Rain Pole to Connery
Watkins Glen, NY – Coming off a win at Lime Rock Park in the rain last month, Kyle Connery stayed out of trouble to take pole ahead of Tim Minor and F2000 newcomer Santino Ferrucci in the rain at Watkins Glen International. Connery skipped early morning practice and found enough space in qualifying as car after car went off the track. Connery took pole by a sizeable margin and more importantly, reeled in bonus points towards the Championship which Minor currently leads.
Connery, on pole for round seven of the 14-race 2013 season, said: “It was actually pretty fantastic. We set our lap in traffic, there were so many cars I never got a clear lap. It is nice to take another WISKO Pole Award. Starting next to Tim this afternoon should produce a great battle. I’m hoping for rain for the race. After the win at Lime Rock we’ve become quite comfortable with the wet.”
For Minor, who has been on pole for most races this season, he will still have a clear track, starting on the outside of row one in the Ski Motorsports No. 88 Citation.
“Our fastest lap was actually our out lap because I was first,” explained Minor. “We never got a clean lap after that. The goal for the race is to finish, we have to finish. Hopefully ahead of Kyle and David Grant.”
The themes for qualifying were simple: no one was able to get much of a clean lap with the rain in addition to many cars going off the track and a handful of session stoppages. Thirty-three cars turned laps in the 30-minute session.
Ferrucci’s HP-Tech No. 10 Van Diemen clocked in an impressive third place, as the 15-year-old showed off his rain pace. Kevin Kopp was fourth quick after just a few laps on Thursday due to clutch issues.
Fabio Orsolon completed the top five in the No. 77 Radon, having paced both sessions on Thursday. Orsolon actually ran a faster lap at the end of the session but it was not counted as it happened after he took the checkered flag.
Roberto Lorena, in a second HP-Tech car, will line up sixth and the team will spend the afternoon repairing suspension damage as Lorena went off late in the session.
Dean Baker, Tim Paul, David Grant and Federico Mosconi completed the top ten.
Grant’s no. 29 Polestar car separates Minor and Connery in the Championship battle but the Atlantic veteran ran the Watkins Glen F2000 events at the end of 2012 and has plenty of experience around the road course.
Robert Wright, Jim Libecco and Shane Morris failed to put in times following a crash in turn one. While Brendan Puderbach went off in an early morning session with damage, as did Kem Lall.
The weekend at Watkins Glen marks a milestone for the F2000 Series with race no. 100 in Series history taking place on Saturday.
The day continues with the first race of the event at 5:30 local time. Saturday continues with race no. 100 in the history of the Championship at 11:55 local time. Results, timing, audio and more are available on www.f2000series.com.
Qualifying Results
PosNo.NameLapsBest TmMake/ModelDiff 1 91 Kyle Connery 5 2:18.672 Van Diemen Zetec - 2 88 Tim Minor/M 5 2:20.933 Citation Zetec +2.261 3 10 Santino Ferrucci 6 2:21.688 Van Diemen Zetec +3.016 4 22 Kevin Kopp 6 2:26.314 Van Diemen Zetec +7.642 5 77 Fabio Orsolon 5 2:27.715 Radon Zetec +9.043 6 9 Roberto Lorena 5 2:25.952 Van Diemen Zetec +7.280 7 52 Dean Baker/M 5 2:28.155 Van Diemen Zetec +9.483 8 06 Tim Paul 6 2:28.800 Van Diemen Zetec +10.128 9 29 David Grant 6 2:28.952 Van Diemen Zetec +10.280 10 99 Federico Mosconi 6 2:29.139 Van Diemen Zetec +10.467 11 45 Chuck Moran/M 6 2:30.339 Van Diemen Pinto +11.667 12 68 Steve Jenks 5 2:31.525 VDRF02 Zetec +12.853 13 01 John McCusker 5 2:33.725 RFR Zetec +15.053 14 35 Eric Presbrey/M 6 2:31.485 Van Diemen Zetec +12.813 15 19 Russell Lindeman/M 5 2:34.033 Van Diemen Zetec +15.361 16 71 Steve Bamford/M 5 2:34.263 Van Diemen Zetec +15.591 17 70 Tom Fatur/M 5 2:34.525 Van Diemen Zetec +15.853 18 23 Sergio Pasian 5 2:38.569 Van Diemen Zetec +19.897 19 69 Paul Farmer/M 5 2:40.943 Radon Zetec +22.271 20 27 Craig Clawson/M 5 2:38.048 Van Diemen Zetec +19.376 21 7 Brent Gilkes/M 5 2:41.892 Van Diemen Zetec +23.220 22 00 Tim Dunn/M 5 2:40.094 Metrik Zetec +21.422 23 0 Keith McCrone/M 3 2:40.702 Metrik Zetec +22.030 24 83 Charles Finelli/M 5 2:42.064 Van Diemen Zetec +23.392 25 86 Jim Hanrahan/M 5 2:44.724 Radon Zetec +26.052 26 47 Chris Monteleone 4 2:47.057 Van Diemen Pinto +28.385 27 15 Aaron Pettipas 4 2:47.436 Van Diemen Zetec +28.764 28 61 Tom Drake/M 5 2:54.671 Van Diemen Pinto +35.999 29 26 Alain Matra/M 5 2:57.397 Van Diemen Zetec +38.725 30 16 Chris Camadella/M 5 3:00.765 Radon Zetec +42.093 31 57 Scott Baroody 4 2:54.867 Van Diemen Zetec +36.195 32 97 Chris Gumprecht 3 3:05.884 RFR Zetec +47.212 33 18 Zach Craigo 1 4:21.259 Van Diemen Zetec +2:02.587 34 90 Robert Wright/M 0 -.--- Radon Zetec - 35 98 Jim Libecco 0 -.--- Van Diemen Zetec - 36 39 Shane Morris 0 -.--- Van Diemen Zetec - 37 31 Brendan Puderbach 0 -.--- RFR Zetec - 38 1 Kem Lall/M 0 -.--- Van Diemen Zetec -