun in turn two after he completed his flying lap; he did not damage his and Scott Pruett’s DP.

Pulling triple duty this weekend did not slow down home town hero Alex Tagliani as he just missed the front row with his best lap in the No. 8 Starworks Ford Riley with his best lap of 1:33.377. The French-Canadian’s triple includes the NASCAR Nationwide race; if he qualifies. He will start the Montreal 200 race in the No. 8 before handing it over to points leader Ryan Dalziel. Then ‘Tag’ will move to the second team car, reliving Alex Popow.

Fastest in the GT class was John Edwards with his best lap at 1:39.096 in the No. 57 Stevenson Motorsports Camaro GR.R.

Edwards was pleased with his time, but wants the victory. He said, "We've always got decent speed and even when we're not on pole, we seem to be second or third. We're always close, but I think the thing we need to fight for is keeping the speed over a stint. The races are a tougher fight than qualifying, I think."

#31 Marsh Racing Chevrolet Corvette: Eric Curran, Boris Said

Photo by: Adriano Manocchia

Andrew Davis placed the No. 59 Brumos Racing Porsche GT3 Cup second fastest with a hot lap of 1:39.162.

Road racer specialist Boris Said took third with his best lap of 1:39.692 in the No. 31 Marsh Racing Corvette.

The two hour short endurance race will start at 11:15am EST tomorrow morning.