Livengood and Erickson Split Watkins Glen Poles

American rookie Livengood was second quick in the morning’s practice session before taking his first career F2000  pole with a lap of 1:53.596 for race one of the weekend. The #37, which was recently converted from Pinto to Zetec by Work Racing, will start on pole for race one and will come from fourth for race two.

“The changes we made this morning were right on the money. I think I can drive better through the back half of the track too,” said Livengood, who is running a bone-stock 1999 Van Diemen chassis for Work Racing with engineering support provided by John Walko.

Lining up alongside Livengood for race one will be Australian rookie Daniel Erickson, who paced both practice sessions. Erickson is well remembered for showing up at VIR, resetting the track record, taking both poles and nearly running away with the second race before a spark plug wire ruined his day.

Completing the top ten for the first race of the weekend were Keith McCrone, who was the fastest Masters Class driver in third for R-Sport, Rob Nicholas, Fabio Orsolon, Jonathan Scarallo, Cole Morgan, Victor Carbone, Stevan McAleer and Tim Minor.

Both Orsolon and Scarallo are bouncing back from big crashes at Mosport just a few weeks ago.

In the first qualifying round, championship points leader Victor Carbone was actually faster than anyone else, but will surrender his two fastest laps for bringing out the black flag in this morning’s practice session. The Brazilian will have to come from eighth on Saturday, his worst starting position of the year. Carbone will start second for Sunday’s 14-lap race in his Alegra Motorsports #23 Van Diemen/Zetec.

“I’m going to have to get a clean start tomorrow and try to work my way up front,” said Carbone. “The car feels great and if weren’t for the penalty I’d be on the pole for the first race.”

In the second qualifying session, Daniel Erickson’s lap of 1:53.047 was relatively untouched as the young Australian takes his third pole of the year and misses out on another track record by a couple hundredths.

“We made a few first changes in the first session which obviously didn’t work,” said Erickson. “We went back to the regular setup for the second qualifying session and it went to plan.”

Championship points leader Victor Carbone will line up second alongside Erickson, which is reminiscent of race one at VIR. At that race, Carbone got the drop on an inexperienced Erickson in his first rolling start ever to take what was then his first win of the year.

Fabio Orsolon, Carbone’s Alegra Motorsports teammate will line up third next to Chris Livengood. Keith McCrone continued to be the quickest of the Masters Class drivers rounding out the top five.

Rob Nicholas, Tim Minor, Jonathan Scarallo, Cole Morgan and Tim Minor followed in positions sixth through 10. 

Interestingly enough, both pole times set were faster than World Challenge’s GT pole lap of 1:54.657.

2007 F2000 title winner Cole Morgan bounced back from a hiccup during practice that tore the rear wing off the #1 to qualify seventh for race one and ninth for race two. Morgan currently sits second in the standings.

“We’re all baffled,” said Morgan. “It seems like something is broken but we keep throwing these changes at the car and nothing happens.”

Scottish rookie and F2000 newcomer Stevan McAleer, in the #14 Race House entry, battled engine issues in the morning sessions to end up qualifying ninth and 11th in his F2000 Series debut. Teammate and former sprint car/midget driver Tim Paul will start 21st and 24th in the #06 SMR car.

Also competing in the F2000 qualifying sessions was James Winslow, who is looking for some more track time before his Indy Lights race at Watkins Glen. Winslow may contest the F2000 races in the K-Hill Motorsports #42 Van Diemen. The Indy Lights competitor qualified 18th and 13th.

Last year’s Watkins Glen winner, Phil Lombardi will line up 11th in race one and tenth in race two.

Local driver Craig Clawson qualified 16th and 14th in the #27 entry.

Chris Gumprecht crashed in afternoon practice to miss the first qualifying session. Meanwhile, Dan Denison crashed during the first qualifying session and Charles Finelli battled mechanical problems.

Chris Camadella was a late addition to the F2000 grid in the second AcceleRace Motorsports entry.

The F2000 action continues at Watkins Glen with race one, tomorrow, July 3, at 10:15am (GMT – 5) and race two on Sunday at 11:00am. Follow live updates online at www.F2000ChampionshipSeries.com and on Twitter @F2000.

Race One Grid

Pos No. Name Best Tm Best Spd In Lap Diff Gap 1 37 Chris Livengood 1:53.596 106.800 7 - - 2 18 Daniel Erickson 1:53.623 106.774 6 +0.027 +0.027 3 5 Keith McCrone/M 1:53.702 106.700 11 +0.106 +0.079 4 89 Rob Nicholas/M 1:53.713 106.690 9 +0.117 +0.011 5 26 Fabio Orsolon 1:53.964 106.455 8 +0.368 +0.251 6 22 Jonathon Scarallo 1:54.055 106.370 7 +0.459 +0.091 7 1 Cole Morgan 1:54.101 106.327 6 +0.505 +0.046 8 23 Victor Carbone 1:54.114 106.315 9 +0.518 +0.013 9 14 Steven McAleer 1:54.451 106.002 7 +0.855 +0.337 10 88 Tim Minor/M 1:54.466 105.988 8 +0.870 +0.015 11 3 Phil Lombardi/M 1:54.971 105.522 7 +1.375 +0.505 12 28 Ardie Greenamyer/M 1:55.267 105.251 7 +1.671 +0.296 13 80 Bobby Caldwell 1:55.292 105.228 6 +1.696 +0.025 14 11 Jesse Yorio 1:55.334 105.190 11 +1.738 +0.042 15 95 Al Giubord, Jr. 1:55.653 104.900 6 +2.057 +0.319 16 27 Craig Clawson/M 1:55.844 104.727 10 +2.248 +0.191 17 8 Mark Defer/M 1:56.113 104.484 8 +2.517 +0.269 18 42 James Winslow 1:56.136 104.464 8 +2.540 +0.023 19 7 Brent Gilkes/M 1:56.183 104.421 9 +2.587 +0.047 20 70 Tom Fatur/M 1:56.614 104.036 6 +3.018 +0.431 21 06 Tim Paul 1:57.130 103.577 6 +3.534 +0.516 22 90 Robert Wright/M 1:57.364 103.371 9 +3.768 +0.234 23 29 Chris Camadella/M 1:58.817 102.107 10 +5.221 +1.453 24 25 Jeff McCusker/M 1:58.871 102.060 7 +5.275 +0.054 25 73 Vaughn Horvath 1:59.276 101.714 7 +5.680 +0.174 26 12 Bob Reid 2:01.663 99.718 10 +8.067 +2.387 27 69 Paul Farmer/M 1:59.102 101.862 5 +5.506 +0.231 28 94 Al Guibord,Sr./M 2:02.203 99.277 6 +8.607 +0.540 29 85 Zach Craigo 2:07.051 95.489 4 +13.455 +4.848 30 83 Charles Finelli/M -.--- - 0 - - 31 51 Dan Denison/M -.--- - 0 - - 32 97 Chris Gumprecht -.--- - 0 - -

Race Two Grid

Pos No. Name Best Tm Best Spd In Lap Diff Gap 1 18 Daniel Erickson 1:53.047 107.318 9 - - 2 23 Victor Carbone 1:53.169 107.203 7 +0.122 +0.122 3 26 Fabio Orsolon 1:53.322 107.058 5 +0.275 +0.153 4 37 Chris Livengood 1:53.456 106.931 4 +0.409 +0.134 5 5 Keith McCrone/M 1:53.525 106.866 10 +0.478 +0.069 6 89 Rob Nicholas/M 1:53.538 106.854 5 +0.491 +0.013 7 88 Tim Minor/M 1:53.609 106.787 14 +0.562 +0.071 8 22 Jonathon Scarallo 1:53.783 106.624 15 +0.736 +0.174 9 1 Cole Morgan 1:53.878 106.535 8 +0.831 +0.095 10 3 Phil Lombardi/M 1:54.404 106.045 5 +1.357 +0.526 11 14 Steven McAleer 1:54.407 106.042 12 +1.360 +0.003 12 80 Bobby Caldwell 1:54.623 105.843 4 +1.576 +0.216 13 42 James Winslow 1:54.920 105.569 14 +1.873 +0.297 14 27 Craig Clawson/M 1:54.985 105.509 14 +1.938 +0.065 15 95 Al Giubord, Jr. 1:55.234 105.281 5 +2.187 +0.249 16 83 Charles Finelli/M 1:55.260 105.258 13 +2.213 +0.026 17 11 Jesse Yorio 1:55.298 105.223 11 +2.251 +0.038 18 70 Tom Fatur/M 1:56.036 104.554 11 +2.989 +0.738 19 90 Robert Wright/M 1:56.616 104.034 4 +3.569 +0.580 20 7 Brent Gilkes/M 1:56.696 103.962 3 +3.649 +0.080 21 28 Ardie Greenamyer/M 1:56.847 103.828 2 +3.800 +0.151 22 25 Jeff McCusker/M 1:57.121 103.585 14 +4.074 +0.274 23 97 Chris Gumprecht 1:57.187 103.527 5 +4.140 +0.066 24 06 Tim Paul 1:57.528 103.226 3 +4.481 +0.341 25 8 Mark Defer/M 1:57.597 103.166 4 +4.550 +0.069 26 29 Chris Camadella/M 1:57.694 103.081 4 +4.647 +0.097 27 69 Paul Farmer/M 1:57.697 103.078 15 +4.650 +0.003 28 73 Vaughn Horvath 1:57.956 102.852 6 +4.909 +0.259 29 12 Bob Reid 2:00.841 100.396 15 +7.794 +2.885 30 94 Al Guibord,Sr./M 2:01.498 99.853 6 +8.451 +0.657 31 85 Zach Craigo 2:17.794 88.044 2 +24.747 +16.296 32 51 Dan Denison/M -.--- - 0 - -