Originally Posted by jackwhale

I seem to recall that Earnhart Jr spun his corvette out on the parade lap at Sears Point last year. Car caught fire even. Momentary lapses can happen to anyone.

Originally Posted by from Pratt & Miller

New way to qualify
The ALMS tried a new qualifying format for this race, which limited each car to four laps — a warm-up lap, two flying laps, and a cool-down lap. Cars were sent onto the track at set intervals to give everyone a reasonable shot at clear laps, and to have several cars on the track at the same time to make it interesting for the fans. Also, cars qualified in reverse order of their times in the final practice session, so the fastest in practice was the last one to qualify.

Oliver Gavin, for one, found the new format to his liking. Last year, he set a new qualifying record when he won the pole, and this year he lowered his own record by more than two seconds on his first flying lap for his second pole of the season.

"This new format is a lot of fun," said Gavin. " I think I had a carrot in front of me after Ron set his time before me. That might have gotten me a bit more fired up. I was really wild on my first lap but I got it so the team had me come in. That's one less lap on the tires."

Fellows’ time was less than two-tenths of a second higher than Gavin’s, while Boris Said qualified the number 8 Compuware Corvette in third place, a little over a second farther back. All three Corvettes were under Gavin’s 2003 qualifying record.

Unlike the previous two races, Gavin and Fellows were using the newer cars they had raced at Le Mans, and Gavin said that was an advantage.

"These cars are more perfectly balanced for weight, have a better chassis and gear box, and are better aerodynamically." he said. "Also, the lap times could be better from the new track surface this year, and the switch to Michelin tires is helping too."

Dale Earnhardt Jr., driving the number 8 car with Said, was having a good time and great success in getting up to speed in the C5-R. "The car is real fast and I'm comfortable in the car," he commented. "It's going to be different, watching for the prototypes and the GT cars, being careful and just having a lot of respect and courtesy out there for everybody. You know, I don't do this every weekend, and to be here is a big honor for me to race against such a great group of competitors. I am just trying to earn respect and pay my dues out there and take my time and work my way up."

Morning warm-up: "bummed and disappointed"
Earnhardt was slated to start the number-8 Corvette, and took the car out for the Sunday morning warm-up session at 8 a.m. Early in the session, the car suddenly spun around and slammed into a barrier, then a fire erupted and quickly spread into the car’s interior. Earnhardt quickly undid his belts and scrambled out, but was transported by air to the University of California-Davis Medical Center in Sacramento. There he was treated for second-degree burns on the inner sides of his lower legs and on his chin.

Doug Fehan, program manager for Corvette Racing, said the incident was caused by an unfortunate combination of circumstances that included a slick race track, cold tires and a full tank of fuel. "The hit was so hard it broke the filler neck off the fuel cell and caused a fire," he said.

The car had to be withdrawn from the race, and from the hospital Earhardt said, "I’m bummed and disappointed I couldn’t run the race. I hope Corvette gets the victory."