Carbone Takes Pole at Mid-Ohio

“The track was really slippery to begin and we were struggling,” said Carbone, who can easily wrap up the title this afternoon with a solid drive. “With about six minutes to go I came into the pits and the Alegra Motorsports crew made an adjustment and that was it. I went back out and the car worked.”

For Livengood, it was a missed opportunity as the American rookie sat on pole at Watkins Glen for Work Racing, eventually finishing second. “In retrospect I should have saved some of the car until the end, but that’s easy to say now,” Livengood commented. “But nevertheless, the front row is still pretty awesome.”

Orsolon followed in third, and is still looking for his first win of the year. Canadian Audette was fourth after spending most of the session far down the time sheets.

“The car just kept getting better and better and I continued to improve my driving,” he said. “We made some adjustments to the car and we’re very close, so it should be a fun race.”

Daniel Erickson rounded off the top five for Primus Racing in an ADSA/Wright car. Erickson should wrap up the Taylor Race Engineering Rookie of the Year honors this afternoon.

Rob Nicholas was the fastest of the Masters Class drivers and qualified sixth ahead of Jonathan Scarallo, who turned his first laps in the car since winning at Road America in August.

“It’s a new feeling to go right into qualifying without any laps in the car for practice,” Scarallo, who spent yesterday at the Team USA Scholarship shootout, said. “But I have to give credit to the R-Sport guys for a car that works like this literally straight off the trailer.”

Cole Morgan followed in eighth – with the first eight cars separated by half a second, but will have his work cut out for him in the run to the title as he trails Carbone by some 82 points, and with 110 up for grabs, this may be Carbone’s title to lose.

Keith McCrone, Scarallo’s R-Sport teammate qualified ninth ahead of Tim Minor in tenth, with those two in a tight battle for the Masters Class championship. The man leading that championship chase by a hair, Phil Lombardi will start 11th.

The weekend continues with race one, 20-laps or 30-minutes, this afternoon with an estimated start time of 1:30pm. Tomorrow, Sunday, features a 9:00am qualifying session followed by an afternoon race to conclude the 2010 season. Live updates are available at www.f2000championshipseries.com.

Race 1 Grid:

Pos No. Name Best Tm Best Spd In Lap Diff Gap 1 23 Victor Carbone 1:24.179 96.566 18 - - 2 37 Chris Livengood 1:24.201 96.540 15 +0.022 +0.022 3 26 Fabio Orsolon 1:24.282 96.448 14 +0.103 +0.081 4 21 Remy Audette 1:24.290 96.438 18 +0.111 +0.008 5 95 Daniel Erickson 1:24.418 96.292 14 +0.239 +0.128 6 89 Rob Nicholas/M 1:24.639 96.041 18 +0.460 +0.221 7 22 Jonathon Scarallo 1:24.676 95.999 18 +0.497 +0.037 8 1 Cole Morgan 1:24.738 95.929 9 +0.559 +0.062 9 5 Keith McCrone/M 1:25.196 95.413 19 +1.017 +0.458 10 88 Tim Minor/M 1:25.226 95.379 10 +1.047 +0.030 11 3 Phil Lombardi/M 1:25.238 95.366 16 +1.059 +0.012 12 8 Mark Defer/M 1:25.343 95.249 10 +1.164 +0.105 13 67 Dave Weitzenhof/M 1:25.765 94.780 11 +1.586 +0.422 14 80 Bobby Caldwell 1:25.867 94.667 16 +1.688 +0.102 15 42 Bill Jordan/M 1:26.307 94.185 8 +2.128 +0.440 16 70 Tom Fatur/M 1:26.334 94.155 10 +2.155 +0.027 17 25 Jeff McCusker/M 1:26.453 94.026 17 +2.274 +0.119 18 90 Robert Wright/M 1:26.665 93.796 18 +2.486 +0.212 19 27 Craig Clawson/M 1:26.854 93.592 17 +2.675 +0.189 20 51 Dan Denison/M 1:26.870 93.574 19 +2.691 +0.016 21 69 Paul Farmer/M 1:27.422 92.983 12 +3.243 +0.552 22 28 Ardie Greenamyer/M 1:27.748 92.638 6 +3.569 +0.326 23 46 Doug Rocco 1:28.738 91.604 13 +4.559 +0.990