Minor Edges Lorena for Pole at VIR
Alton, VA – Backing up his super practice performance, Tim Minor wheeled his No. 88 Citation under Remy Audette’s two-year-old track record to take the WISKO Pole Award, edging 17-year-old Roberto Lorena by two hundredths of a second.
Minor’s heavily updated Citation came in under the track record by just a few hundredths, with a lap run around the 17-turn VIRginia International Raceway at 1:53.922.
“I ran the laps I need to,” said Minor. “The truth is I could have gone a bit quicker, but we weren’t so worried about pole. I am here to win the race.”
Qualifying second and lining up alongside Minor’s Ski Motorsports car on the way to the green flag will be 17-year-old rookie Roberto Lorena in the HP-Tech Van Diemen.
“We were so close,” added Lorena. “The car is good and the changes we made yesterday helped. To be on the front row in my first F2000 race is amazing.”
In tire strategy, Minor only ran five laps in qualifying, as opposed to Lorena’s eight. A late race in the afternoon will mean a hotter track, with tires potentially going away as the laps wind down.
Third on the time sheets was David Grant, in the Polestar Racing Group No. 29 Van Diemen, with Kevin Kopp and Brent Gilkes rounding out the top five.
Completing positions six through ten were Dean Baker, Fedrico Mosconi, Tom Fatur, 2011 VIR Pole winner Kyle Connery, who had gearbox issues, and Shane Morris.
Tim Paul only managed one lap and will have to start from the back of the field following running over damage from Zach Craigo's car.
Qualifying Results:
PosNo.NameBest TmBest SpdIn LapDiffGap 1 88 Tim Minor/M 1:53.922 103.334 4 - - 2 9 Roberto Lorena 1:53.942 103.316 8 +0.020 +0.020 3 29 David Grant 1:55.070 102.303 8 +1.148 +1.128 4 22 Kevin Kopp 1:55.331 102.071 9 +1.409 +0.261 5 7 Brent Gilkes/M 1:56.322 101.202 8 +2.400 +0.991 6 52 Dean Baker/M 1:56.379 101.152 4 +2.457 +0.057 7 99 Federico Mosconi 1:56.606 100.955 9 +2.684 +0.227 8 70 Tom Fatur/M 1:56.991 100.623 7 +3.069 +0.018 9 91 Kyle Connery 1:57.002 100.614 3 +3.080 +0.011 10 39 Shane Morris 1:56.973 100.639 4 +3.051 +0.367 11 98 Jim Libecco 1:57.004 100.612 5 +3.082 +0.002 12 23 Sergio Pasian 1:57.095 100.534 3 +3.173 +0.091 13 90 Robert Wright/M 1:57.186 100.456 5 +3.264 +0.091 14 71 Steve Bamford/M 1:57.272 100.382 10 +3.350 +0.086 15 0 Keith McCrone/M 1:57.434 100.244 10 +3.512 +0.162 16 67 Dave Weitzenhof/M 1:57.499 100.188 8 +3.577 +0.065 17 35 Eric Presbrey/M 1:57.822 99.913 5 +3.900 +0.323 18 01 John McCusker 1:58.052 99.719 8 +4.130 +0.230 19 17 Peter Gonzalez/M 1:58.326 99.488 5 +4.404 +0.274 20 19 Russell Lindeman 1:58.532 99.315 11 +4.610 +0.206 21 47 Chris Monteleone 1:59.068 98.868 12 +5.146 +0.536 22 94 Al Guibord,Sr./M 2:04.459 94.585 8 +10.537 +5.391 23 18 Zach Craigo 2:05.666 93.677 1 +11.744 +1.207 24 73 Vaughn Horvath 2:05.707 93.646 3 +11.785 +0.041 25 1 Kem Lall/M 2:06.224 93.263 6 +12.302 +0.517 26 06 Tim Paul 2:09.562 90.860 1 +15.640 +3.338 27 15 Aaron Pettipas -.--- - 0 - - 28 00 Tim Dunn/M -.--- - 0 - -