Adrian Fernandez placed the #15 Lowe’s Acura ARX at the top of the LMP2 timesheets in qualifying this afternoon for the Twelve Hours of Sebring. This is the first pole position for Lowe’s Fernandez Racing in American Le Mans Series competition. His lap of 1:49.686 (121.438 mph) was good for seventh-fastest overall in the 28-car field.

Fernandez and teammate Luis Diaz have shown strongly at Sebring the past two years. The pair finished second in class and third overall in their 2007 debut. They took the checkered flag in second-place overall last year but the result was nullified in post-race technical inspection after failing an engine stall test.

It was a banner day for Acura as de Ferran Motorsports took the LMP1 pole with driver Scott Dixon.

Diaz will handle initial driving duties for the team in Saturday’s race, which begins at 10:30 am ET.

Qualifying Results Overall:
1.  de Ferran/Pagenaud/Dixon LMP1 Acura ARX 02a1:45.278 = 126.522 mph
2.  Capello/Kristensen/McNish LMP1 Audi R15/TDI1:45.360 = 126.424 mph
3.  Minassian/Lamy/Klein LMP1 Peugeot 9081:45.462 = 126.301 mph
7.  Fernandez/Diaz LMP2 Lowe’s Acura ARX-01b1:49.686 = 121.438 mph

Adrian Fernandez: “It was a good day and we are happy to start the season like this. The car has been working well and, obviously, one year of experience with the car helps a lot. Luis and I have been comfortable with the car, and we are working on fine tuning it for the race. Everybody at Lowe’s Fernandez Racing has done a good job, and congratulations to Acura on what they have accomplished today. We expect a lot of tough competition this season from Dyson [Racing] and the Mazdas, and they have a lot of good drivers there. I think it is going to be a fun year.”

Luis Diaz:  “We are very happy. We started a little bit slow with the car yesterday, but it was normal to be a little bit behind on the pace on our first day with the change in conditions from when we tested. The team made the right decisions and the car felt pretty good just like in the previous test. The car feels solid and it has the speed. The main thing is to think about traffic and to finish the race. Traffic for us is going to be a bigger issue than last year because we have less power [with the rule changes]. It is what it is and we have to deal with it. We know that if we need to push more, we have the car to do it.”