MILLVILLE, N.J. (May 9, 2010) 聙聯 After taking five pole positions in the 2009 SCCA Pro Racing Trans-Am Series, Tony Ave was at it again in qualifying for this afternoon聙聶s 2010 season opener at New Jersey Motorsports Park, but he got the pole by the slimmest of margins over 2009 Trans-Am champion Tomy Drissi. Ave, of Maiden, N.C., established the Trans-Am track record at New Jersey Motorsports Park聙聶s Thunderbolt Raceway with a best lap of 1:18.426 (103.282 mph) in the No. 4 Tony Ave Racing/Pro Motor Engines Chevrolet Corvette. He turned his quick lap midway through the 30-minute session, giving him an advantage of six-tenths of a second over Drissi at the time. Ave then brought his Corvette onto pit road for the remainder of the session. With five minutes remaining in the session, however, Drissi turned in a lap at 1:18.482 (103.208 mph) in the No. 5 Marmaduke 聙聯 June 4 Jaguar XKR, missing Ave聙聶s top time by just .056 seconds. Drissi would get no closer in the remaining minutes, giving Ave his third consecutive pole dating back to last season. He heads into the race this afternoon looking for his first Trans-Am win. 聙聹It聙聶s tight,聙聺 Ave said. 聙聹We were pretty far ahead until he went back out. I just elected to sit it out and not run any more, no matter what he did. I was lucky that we got the pole. I think we could have gone a bit quicker if we went back out, but our car is pretty loose. We need to work on that a little bit today.聙聺 Drissi, of Hollywood, Calif. will start second and goes in search of his third career Trans-Am victory this afternoon. 聙聹There are two guys that are really pushing each other,聙聺 said Drissi of his qualifying battle. 聙聹He did his lap a couple laps sooner than I did, and he聙聶s known to do that. I think I聙聶ve got to improve on doing the lap quicker, when they聙聶re still new on the tire. It shows that we聙聶ve got a really good racecar, though. 聙聹Qualifying is one or two laps. The race is an hour. Since we聙聶ve been here, we haven聙聶t been working on a car that does one lap. It does an hour. I聙聶m sure Ave has been doing the same thing. I聙聶m sure (RJ) Lopez is doing the same thing and Daniel (Ramoutarsingh) and everybody else. It聙聶ll be hopefully a good race.聙聺 Lopez, of Bal Harbour, Fla., will start third in the No. 6 WabashPower.com/Mobil 1/Goodyear Chevrolet Corvette at 1:19.575 (101.791 mph). He will make his sixth Trans-Am start this afternoon and is in good position to improve upon his previous best result of eighth, which he scored last year at Mid-Ohio. 聙聹The session went okay,聙聺 said Lopez after qualifying. 聙聹The car really didn聙聶t respond like I thought it would. It was a little loose getting out there, probably because of the temperature on the track right now. Either way, we聙聶re happy to be in third. I think we have a good setup for the race. I wish I was a little closer to the front two. I think I聙聶m about a second off, but I think we聙聶re really set up for the race, so 10 laps in, we should be the car to beat.聙聺 Starting fourth will be Drissi聙聶s RSR teammate, Ramoutarsingh, of Trinidad, in the No. 8 TRINICO Steel & Wire Products Jaguar XKR at 1:21.001 (99.999 mph). Simon Gregg, of Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., rounded out the top five in the No. 59 Derhaag Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette at 1:21.192 (99.764 mph).