Agren Leads Friday F1600 Practice
Lexington, OH – Two practice sessions saw Ayla Agren throw down fastest lap both times, putting her No. 81 Mygale/Honda on top of morning and afternoon time sheets for Team Pelfrey. Agren sits just out of first place in the F1600 Formula F Series Championship battle, going into rounds seven and eight of the season, of 14, at Mid-Ohio this weekend. A tight afternoon session saw Jim Goughary second and Augie Lerch in third, with the top three separated by a tenth of a second.
Six tenths of a second separated the top ten cars.
Agren missed out on her first F1600 Championship Series victory in early June, finishing second at VIR by a nose, and ran competitively at Mid-Ohio in 2013. She has lots of seat time at the track since F1600 ran four races in Ohio last season, and could be poised for a breakthrough first win.
Goughary missed out on leading the afternoon session in his No. 7 Van Diemen/Honda by six hundredths of a second, and already has two wins on the 2014 season, but lost the Championship lead at VIR last month.
Augie Lerch, Agren's teammate, put in one of his best performances of 2014 with a third place run, a tenth off the fastest lap.
Another six hundredths back in an ultra-competitive F1600 afternoon practice session was Jack Mitchell Jr., in the Exclusive Autosport Spectrum/Honda entry. Mitchell hopes to return to the form that saw him charge through the entire field to finish second at Road Atlanta to start his season in April.
Championship points leader Garth Rickards was fifth fastest, the third of four Pelfrey Mygales, with teammate Nikita Lastochkin in sixth.
After pacing both practice sessions early Sam Chastain settled for seventh in the Chastain Motorsports No. 27, just under fifth tenths off the fast time Agren laid down.
Joe Colasacco, VIR winner Steve Bamford, and Lewis Cooper completed the top ten, with Cooper making his first appearance since the opening rounds of the series at Road Atlanta in his No. 0 Spectrum from Polestar.
Art Foster followed in 11th spot while Andrew Hobbs recovered from a Thursday testing incident to put down a lap good enough for 12th. Evan Mehan, in his first full F1600 weekend, was 13th in the No. 29 Chastain Motorsports Mygale.
The weekend continues as qualifying gets going both Saturday and Sunday mornings at 8:30am, with races scheduled for an estimated 1:00pm start time.
Practice 2 Times:
PosNo.NameIn LapBest TmMake/ModelDiff 1 81 Ayla Agren 19 1:28.022 Mygale Honda - 2 7 James Goughary/M 19 1:28.084 Van Diemen Honda +0.062 3 82 Augie Lerch 19 1:28.129 Mygale Honda +0.107 4 93 Jack Mitchell, Jr. 11 1:28.184 Spectrum Honda +0.162 5 83 Garth Rickards 7 1:28.295 Mygale Honda +0.273 6 80 NIkita Lastochkin 19 1:28.459 Mygale Sj Honda +0.437 7 27 T. Sam Chastain 10 1:28.493 Mygale Sj13 Honda +0.471 8 3 Joe Colasacco/M 18 1:28.536 Van Diemen Honda +0.514 9 07 Steve Bamford/M 10 1:28.546 Mygale Sj11 Honda +0.524 10 0 Lewis Cooper III/M 19 1:28.585 Spectrum 14 Honda +0.563 11 21 Arthur Foster/M 6 1:29.109 Spectrum 014 Honda +1.087 12 13 Andrew Hobbs 4 1:29.123 Mygale Sj Honda +1.101 13 29 Evan Mehan 8 1:29.138 Mygale Honda +1.116 14 31 Scott Rubenzer/M 18 1:29.286 Spectrm Honda +1.264 15 06 Austin McCusker 6 1:29.360 Van Deiman Honda +1.338 16 24 Will Harvey 7 1:29.723 Mygale Sj Honda +1.701 17 46 Douglas Voss/M 16 1:29.849 Spectrum 012B Honda +1.827 18 10 Max Mallinen 8 1:30.005 Spectrum 014 Honda +1.983 19 2 Mike Scanlan/M 10 1:30.254 Spectrum Honda +2.232 20 66 Bob Melvin/M 13 1:33.269 Van Diemen Ford +5.247