Daly, not Yacaman wins Indy Lights pole
The qualifications order was revised by Firestone Indy Lights officials, who determined that several drivers set their fastest laps while a local yellow was displayed on the course including Gustavo Yacaman who posted the quickest lap.
Peter Dempsey, driving the No. 26 Andretti Autosport car, will make his second front-row start of the season (Long Beach the other).
Firestone Indy Lights officials have revised the starting lineup for the Baltimore 100. Conor Daly has been awarded the Sunoco Pole Award after officials determined several cars set their fastest laps while a local yellow was displayed on course. Firestone Indy Lights rules prohibit drivers from setting their fastest laps once a local yellow has been displayed.
TONY COTMAN (Firestone Indy Lights Race Director): "Under a local yellow in the Firestone Indy Lights race, you can't improve your lap time. Any car that drives through the local yellow area will have their lap deleted. After the qualifying session when I was going through and looking at the data prior to putting out the official results, I noticed that we had inadvertently deleted the laps from all cars from the lap before we meant to delete them. Instead of deleting the lap of the local yellow, we deleted the lap before it, so we basically deleted the wrong lap. When I looked at that it reflected the results, but I couldn't get to that until after the IZOD IndyCar Series qualifying and the Star Mazda qualifying and this is why it took a couple of hours to review. You may remember that Stefan Wilson is the last one that comes to mind because earlier this season he thought he was on the pole somewhere and the same rule applied then and it applies every weekend. I feel really bad about the people it affected negatively, particularly Gustavo Yacamen, but I feel really good knowing that we applied the rule as written and are trying to be consistent from week to week and we will move on."
CONOR DALY (No. 77 Mazda Road to Indy/SSM): "It means a lot. I've wanted a pole for so long. Esteban (Guerrieri) always seemed to get us this year. I was able to put in a good lap and at the right time. I'm just really happy that the officials made the right decision as well. I'm just ready for the race now. I know we have a fast car and I love street circuits."
09/03/11 Qualifying Saturday for the Streets of Baltimore Firestone Indy Lights event on the 2.04-mile Streets of Baltimore, with starting position, car number in parentheses, driver, time and speed in parentheses:
1. (2) Gustavo Yacaman, 01:27.3151 (84.109)
2. (26) Peter Dempsey, 01:27.9673 (83.486)
3. (9) Anders Krohn, 01:28.0499 (83.407)
4. (77) Conor Daly, 01:28.1021 (83.358)
5. (5) Stefan Wilson, 01:29.9007 (81.690)
6. (12) Oliver Webb, 01:30.2748 (81.352)
7. (7) Esteban Guerrieri, 01:30.3474 (81.286)
8. (4) Jorge Goncalvez, 01:30.7034 (80.967)
9. (22) Tonis Kasemets, 01:30.7057 (80.965)
10. (29) Bruno Andrade, 01:30.8358 (80.849)
11. (3) Victor Carbone, 01:31.1892 (80.536)
12. (16) David Ostella, 01:32.3328 (79.538)
13. (17) Rusty Mitchell, 01:32.4353 (79.450)
14. (11) Josef Newgarden, no time (no speed)
15. (28) Duarte Ferreira, no time (no speed)
16. (32) Willy T Ribbs, no time (no speed)
Note: #11 Newgarden penalized all qualifying laps for causing two full course yellows; #12 Webb and #22 Kasemets penalized fastest lap for causing full course yellow; #29 Andrade penalized fastest lap for ignoring caution flag.