looms at Sebring

Patrón Highcroft Racing is set to take part in a three way manufacturer dog-fight after qualifying sixth fastest for the 57th running of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring today.

David Brabham stopped the clocks at 1 minute, 46.504 seconds aboard the Patrón Highcroft Racing Acura ARX-02a.  Acura actually scored the pole with Scott Dixon aboard the de Ferran Motorsports new LMP1 entry.

The top six line-up features Acura, Audi, Peugeot, Audi, Peugeot and Acura.

The Sebring schedule will feature an evening practice session from 7:15pm to 9:00pm tonight followed by the final practice session tomorrow from 9:55am to 10:55am.

Saturday's opening round of the American Le Mans Series kicks off at 10.30am.

Patrón Highcroft Racing will also launch its partnership with Malaria No More tomorrow at 11:45am at the Patrón Hospitality Area.

The Miles to End Malaria program will be unveiled by Wisconsin four-term Congressman and recent US Ambassador to the United Republic of Tanzania, Mark Green.

DAVID BRABHAM"It is great for the program that Acura is on pole position.  We have been working together so much on these cars that we can all share a little bit in that."From our point of view it was a bit of a messy session with traffic and we struggled a little bit with a lack a grip.  The only time I was really able to push was on my last flying lap but then I ran into traffic again."We never really saw the full potential of our car today."We're still learning about our car and we had decided early on to treat qualifying as a test session and we tried a number of changes - some things did work, some things didn't - but the most important thing is we now have more knowledge for the race."

SCOTT SHARP"The qualifying result wasn't what we hoped for but I think it has been a great day for the team.  We made a number of additional changes this morning, but David ran into a bunch of traffic."We made some more updates before qualifying but maybe these didn't work out but I think the engineering staff really have a handle on things."We know what is going to work and I think we are in really great shape for the race.  The team has had a good strong week with the new Acura.""Getting the pole makes everyone feels great but the real secret here is making sure we are still in a position to race for the win in the final hour."

DARIO FRANCHITTI"'Speedy Scott' did a great job and it really is great for the program considering how much effort has been put in."The relationship between the de Ferran guys and Highcroft guys is really strong and we have really been working together as one team to push forward with the development of the car."It is great to see that happening but David seemed to have a very frustrating session with the traffic. "It really doesn't matter where you start here but it would have been nice to show a bit of pace."

SEBRING BY THE NUMBERSFastest Corner: Turn 1Maximum Corner Speed: >225 kph (140 mph)Maximum Lateral Gs: >3.2 G in turn 1Slowest Corner:  Turn 7Minimum Corner Speed:  >75 kph (47 mph)Fastest top speed: 2009 small wing >265 kph (165 mph)Percentage of lap on full throttle:  70%Maximum Braking Gs: >3.0 GNumber of Brake Applications: 9Gear Changes per lap:  approx 34Left Turns: 6Right Turns: 11

SEBRING TIMETABLE

Thursday, March 19

6:35pm - 6:45pm: David Brabham's 1959 Cooper Climax reenactment7:15pm - 9:00pm: Practice

Friday, March 20

9:55am - 10:55am: Practice11:45am: Malaria No More / Patrón Highcroft Racing Press Conference

Saturday, March 21

7:50am - 8:15am: Warm up8:50am - 9:15am: David Brabham parade laps, 1959 Cooper Climax10:30am - 10:30pm: Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring

HIGHCROFT RACING AT SEBRING

2008 Acura ARX-01B Brabham/Sharp/JohanssonQual:    11th    1:47.819Race:    5th    349 laps

2007 Acura ARX-01a Brabham/Johansson/DaytonQual:    4th    1:47.109Race:    6th    346 laps

2006 Lola EX257/AER Dayton/Knoop/FiskenQual:    7th    1:51.549Race:    29th    DNF 128 laps (mechanical)

SEBRING ON TV

USASPEED TV (all times Eastern Standard Time - EST)Thursday March 19:

7:00pm - American Le Mans Series Preview8:00pm - Project LMP1: Acura's Next Challenge12:00am - Project LMP1: Acura's Next Challenge

Friday March 20:

3:00am - Project LMP1: Acura's Next Challenge

Saturday March 21

9:00am - Project LMP1: Acura's Next Challenge10:00am-12:00noon: Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring (live)2:00pm-11:00pm: Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring (live)

EUROPEMotors TVSaturday March 21

2:30pm - ALMS Preview3:00pm-3:45am - Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring (live)

Tuesday March 24

9:00pm - Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring (highlights)

Wednesday March 25

10:00am - Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring (highlights)

UNITED KINGDOMMotors TVSaturday March 21

1:30pm - ALMS Preview2:00pm-2:45am - Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring (live)

Tuesday March 24

9:00pm - Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring (highlights)

Wednesday March 25

4:15am - Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring (highlights)10:00am - Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring (highlights)

Thursday March 26

2:00pm - Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring (highlights)