Telitz Scores First Pole at Road Atlanta

Teltiz ran strong in the season opener in Virginia last month, often challenging for the lead but failing to score a podium. Now the Wisconsin native and aspiring racer will lead the F1600 field to the green for Friday’s first race of the F1600 doubleheader weekend.

“That was good, the first pole of the year and hopefully we get some more,” said Teltiz. “Adrian pushed me down the back straight on that lap and we were going so fast we missed the apex at turn 10, so the lap should have been better. The WISKO car was awesome. The plan for the race is to stay out front, but there should be a lead pack so if we stay out front we will control our own destiny.”

2012 marked a season dominated by two teams – Herta and Cape Motorsports – and 2013 was looking very similar, but Telitz ran well at VIR and has now delivered a breakthrough pole position for the WISKO squad. The driver was greeted in post-session impound with high-fives from the crew.

Championship leader and Virginia winner Starrantino missed out on pole by just a tenth of a second after showing speed early in the morning and battling through a big crash in turn one.

“I can’t thank the team enough for getting the car back together,” said the Mygale/Honda driver, pointing to a car covered in tape and non-matching body panels. “We qualified second with one practice session.”

Jake Eidson was third quick for Cape Motorsports following a dominant practice showing, but could not match his lap time on a slower Road Atlanta race track in the late afternoon.

“It’s not too bad. Between the weather and the drift rubber in turn 10, the track was slower,” added Eidson, in the No. 10 Spectrum/Honda.

“The plan for the race is to keep doing what we’re doing and be consistent,” continued Eidson, who finished second twice at VIR in April.

After quick times were set early, the 12-turn road course appeared to get slower in the afternoon sun, with qualifying lasting 30 minutes and ending at 5:00 p.m. sharp.

In fourth position was Steve Bamford, doing double duty and also racing in the F2000 Championship Series, while getting faster every weekend. Fifth quick was Ayla Agren, who started from pole in Virginia in the No. 96 Bryan Herta Autosport Mygale/Honda.

Joe Colasacco was sixth ahead of Slade Miller, the third Herta car of Sam Chastain, Scott Rubenzer, and F1600 Series race winner Jim Goughary.

All those drivers and the complete 18-car field were all sent to technical inspection following qualifying where Series officials looked at every car.

Friday continues with an early 8:30 a.m. warm-up for the F1600 field followed by race one of the weekend and round three of the 2013 season at 12:00 p.m. Stay tuned to www.F1600Series.com for the latest.

Qualifying Results

PosNo.NameClassBest TmBest SpdIn LapDiffGap 1 13 Aaron Telitz F16. 1:30.126 101.458 4 - - 2 98 Adrian Starrantino F16. 1:30.204 101.370 6 +0.078 +0.078 3 10 Jake Eidson F16. 1:30.272 101.294 7 +0.146 +0.068 4 07 Steve Bamford/M F16. 1:30.913 100.580 18 +0.787 +0.641 5 96 Ayla Agren F16. 1:31.266 100.191 6 +1.140 +0.353 6 3 Joe Colasacco/M F16. 1:31.473 99.964 12 +1.347 +0.207 7 16 Slade Miller F16. 1:31.510 99.924 3 +1.384 +0.037 8 97 Sam Chastain F16. 1:31.902 99.497 5 +1.776 +0.392 9 31 Scott Rubenzer/M F16. 1:32.057 99.330 13 +1.931 +0.155 10 7 Jim Goughary F16. 1:32.076 99.309 11 +1.950 +0.019 11 5 Dan Oseth F16. 1:32.674 98.668 17 +2.548 +0.598 12 66 Paul Alspach F16. 1:32.877 98.453 9 +2.751 +0.203 13 0 Lewis Cooper III/M F16 1:33.517 97.779 4 +3.391 +0.640 14 21 Art Foster/M F16. 1:33.696 97.592 7 +3.570 +0.179 15 75 Don Baggett F16 1:33.710 97.578 6 +3.584 +0.014 16 2 Mike Scanlan/M F16. 1:33.826 97.457 18 +3.700 +0.116 17 06 Austin McCusker F16. 1:34.058 97.217 8 +3.932 +0.232 18 26 Wes Allen F16. 1:35.960 95.290 10 +5.834 +1.902