Audette to Pole on Home Turf

Audette, who set a fast lap of 1:21.317, will be joined on the front row by rookie Kyle Connery, who is coming off a win at Mid-Ohio, and trying to track down Audette from second in the points.

It was Audette’s first pole since VIR in April, and the Canadian was able to just notch Connery, setting a lap just under a tenth of a second up on the American.

"The plan today was just to build speed," said Audette."We wanted to do a few laps, feel the car out, and then make adjustments. The track was good was this morning and I had a great line at the end of the session and were able to do a few quick laps. This is my first pole here, and we won last year."

Audette won at Mosport in the rain last year, but admitted the track requires a much different approach in the dry as he looks for his first win since Watkins Glen in June, when he swept the weekend.

Connery, meanwhile, had never been to Mosport before Thursday practice, and is coming off a dominating win at Mid-Ohio. The driver of the #91 CC Autosport and James Lee Racing Van Diemen, like Audette, is looking for his fourth win of the year as he tries to track down the Canadian from a 70 point deficit.

One hundred ten points are on hand this weekend with three already going to Audette.

Chris Livengood, Robert La Rocca and Tim Minor completed the top five, with the first four cars separated by under three tenths of a second. La Rocca sits third in the points’ race, followed by Minor and Livengood.

La Rocca’s HP-Tech squad made major changes on his #10 entry over the course of Thursday, and said they did more tweaks overnight.

The Venezuelan rookie is on the hunt for his first race win and was just over a tenth of a second slower than Livengood, who is in his second year in the F2000 Series.

Matt McDonough was sixth fastest in the quickly-getting-faster Radon chassis, followed by Brent Gilkes, Angel Benitez, Dan Denison and Zach Craigo.

Today’s race starts at 12:55 p.m, and is scheduled for 18 laps or 30 minutes. Saturday July 23 sees the F2000 grid qualifying at 9:45 a.m. and conclude their weekend with a 6:05 p.m. scheduled race start. Follow live on www.F2000Series.com and on Twitter @F2000.

Qualifying Results:

Pos No. Name Best Tm Best Spd In Lap Diff Gap 1 21 Remy Audette 1:21.317 108.863 15 - - 2 91 Kyle Connery 1:21.415 108.732 11 +0.098 +0.098 3 37 Chris Livengood 1:21.441 108.697 7 +0.124 +0.026 4 10 Robert La Rocca 1:21.590 108.499 9 +0.273 +0.149 5 88 Tim Minor/M 1:21.974 107.990 5 +0.657 +0.384 6 77 Matt McDonough 1:22.646 107.112 15 +1.329 +0.672 7 7 Brent Gilkes/M 1:22.839 106.863 21 +1.522 +0.193 8 26 Angel Benitez 1:22.900 106.784 14 +1.583 +0.061 9 51 Dan Denison/M 1:22.944 106.727 19 +1.627 +0.044 10 9 Zach Craigo 1:23.036 106.609 13 +1.719 +0.092 11 23 Gustavo Rizzo 1:23.146 106.468 9 +1.829 +0.110 12 06 Tim Paul 1:23.265 106.316 15 +1.948 +0.119 13 27 Craig Clawson/M 1:23.400 106.144 23 +2.083 +0.135 14 60 Dwight Rider/M 1:23.944 105.456 8 +2.627 +0.544 15 90 Robert Wright/M 1:24.632 104.599 17 +3.315 +0.688 16 67 Dave Weitzenhof/M 1:24.745 104.459 8 +3.428 +0.113 17 14 Fred Bross 1:25.677 103.323 11 +4.360 +0.932 18 42 Bill Jordan/M 1:26.252 102.634 8 +4.935 +0.575 19 61 Tom Drake 1:27.601 101.054 10 +6.284 +1.349 20 71 Francis Kennette 1:33.477 94.701 8 +12.160 +5.814 21 22 Giancarlo Potolicchio 1:27.663 100.982 8 +6.346 +0.062