Burkett Fastest in Mid-Ohio Practice

Young rival Swift 016 driver, COMPREP’s Ethan Ringel, was second quick in both sessions, setting his personal best lap time also during free practice two. Ringel held the top position for a good portion of the afternoon’s practice before handing it over to Burkett. Ringel’s COMPREP teammate, Matt Miller, had the next quickest time behind Ringel in the first session, and was fourth quick in the latter session.

This is the first time the Atlantic Championship Series has run at Mid-Ohio, so the pole setter from Saturday’s qualifying session will set the track qualifying lap record. Based on times from practice, it could be a close fight for the pole.

Polestar’s Keith Grant, and K-Hill Motorsport’s Conner Kearby, both held top familiar top five positions in the two Atlantic Championship Series practice sessions that were held. Atlantic Creation’s Jimmy Simpson has swapped fast times with Burkett throughout most of the season. During the Mid-Ohio practice day, Simpson held back, but stayed in the top 10.

Lewis Cooper Jr, driving a Swift 014 for Lochmoor Promotions, was the quickest driver in the Atlantic Challenge. He was followed by Swan Racing’s Tyler Hunter, and Company Motorsports’ Conner Burke, both drivers also running Swift 014 Atlantic cars. These three drivers kept their finishing order the same in the morning an afternoon practice sessions. Cooper and Hunter both held times in the top ten of the field during Saturday’s practices and are on pace with many of the Swift 016 cars.

J.R. Smart had an incident in the morning session that caused a black flag. There was enough time in between the practice sessions for him to get his car sorted and get back out on track for session two.

Despite one practice being early in the morning and the other in the mid-afternoon, lap times stayed about the same between sessions. The majority of the field ran 1:17-1:18’s.

Depending on how the Mid-Ohio weekend unfolds for the Atlantic drivers, it is possible for the championship title to be won. There are many combinations of finishing positions and drivers that could have an impact on the overall points standings. Taking into account the one drop each driver will have, it makes it more difficult to guess who might come out top, but with five wins in six races, it seems to be Burkett’s title to lose.

Full results of Friday’s practice session can also be found on the series website www.atlanticchampionshipseries.com

Qualifying for the Atlantic Championship Series begins on Saturday morning at 9:40am local time, followed by Race 1 at 2:10pm.

Practice 2 Results:

PosNo.NameIn LapBest TmMake/ModelDiff 1 4 Daniel Burkett 9 1:16.388 Swift 016 Mazda - 2 49 Ethan Ringel 3 1:17.231 Swift 016A Mazda +0.843 3 40 Keith Grant 19 1:17.253 Swift 016 Mazda +0.865 4 82 Matt Miller 4 1:18.076 Swift 016A Mazda +1.688 5 56 Conner Kearby 10 1:18.650 Swift 016 Mazda +2.262 6 71 Michael Mallinen 17 1:18.732 Swift 016A Mazda +2.344 7 21 Jimmy Simpson 6 1:18.928 Swift 016 Mazda +2.540 8 70 Lewis Cooper, Jr. 14 1:19.152 Swift 014 A Toyota +2.764 9 69 Gaston Kearby 19 1:19.426 Swift 016 Mazda +3.038 10 22 Tyler Hunter 5 1:19.463 Swift 014A Toyota +3.075 11 19 Connor Burke 15 1:20.267 Swift 014 Toyota +3.879 12 11 Dwight Rider 17 1:20.460 Ralt Rt-41 Toyota +4.072 13 66 Richard Zober 11 1:20.567 Swift 016 Mazda +4.179 14 5 Bruce Crockett 3 1:21.016 Swift 014 Toyota +4.628 15 55 John Burke 21 1:21.056 Swift 014 Toyota +4.668 16 17 Bob Corliss 20 1:23.141 Swift 014A Toyota +6.753 17 09 J.R. Smart 21 1:25.019 Swift 014A Toyota +8.631 18 2 Mark Felsen 10 1:25.569 Swift 014 Toyota +9.181