Alex Lloyd Grabs Pole for Chicagoland 100
AFS Racing's Wade Cunningham Second-Quick
by Allan Brewer
allan@indyproracer.com
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Sam Schmidt Motorsports’ Alex Lloyd.
Photo: JimHainesIRL |
Sam Schmidt Motorsports' Alex Lloyd posted the only lap in the 190 mile per hour range (190.133 mph) to clinch the pole for Sunday's (September 9th) Chicagoland 100.
“I'm very happy with today," he said afterwards. "I'm happy with the car we've got. I'm sure we'll put on a great race for the fans."
The result marks the twelfth time this year that Lloyd will begin a race from either pole or second position on the grid.
To put his feat into perspective, Lloyd capped his season with the distinction of starting every race where qualifying was conducted on the front row.
"That's something that definitely means a lot to myself and the team," he said. "On every weekend, no matter what, we've been right there either the quickest or right there as second quickest. That really shows the performance we've had all year."
Lloyd's fast lap bested the mark of 189.916 mph set by AFS Racing's Wade Cunningham, who will start alongside Lloyd on the front row.
“We tried some qualifying simulations in the second practice and we ran slower than we did with our race setup," said Cunningham. "We have a reasonable time, and we’re close to Alex (Lloyd), but not quicker than him. They’ve (Sam Schmidt Motorsports) had the dominate car all season and we’ll have to work harder to catch them.”
Michael Crawford's Ben Petter continued his fast times from the afternoon practice session to finish the day third on the grid for the Sunday afternoon race that will end the 2007 Indy Pro Series season.
Logan Gomez and Jaime Camara Separated by a Blink
Local favorite Logan Gomez, a native of Crown Point, Indiana, was fourth-quick with a speed of 189.196 mph, an incredible one thousandth of a mile per hour better than Andretti Green's Jaime Camara with a best lap of 189.195 mph.
Ganassi Racing's Chris Festa will start on the outside of row three alongside Camara after posting a lap at 188.059 mph.
Team KMA's Robbie Pecorari qualified seventh (188.021 mph) while Jonathan Klein was eighth quick (187.935 mph).
RLR Andersen's Andrew Prendeville and Kenn Hardley's Stephen Simpson rounded out the top ten.
Bobby Wilson of Brian Stewart Racing and Lloyd teammate Leilani Munter make up the sixth row, while newcomers Adam Andretti of Speedworks and Jimmy Kite of SWE Racing fill row number seven.
The race is set for a green flag at 11:30 AM CST and will be streamed live on IndyCar.com.
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