BIRMINGHAM, Ala.
(April 9, 2010) – While veterans secured spots Friday in the
GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge Grand Sport (GS) front
row, a pair of rookies topped the first and second positions in the
Street Tuner (ST) class.

David White, in BimmerWorld/GearWrench’s No. 80 Performance
Friction/RAYS Engineering BMW 328i, set a time of 1:41.644 (81.461 mph)
to earn his first career pole position. Second was Eric Foss in the No.
27 Aventura Technologies/Freedom Autosport MAZDASPEED3, with a time of
1:41.884 (81.269 mph).

Both White and Foss are making their third career Continental Tire
Sports Car Challenge ST starts. White, who co-drives with team owner
James Clay, said he struggled up until his qualifying run, but had the
car together when he needed it the most.

“I had been struggling up to the qualifying session with lap times,”
White said, “but we worked on the setup and pulled it all together. For
me, it was a perfect lap, and it feels great to be on the pole.”

Foss, a driving instructor who calls Barber his second home track, is
making his first-ever start with Freedom Autosport. He will co-drive
with Randy Pobst.

“The car was good during qualifying,” Foss said. “We’re struggling
with long runs though; we hope to have that fixed by the race. Randy has
been great, and we’ve agreed on every change we’ve made this weekend so
far. Mazda and Freedom Autosport have given us a good chance to run up
front; we just need to do our part on Saturday.”

On the second row will be Mike Sweeney, who turned in a time of
1:42.247 (80.980 mph) in the No. 171 APR/BBS Volkswagen GTI he’ll share
with Mike Halpin, and Derek Whitis, who lapped the circuit at 1:42.321
(80.922 mph) in the No. 25 Aventura Technologies/Freedom Autosport Mazda
MX-5. Whitis and co-driver Tom Long are coming off the ST win at
Homestead-Miami. ST points leader David Thilenius will start eighth.

The two-and-a-half hour Barber 200 will take the green flag at 4 p.m.
CT Saturday.

source http://www.grand-am.com