Friday, August 04, 2006
Kyle Lawrence will lead the field Saturday thanks to his brilliant effort in changing conditions during qualifying.
TROIS-RIVIИRES, Que., Canada – Just one-half hour before qualifying for Saturday’s race one, a passing cloud soaked the Trois-Rivieres circuit. The call was made to go to wets, and stellar work by the Skip Barber crew got the cars ready in time for the scheduled start of the session. As the drivers left the pits, the sun came out. Every lap was going to be quicker than the lap before. Kyle Lawrence, figuring out right away that street circuits don’t have a ‘‘wet line,’’ went from a 1:21.355 on lap five to a 1:19.888 on lap six. On lap seven, it started to rain again. And no one was going to go any faster the rest of the session. ‘‘I just drove the racing line right from the start. I wanted to see where the car was going to push, and it was only in Two and the Hairpin, so I just started going for it,’’ Lawrence said. ‘‘Then I saw that there was more grip at track-out by getting real close to the wall. It all worked real well.’’ Second in points Alexander Rossi also put in his quickest on lap six – indeed, every driver’s best time was done on lap six save for four drivers – and will start alongside. Alex Doman, Yannick Hofman, points leader Marco Di Leo and Mario Adrian Ochoa fill out the first three rows. Richard Heistand, near the top of the charts in the two practice sessions, got caught out by the corner marshals; a stop and go penalty is assessed for driving over the curbs in Turn Eight and Heistand was brought in for doing that -- at the moment the track was at its best. Qualifying times and starting grid for Saturday race one Skip Barber National Presented by RACER Grand Prix de Trois-Riviиres, 1.52-mile, 10-turn street course Conditions: Damp to drying to wet 1. Kyle Lawrence, 1:19.888 / 68.541 mph 2. Alexander Rossi, 1:19.984 / 68.459 3. Alex Doman, 1:20.561 4. Yannick Hofman, 1:20.895 5. Marco Di Leo, 1:21.487 6. Mario Adrian Ochoa, 1:21.531 7. Peter Husser, 1:21.835 8. Jason Fennessey 1:22.288 9. Jonathan Gore, 1:22.557 10. Philip Major, 1:22.640 11. Jonathan Goring, 1:22.830 12. Richard Heistand, 1:23.309 13. Darius Trinka, 1:23.460
For the first race, Alexander Rossi has the upper hand on points leader Marco Di Leo.
Alex Doman earned his best start of the year, third. He's alongside Regional stand-out Yannick Hofman, who's doing extremely well so far in his first National event.
Rick Roso
