John Edwards Earns Third GT Pole of 2012 Season in Stevenson Camaroby

MONTREAL – Jon Fogarty has had plenty of qualifying success in the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series this season. Next up is the search for a repeat victory on a track that clearly suits him.

Fogarty blasted to his fourth pole position of the year Friday afternoon, grabbing the top starting spot for the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series’ Montreal 200 at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. The TOTAL Pole Award was the 23rd of Fogarty’s career, which padded his all-time series record, and the fourth consecutive on the 2.709-mile track.

Fogarty, who will partner with teammate Alex Gurney in Saturday’s two-hour race, clocked a lap at 104.712 mph (1 minute, 33.135 seconds) in the No. 99 GAINSCO Auto Insurance Corvette DP. Despite the qualifying prowess, the Fogarty-Gurney pairing has yet to produce a victory this year. The most recent win for the teammates came on the Montreal circuit last season.

“We’ve taken a little bit of a different approach to find the time around here than a lot of the other competitors, but it seems to have worked,” Fogarty said. “We’re just happy to be up front, especially in a slightly shortened race like we’re having. Hopefully we can just keep it up there.”

Memo Rojas qualified second in the No. 01 TELMEX Chip Ganassi Racing entry, which he will share with Scott Pruett on Saturday. Rojas spun his BMW/Riley in Turn 2 moments after crossing the start-finish line on his fastest lap, but avoided damage. Hometown favorite Alex Tagliani qualified third in the No. 8 Starworks Motorsport Ford/Riley. The Montreal native will share both the No. 8 with Ryan Dalziel and the No. 2 Ford/Riley with Alex Popow on Saturday.

In the GT class, John Edwards landed his third TOTAL Pole Award of the season and fourth of his career, turning a lap at 98.343 mph (1 minute, 39.167 seconds) in the No. 57 Stevenson Motorsports Camaro GT.R. He’ll co-drive with Englishman Robin Liddell on Saturday.

“We’ve always got decent speed and even when we’re not on pole, we seem to be second or third,” Edwards said. “We’re always close, but I think the thing we need to fight for is keeping the speed over a stint. The races are a tougher fight than qualifying, I think.”

Andrew Davis will start second in GT, driving the No. 59 Brumos Racing Porsche GT3 with Leh Keen. Boris Said will take the green flag third in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Corvette.

Saturday’s two-hour race, the 11th round in the Rolex Series, is scheduled for an 11:15 a.m. ET start. The race airs live on MRN Radio and on SPEED television at 7 p.m. ET Saturday night.