ESM Patrón Qualifies Fifth and Sixth at Shanghai

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 In its first overseas FIA World Endurance Championship (FIA WEC) qualifying session, Extreme Speed Motorsports (ESM) averaged the fifth and sixth quickest times in the LMP2 class. As a result, ESM will start fifth and sixth in Sunday’s 6 Hours of Shanghai race.
 
Per the FIA WEC rules, the two best lap times from each team’s qualifying drivers are averaged together in order to determine the starting position.
 
Johannes van Overbeek and David Brabham qualified the No. 31 Tequila Patrón Honda Performance Development ARX-03b in fifth. Van Overbeek’s best lap was 1:57.114. Brabham’s best lap was 1:56.587. Ed Brown is the third driver of the No. 30 Tequila Patrón HPD.

“The Tequila Patrón ESM team has worked hard to get us here. We have a great engineering team, pit crew and driver lineup. We’ll be competitive for the race. Six hours is a long time and we’re looking forward to seeing both ESM Patrón Hondas on the podium Sunday evening,” stated Brown.
 
Scott Sharp and Ryan Dalziel qualified the No. 30 Tequila Patrón Honda Performance Development ARX-03b in sixth. Sharp’s best lap was 1:58.559. Dalziel’s best lap was 1:55.189. Ricardo Gonzalez co-drives with Sharp and Dalziel this weekend.

“We have a strong ESM Patrón crew and they’ve put a lot of work into these cars just to get to China. We’re here to race, be competitive and we’re aiming for that podium,” Dalziel interjected.
 
Rain plagued Friday’s two practice sessions. The first session would eventually dry with the No. 30 team of Sharp, Dalziel and Gonzalez posted the second quickest time of the session, less than one second behind the leader.

“We have a strong ESM Patrón crew and they’ve put a lot of work into these cars just to get to China. We’re here to race, be competitive and we’re aiming for that podium,” commented Sharp.
  
In the second practice, the No. 30 team was again second quickest, a mere fourth-tenths behind the leaders. The No. 31 team of Brown, van Overbeek and Brabham were third quickest in class.

“The Tequila Patrón ESM team has worked hard to get us here. We have a great engineering team, pit crew and driver lineup. We’ll be competitive for the race. Six hours is a long time and we’re looking forward to seeing both ESM Patrón Hondas on the podium Sunday evening,” Brabham added.
 
The 6 Hours of Shanghai on October 31-November 2 is the sixth of eight races in the FIA World Endurance Championship. Green flag drops at 11:00 a.m. local time on Sunday, November 2 (11 p.m. ET on Saturday, November 1).
 
The 6 Hours of Shanghai can be heard on Radio Le Mans. Timing and scoring is available on the FIA WEC website.

Viewers will be able to watch the entire race from on-board cameras mounted to both of the ESM Tequila Patrón-sponsored HPDs via the FIA WEC second screen app or online at www.fiawec.com
 
The cameras are mounted to the race cars so viewers can watch the race from the drivers’ point of view. To ride along with Sharp, Dalziel and Gonzalez, select the No. 30 camera, or to ride along with Brown, van Overbeek and Brabham, select the No. 31 camera.

Adam Sinclair
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