Guthrie Racing's Franck Perera Claims Corning Duels Pole
Late Tire-Change Boosts Frenchman Atop Timing & Scoring at The Glen
by Allan Brewer
allan@indyproracer.com
|
Guthrie Racing’s Franck Perera. Photo: DanaGarrettIRL |
Guthrie Racing's Franck Perera, turning laps in only his second Firestone Indy Lights series event, took advantage of a tire-change during the thirty-minute qualifying session to post his first pole of the season and Indy Lights career.
"It was good," said Perera, of his quick, session-ending laps of Watkins Glen International, and who until late April was the driver aboard the Conquest Racing No. 34 car in the IndyCar Series. "We had a lot of yellow so I could only get in one or two good laps, but the result was good."
Perera's late tour at 123.976 mph (1:37.8651 sec.) confounded AFS Andretti Green Racing's Raphael Matos, who looked to have the first spot on the grid in hand right up to the end.
"I was blocked on my fast lap at the finish by Daniel Herrington," said Matos afterwards, "and will talk to Tony Cotman about a penalty, as that is something that was emphasized in the drivers' meeting today." Matos' 123.643 mph lap was 0.2560 seconds off the pace set by Perera.
Setting up on the inside of row two for the first of Saturday's double-header Indy Lights events will be Team Moore's Jeff Simmons, himself a winner here in 2005; alongside Sam Schmidt Motorsports championship contender Richard Antinucci.
RLR Andersen's J R Hildebrand qualified in fifth spot, holding the near side of the grid adjacent Ana Beatriz of SSM.
Integra Motorsports' Jonny Reid, Simmons' teammate Pablo Donoso, Team E's Bobby Wilson and Guthrie's Logan Gomez round on the top five rows of qualifiers.
Firestone Indy Lights championship points leader Dillon Battistini suffered a setback in his Panther Racing machine, initially struggling with gear issues in practice this morning. The disadvantage of lost track time caught up with the Brit during qualifying, and he mustered only a spot seventeenth on the twenty-one car starting grid.
Andrew Prendeville and James Davison failed to take qualifying attempts after the former crashed and the latter spun. Neither driver was injured and their cars looked fixable in time for tomrrow's 11:15 AM EDT start of Corning Duel Number One.
The second Corning Duel follows approximately three hours after the conclusion of race one.
Firestone Indy Lights Corning Duels Qualifying Results
Comments