DETROIT, Mich. (June 1, 2018) – A red flag interrupted qualifying for the Chevrolet Sports Car Classic on the streets of Detroit, but CORE autosport driver Jon Bennett remained focused and turned his best lap of the day. This resulted in a 13th-place starting position for the team in Saturday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race.
Six minutes into the 15-minute qualifying session, and just as Bennett’s tire temperatures were reaching their prime, a red flag came out for a damaged car limping its way back to pit lane and dropping debris. When the green flag came back out, there was only four minutes left on the clock for Bennett to clock his best lap.
On his final flyer, Bennett turned a 1:25.741 (98.668 mph), a full 0.10-second faster than his previous best. As a result, the No. 54 Composite Resources / Flex-Box ORECA 07 LM P2 earned the 13th spot on the grid.
Saturday’s 100-minute street race will air live on FS2, June 2, at 12:30pm ET. Bennett will start the race and hand the car over to co-driver Colin Braun to finish.
Jon Bennett
Driver: No. 54 ORECA 07 LM P2“That was a bit of a disjointed qualifying session. At some level I find that interesting; having to put in your fastest lap in a very short time frame. There are lots of different strategies that you see in a normal qualifying session, but this one created a bit of chaos.
“After the red flag, I took a lap for the tires to come in and I knew that I was clear of traffic and traffic was clear of me and it was time to get it done. I’d like to have gone a bit quicker, but it was my fastest lap of the event thus far, so I’m happy with that. I think that between our guys at CORE autosport and Colin that we’ll have a competitive race on Saturday.
“My goal is to continue to improve my competitiveness in this field. I think the days of just giving Colin a clean and square car—while that’s certainly a goal—is not enough. I hope to give Colin the car straight and true, but also in close proximity to our group and let Colin do his magic and work his way to the front.”