Gooden Grabs Road Atlanta Pole
Braselton, GA – Rookie Wyatt Gooden, who had never driven at Road Atlanta prior to today, took pole by a tenth of a second for round three of the 2012 F2000 Championship Series season, setting a lap of 1:24.907 to break the track record in the No. 6 Quantum Racing Services Van Diemen. Robert La Rocca, who leads the points coming off two wins at VIR, lines up second ahead of Fabio Orsolon, Kyle Connery and Chris Livengood.
The top four cars were separated by less than three tenths of a second.
For Gooden, it is his first pole after narrowly missing out in Virginia last month by just thousandths of a second to La Rocca. Gooden will start his third F2000 race on Friday after graduating from the F1600 Formula F Championship Series, where he won all four races he entered in 2011.
“We went out again at the last second, and we knew there was more in the car,” said the American. “I gave it one lap and that was it.”
While Gooden had never seen Road Atlanta, he did add that he has more than enough laps around the 12-turn road course in iRacing.
Meanwhile, La Rocca couldn't make it three poles in a row, despite pacing the morning practice in the HP-Tech Van Diemen.
“We had to go around a slower car on our quickest lap,” said La Rocca, hinting at the fact there is more in the No. 10. “The car went well, though, and the team is doing a great job, however, the track wasn't as fast as this morning.”
Fabio Orsolon will start third in the No. 77 Radon from GTP Motorsports, having finished on the podium with the chassis at VIR.
“We were leaking water during the session from the radiator, and that caused us to miss some laps,” the Brazilian noted. “But, the car is really good and it’s tight at the front of the field.”
Connery will line up fourth, becoming the story of the day after ditching his No. 91 RFR after three morning sessions and jumping in the car he won six races in last season, including both at Road Atlanta, a Van Diemen.
“That wasn't bad for only one session,” Connery said. “The chassis was off a bit but we’ll get there, it will also be interesting to see the race pace of everyone. Overall, we are very pleased based on where we were this morning.”
Multiple F2000 race-winner Chris Livengood rounded out the top five, bouncing back for John Walko Racing in the No. 37 RFR after a rough VIR weekend attributed to electrical gremlins.
Another RFR followed in sixth, Niki Coello, with Tim Minor seventh fastest, and first of the Masters Class competitors. Then it was Gerald Kraut, for JDC Motorsports, Tim Paul and Zach Craigo, all in Van Diemens, for positions eight through 10.
Nathan Morcom qualified 14th following a last minute car and team change, as the young Australian now pilots the No. 1 Van Diemen for Momentum Motorsports.
After a 8:00am warmup on Friday, F2000 cars will race at 10:50am for 18 laps, and Saturday concludes the weekend with a 8:00am qualifying session followed by a 11:15am race. Qualifying and races will feature live audio on www.livestream.com/F2000. News, results, social media updates and photos will be available on www.F2000Series.com throughout the weekend.
Qualifying Order:
Pos No. Name Best Tm Best Spd In Lap Diff Gap 1 6 Wyatt Gooden 1:24.907 107.694 12 - - 2 10 Robert LaRocca 1:24.954 107.635 15 +0.047 +0.047 3 77 Fabio Orsolon 1:25.056 107.506 8 +0.149 +0.102 4 91 Kyle Connery 1:25.200 107.324 14 +0.293 +0.144 5 37 Chris Livengood 1:25.507 106.939 19 +0.600 +0.307 6 81 Niki Coello 1:25.899 106.451 13 +0.992 +0.392 7 88 Tim Minor/M 1:26.072 106.237 14 +1.165 +0.173 8 55 Gerald Kraut/M 1:26.625 105.558 17 +1.718 +0.553 9 06 Tim Paul 1:26.633 105.549 10 +1.726 +0.008 10 18 Zach Craigo 1:26.746 105.411 15 +1.839 +0.113 11 17 John LaRue/M 1:26.967 105.143 16 +2.060 +0.221 12 67 Dave Weitzenhof/M 1:27.253 104.799 6 +2.346 +0.286 13 7 Brent Gilkes/M 1:27.272 104.776 9 +2.365 +0.019 14 1 Nathan Marcom 1:27.462 104.548 15 +2.555 +0.190 15 66 Kevin Kopp 1:27.481 104.526 10 +2.574 +0.019 16 42 Bill Jordan/M 1:27.647 104.328 16 +2.740 +0.166 17 56 Steve Coates 1:27.758 104.196 11 +2.851 +0.111 18 8 Mark Defer/M 1:27.840 104.098 8 +2.933 +0.082 19 90 Robert Wright/M 1:28.001 103.908 12 +3.094 +0.161 20 72 Thomas Schwietz/M 1:28.129 103.757 6 +3.222 +0.128 21 19 John Brumder/M 1:28.410 103.427 17 +3.503 +0.281 22 51 Dan Denison/M 1:28.456 103.373 16 +3.549 +0.046 23 14 Jose Gerardo/M 1:28.546 103.268 8 +3.639 +0.090 24 9 Jose Montiel 1:28.652 103.145 17 +3.745 +0.106 25 16 Peter Gonzalez/M 1:29.653 101.993 5 +4.746 +1.001 26 35 Eric Presbrey 1:29.987 101.615 9 +5.080 +0.334 27 31 Brendan Puderbach 1:30.418 101.130 6 +5.511 +0.431 28 83 Charles Finelli/M -.--- - 0 - -