Nissan Top Group C First Qualifying
Image: Spice SE90 of Steve Tandy
The Nissan RC90CK of Katso Kubota reminded everyone of its Le Mans pedigree by setting quickest time n the opening 45-minute qualifying session for The Nissan RC90CK of Katso Kubota reminded everyone of its Le Mans pedigree by setting quickest time n the opening 45-minute qualifying session for tomorrow’s Group C race at the Le Mans Classic. Setting his best time on the fourth of his seven laps, the Japanese historic regular was almost 2.5 seconds clear of the rest, but with the option on the powerful Nissan of cranking up the boost for qualifying we can be sure of a close contest come the race.
The Gebhardt C91 of Michael Lyons topped the normally-aspirated challengers with a last-lap charge, ahead of the Peugeot 905 of Dominique Guenat with the 1990-spec Porsche 962 of Pierre-Alain and Erwin France the only other car to duck under the four-minute benchmark. The Spice of Julien Piguet was fifth, almost five seconds behind the lead quartet, while recent Le Mans winner and Porsche works driver Romain Dumas slotted his 962C into sixth.
The Group C field have a second qualifying session at 20.05 local time this evening to finally decide the grid for tomorrow’s 45-minute race.
Provisional Qualifying Times (after one session):
1 Katso Kubota (Nissan R90CK) 3m56.085s
2 Michael Lyons (Gebhardt C91) 3m58.200s
3 Dominique Geunat (Peugeot 905 EV1 Bis) 3m58.539s
3 Pierre-Alain France/Erwin France (Porsche 962C) 3m59.485s
5 Julien Piguet (Spice SE89C) 4m04.3019s
6 Romain Dumas (Porsche 962C) 4m06.238s
7 Steve Tandy (Spice SE90 GTP) 4m 08.413s
8 Shaun Lynn (Mercedes-Benz C11) 4m08.441s
9 Gareth Evans (Nissan RC93) 4m12.150s
10 Manual Montiero (Porsche 962) 4m14.495s
11 Aaron Scott (Spice SE86) 4m15.253s
12 Ian Vercoutre/Ralf Kelleners 4m17.318s
13 Tim Summers (Lancia LC2) 4m18.385s
14 Henrik Lindbergh (Porsche 962) 4m20.307s
15 Mr John of B/David Ferrer (Rondeau M382) 4m22.915s
16 Pierre-Francois Rousselot (Spice SE88C) 4m25.646s
17 Massimo Guerra (GKW 862) 4m25.728s
18 Frederic Da Rocha/Pierre de Thoisy (Spice SE88C) 4m28.505s
19 Christian Perrier (March 85G) 4m29.269s
20 Laurent Fort/Philiipe Scemama (Tiga GC288) 4m30.214s
