Scott Dixon of De Ferran Motorsports driving one of the new Acura ARX-02a cars set the fastest lap time in qualifying and has earned a spot ahead of the favored Audi R15 and Peugeot in the LMP1 class. Dixon achieved a best lap of 1:45.278 and just beat edged out legendary Le Mans racer Tom Kristensen in his feared Audi R15 by 0.082 seconds. Following the Acura and Audi will be the #7 Peugeot 908 HDi, which qualified 0.184 seconds behind the fastest Acura with Christian Klein at the wheel.

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Race 1 of 11 this year will be at Sebring International Raceway in Sebring, Florida. This year, Sebring will feature the year’s ONLY head-to-head-to-head confrontation where LMP 1 newcomer, Acura, takes on Audi and Peugeot. After departing from ALMS for after a decade of domination, Audi s focused solely on the growing Peugeot threat at Le Mans. Peugeot likewise is focusing on Sebring and Le Mans and ignoring ALMS, and Honda Acura is going to get a season under its belt in ALMS before tackling Audi and Peugeot at Le Mans in 2010.

All three teams have extremely skilled drivers behind the wheels for Sebring, with the Gil de Ferran and Highcroft Acura teams bolstered respectively by Indy car aces Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti.

Audi’s new DieselWunderPanzer, the vicious-looking R-15, was unveiled today yesterday (3.09.2009), and it retains its open cockpit while diesel rival Peugeot is sticking with its closed cockpit. The Acuras also are open-cockpit.

Scott Dixon, the guy who gets to drive the #9 Target / Honda car in Indy and winner of the 2008 Indy Car Champion recently sat down for an interview with the gang at AutoRacing1.com.  Before wrapping up the questions, they asked Scott what kid of car he drove when he was exceeding 200 mph on a closed course.  Scott replied with, “Well, of course for me I’ve got the best car, a free car, and it’s supplied by Honda. I actually drive an Acura MDX…”

[Source: AutoRacing1.com]