Inge Takes Pole as Records Drop

American Matthew Inge lowered the track record at Watkins Glen further en route to taking pole position for tomorrow's F2000 race. Inge set a quick lap of 1:53.015 early in the session that only Chris Miller could come close to, but he'll have to settle for second with a lap of 1:53.168. Miller was stuck in slower traffic for much of the session.

"The session was really good," commented Inge, who earns his first career pole and three championship points. "I learned from my mistakes yesterday and St. Clair gave me a great car so I was able to just put my head down and go for the pole."

Inge won his first F2000 race a few weeks ago at Mosport and was running in the top three yesterday until an incident with Remy Audette cost him his front wing on the back straight. Once St. Clair repaired the car Inge was laps down and out of contention, costing him valuable championship points in what appears to be a three-man fight for the title between him, Chris Miller and Remy Audette.

Remy Audette will line up third. "The car is really good but I need to fix my driving a bit," Audette said.

Jonathan Scarallo bounced back from a crash in yesterday's race to qualify fourth, his best result of the season. Scarallo said: "I was on the limit for my lap, every corner, it was on the brink of crashing almost. I have to thank my crew as they were up all night fixing both Group A cars and did a great job." Scarallo's car sports a new black paintjob for this weekend along with aero tweaks developed in house by Group A Racing.

Al Guibord, Jr. rounded out the top five, riding momentum from his fourth place finish in the first race of the weekend yesterday afternoon.

Phil Lombardi, Chris Gumprecht, Matt McDonough, Benjamin Searcy and Masters Class points leader Tom Fatur rounded out the top ten.

"I qualified sixth yesterday so it's all about consistency," said Lombardi, who finished second in yesterday's race. “You can win from the first three rows very easily so hopefully we can build upon our second place from the first race."

Fatur commented: "The tailwind down the back stretch helped our top speed and the grip left from the Indy Car rubber was unbelievable, the track was so much faster today."

Dwight Rider and Ardie Greenamyer made contact about halfway through the session to bring out the black flag for a few minutes. With cleanup completed, the session resumed with just four minutes to go which was not enough time for anyone to get their tires up to temperature to threaten the top ten.

Fabio Orsolon will line up near the back of the field as electrical problems prevented him from completing any laps during qualifying. Group A Racing was not able to repair Colin Alexander's car in time for the qualifying session after a heavy impact in yesterday's race.

Tomorrow's 14 lap/30 minute race gets underway around 11:00, live updates on www.F2000ChampionshipSeries.com

Results

Pos

No. Name Best Tm Diff Gap
1 02 Matthew Inge 1:53.015
2 85 Chris Miller 1:53.168 +0.153 +0.153
3 21 Remy Audette 1:54.051 +1.036 +0.883
4 22 Jonathon Scarallo 1:54.061 +1.046 +0.010
5 95 Al Guibord, Jr. 1:54.153 +1.138 +0.092
6 3 Phil Lombardi 1:54.282 +1.267 +0.129
7 97 Chris Gumprecht 1:54.410 +1.395 +0.128
8 11 Matt McDonough 1:54.498 +1.483 +0.088
9 10 Benjamin Searcy 1:54.778 +1.763 +0.280
10 70 Tom Fatur/M 1:54.800 +1.785 +0.022
11 27 Craig Clawson/M 1:55.211 +2.196 +0.411
12 8 Mark Defer/M 1:55.253 +2.238 +0.042
13 20 Caitlin Johnston 1:55.343 +2.328 +0.090
14 89 Rob Nicholas 1:55.469 +2.454 +0.126
15 80 Bobby Caldwell 1:55.518 +2.503 +0.049
16 56 Mike Mazziotti/M 1:55.561 +2.546 +0.043
17 90 Robert Wright/M 1:55.619 +2.604 +0.058
18 5 Keith McCrone/M 1:55.807 +2.792 +0.188
19 4 Chris Camadella/M 1:55.828 +2.813 +0.021
20 96 Alejandro Munoz 1:55.965 +2.950 +0.137
21 83 Charles Finelli/M 1:56.155 +3.140 +0.190
22 60 Dwight Rider/M 1:56.490 +3.475 +0.335
23 25 Jeff McCusker/M 1:56.562 +3.547 +0.072
24 28 Ardie Greenamyer 1:56.952 +3.937 +0.390
25 7 Brent Gilkes/M 1:57.465 +4.450 +0.513
26 94 Blake Teeter 1:58.235 +5.220 +0.613
27 47 Scott Gesford 1:58.940 +5.925 +0.705
28 17 Tyler Hunter 1:57.622 +4.607 +0.157
29 51 Dan Denison/M 1:59.900 +6.885 +0.960
30 15 Mark Felsen 2:00.715 +7.700 +0.815
31 26 Fabio Orsolon -.—
32 08 John Dole/M -.—
33 12 Colin Alexander -.—

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