New Track Record, Pole for Chris Miller
Watkins Glen, NY – Chris Miller took pole for this afternoon’s F2000 race at Watkins Glen with a new track record of 1:53.229,a full seven tenths ahead of second place Remy Audette. Miller, who has already won two races this year and sits second in the standings, also takes three championship bonus points with pole.
“The car was great and we were just going quicker and quick,” said Miller after the session. “I think we are in good shape for the race judging by our qualifying pace.”
Second place Remy Audette commented: “After this morning’s session we changed just about everything on the car and it was much better, I have to thank my team for all the hard work, they did a great job.”
Championship leader Matthew Inge was third for St. Clair Motorsports with Al Guibord, Jr., and 2006 champion Matthew McDonough in the only Piper chassis in the field rounding out the top five.
“The track has tons of grip,” Guibord, Jr. commented. “It was hard to get a perfectly clean lap with tons of cars on the track this weekend but I am really looking forward to the race, we are starting on the right end of the field.”
Matthew McDonough, who is back in a car for the first time since 2007, was quite happy with his top five qualifying effort. McDonough, who was almost 50lbs overweight in post-qualifying tech inspection, said: “I’m still getting to know the Piper chassis and after this morning and the changes we made, I can drive it a bit better. We’re going to make some more changes for the race and since we’re starting near the front, hopefully I can do some damage and move up.”
Benjamin Searcy brought out a lengthy black flag when he made contact with the front-straight wall. The Z-Sports team is hoping to have the car ready for this afternoon’s race.
Phil Lombardi, Chris Gumprecht, in the best qualifying performance of his career, Jonathan Scarallo, Craig Clawson and Fabio Orsolon rounded out the top ten.
“Come race time all bets are off,” Lombardi said. “But the car is very good and I think we could have been well in the top five, but we’ll take this and see what we can make of it.”
Craig Clawson was the fastest of the Masters Class drivers, qualifying ninth at his home track.
This afternoon’s race, round seven of the 2009 championship, is due to get underway this afternoon at 2:45. Stay tuned to www.F2000ChampionshipSeries.com for the latest.
Full Qualifying Results:
PosNo.NameBest TmBest SpdIn LapDiffGap185Chris Miller1:53.229107.14610--221Remy Audette1:53.932106.48510+0.703+0.703302Matthew Inge1:54.518105.94011+1.289+0.586495Al Guibord, Jr.1:54.825105.6563+1.596+0.307511Matt McDonough1:54.999105.4977+1.770+0.17463Phil Lombardi1:55.059105.4428+1.830+0.060797Chris Gumprecht1:55.170105.3408+1.941+0.111822Jonathan Scarallo1:55.218105.2969+1.989+0.048927Craig Clawson/M1:55.391105.1388+2.162+0.1731026Fabio Orsolon1:55.420105.1129+2.191+0.0291125Jeff McCusker/M1:55.510105.0308+2.281+0.090128Mark Defer/M1:55.595104.9537+2.366+0.085135Keith McCrone/M1:55.826104.7438+2.597+0.2311496Alejandro Munoz1:56.067104.5267+2.838+0.241154Chris Camadella/M1:56.154104.4487+2.925+0.0871670Tom Fatur/M1:56.211104.3962+2.982+0.0571790Robert Wright/M1:56.258104.3549+3.029+0.0471860Dwight Rider/M1:56.525104.11510+3.296+0.2671956Mike Mazziotti/M1:56.645104.0088+3.416+0.1202008John Dole/M1:56.757103.9088+3.528+0.1122180Bobby Caldwell1:57.313103.4162+4.084+0.5562212Colin Alexander1:57.572103.1889+4.343+0.259237Brent Gilkes/M1:57.795102.9922+4.566+0.2232428Ardie Greenameyer1:58.293102.5597+5.064+0.4982520Caitlin Johnston1:58.374102.4897+5.145+0.0812689Rob Nicholas1:59.361101.6411+6.132+0.3262794Blake Teeter1:59.957101.1369+6.728+0.2202883Charles Finelli/M1:59.035101.9207+5.806+0.6612951Dan Denison/M2:00.886100.3599+7.657+0.9293017Ty Hunter2:01.216100.0862+7.987+0.3303115Mark Felson2:02.89398.7201+9.664+1.6773210Benjamin Searcy1:59.737101.3221+6.508+0.3763347Scott Gesford-.----0--