Erickson Inherits Race One Pole in Rain at Lime Rock
Lakeville, CT – A crazy F2000 qualifying session in heavy rain at Lime Rock saw Daniel Erickson inherit his fourth pole of the year. The Australian rookie capitalized on Masters Class driver Keith McCrone – who had set fast time in his R-Sport Van Diemen before a crash saw his car airborne in turn one. McCrone emerged unhurt, but because he brought out the caution he surrenders two grid positions, giving the top spot to Erickson.
Lining up alongside Erickson on row one for the first F2000 race of the weekend, scheduled for Saturday morning at 10:30 am, is Fabio Orsolon. Rounding out the top five were Keith McCrone, Stevan McAleer and Cole Morgan.
Championship points leader Victor Carbone was fastest in the morning practice session, but also incurred a two-grid-position penalty for running the checkered flag. Carbone will line up sixth.
Interestingly enough, McCrone will keep three bonus points for fast time, as the F2000 rulebook only states that he will only lose two grid positions. It is unclear whether his car will be ready for tomorrow’s two 35-lap or 30-minute races.
“I went to get on the brakes going into turn one and the car got twitchy and snapped out,” said McCrone, who is sitting fifth in F2000 Championship points. “The grass just made the car pick up more speed since it was wet and then it continued into the tire wall. That last lap was a flyer though, and we have been consistently moving up in the finishing order each weekend this season.”
Erickson is coming off sweeping the Watkins Glen weekend by winning both races. In his only start before that, at VIR, Erickson took two poles, finished second by a hair in the first race, set a new track record and ran away with second race before a loose spark plug wire ruined his day.
“It’s not the best way to start first but I’ll take it,” said Erickson. “We had the speed to put it on pole outright but we were trying to find a gap and you couldn’t see too much with the spray. Credit to the Primus Racing/Quantum Mechanics team because the car was brilliant.”
Orsolon will start alongside the Australian in the #26 entry for Alegra Motorsports. “I need to thank the Alegra guys for all their hard work,” Orsolon commented. “That was probably the scariest session of my career because I couldn’t see anything. I was just trying to drive as quickly and safely as possible.”
Stevan McAleer qualified fourth for the Race House team, in only his third F2000 qualifying session ever. “We were just looking for a clear lap trying to stay out of trouble,” said the Scottish rookie. “I was being careful with the spray since I didn’t want to run into anyone.”
Phil Lombardi used his years of Lime Rock experience to qualify the GTP Motorsports Van Diemen seventh ahead fellow Masters Class competitors Jeff McCusker and John Dole.
Felix Serralles was the surprise of the session as the up-and-coming driver will start tenth for race one. It was his second session ever in an F2000 car and the Puerto Rican is also currently contesting the Skip Barber National Series.
The F2000 action continues tomorrow, Saturday, July 24 with both races. The green flag drops on race one at approximately 10:30am, race two follows at 5:15pm.
Race One Grid Order:
Pos No. Name Best Tm Best Spd In Lap Diff Gap 1 2 Daniel Erickson 1:08.211 80.749 9 +0.668 +0.668 2 26 Fabio Orsolon 1:08.828 80.026 10 +1.285 +0.617 3 5 Keith McCrone/M 1:07.543 81.548 9 - - 4 14 Steven McAleer 1:09.284 79.499 11 +1.741 +0.386 5 1 Cole Morgan 1:09.409 79.356 11 +1.866 +0.125 6 23 Victor Carbone 1:08.898 79.944 9 +1.355 +0.070 7 3 Phil Lombardi/M 1:09.756 78.961 9 +2.213 +0.347 8 25 Jeff McCusker/M 1:09.803 78.908 8 +2.260 +0.047 9 08 John Dole/M 1:10.022 78.661 8 +2.479 +0.219 10 17 Felix Serralles 1:10.103 78.570 2 +2.560 +0.081 11 37 Chris Livengood 1:10.621 77.994 9 +3.078 +0.518 12 22 Jonathon Scarallo 1:10.821 77.774 10 +3.278 +0.200 13 80 Bobby Caldwell 1:10.872 77.718 11 +3.329 +0.051 14 88 Tim Minor/M 1:11.117 77.450 2 +3.574 +0.245 15 12 Bob Reid/M 1:11.152 77.412 9 +3.609 +0.035 16 06 Tim Paul 1:11.338 77.210 10 +3.795 +0.186 17 70 Tom Fatur/M 1:12.094 76.400 6 +4.551 +0.756 18 61 Tom Drake 1:13.001 75.451 7 +5.458 +0.907 19 83 Charles Finelli/M 1:13.148 75.299 4 +5.605 +0.147 20 89 Jim Hanrahan 1:13.201 75.245 10 +5.658 +0.053 21 51 Dan Denison/M 1:13.333 75.109 3 +5.790 +0.132 22 7 Brent Gilkes/M 1:13.421 75.019 9 +5.878 +0.073 23 69 Paul Farmer/M 1:14.223 74.209 11 +6.680 +0.067 24 90 Robert Wright/M 1:13.348 75.094 6 +5.805 +0.015 25 95 Peter Gonzalez/M 1:14.708 73.727 4 +7.165 +0.485 26 27 Craig Clawson/M 1:14.156 74.276 10 +6.613 +0.735 27 97 Chris Gumprecht 1:15.270 73.177 3 +7.727 +0.562 28 28 Ardie Greenamyer/M 1:21.215 67.820 4 +13.672 +5.945 29 11 Jesse Yorio 1:35.978 57.388 1 +28.435 +14.763