Saturday, May 24, 2008
LIME ROCK PARK, Conn. - A.J. Riley was quickest in the separate qualifying sessions for the two Skip Barber MAZDASPEED Challenge Memorial Day Invitational races at Lime Rock Park – but he'll start from pole in only one of them. In Q1, Riley, in a backup car, nipped Peter Ludwig by .006 for fastest lap. But because he had crashed (in the Uphill) on his initial out lap, MAZDASPEED Challenge rules require that he start at the back for race one on Saturday. In Q2, Riley was clean and green the whole session and took pole by .718 over Danny Steyn. ''I went into the Uphill at what I thought was less than 100 percent, but it felt really slippery to me and the car started to go around,'' Riley said. ''By the time I got it straight I was out of room and into the tires.'' The Riley Q1 incident, though it didn't severely hurt the car, required some major repositioning of the tire barrier and by the time that was complete, the result was there was only enough time left in the session for four hot laps.
Grid order, Lime Rock MAZDASPEED Challenge Memorial Day Invitational, Race One: Peter Ludwig, 1:06.126 Danny Steyn, 1:06.319 Sy Aryeh, 1:07.024 Chris Brown, 1:07.582 Lee Carpentier, 1:07.812 Ron Cohn, 1:07.883 Justin Piscitell, 1:07.941 Frank DeNicola, 1:08.427 Curt Riley, 1:08.673 Kieron J. O'Rourke, 1:08.682 Carl Mehne, 1:08.967 Ralf Ludwig, 1:09.110 Russell Gee, 1:09.764 Al Delattre, 1:10.239 Dan Moen, 1:10.694 Michael Luzich, 1:11.452 A.J. Riley, 1:06.120
Grid order, Lime Rock MAZDASPEED Challenge Memorial Day Invitational, Race Two: A.J. Riley, 1:05.200 Danny Steyn, 1:05.918 Peter Ludwig, 1:06.274 Lee Carpentier, 1:06.688 Sy Aryeh, 1:06.782 Kieron J. O'Rourke, 1:06.930 Chris Brown, 1:06.998 Ron Cohn, 1:07.224 Curt Riley, 1:07.258 Justin Piscitell, 1:07.344 Carl Mehne, 1:07.694 Russell Gee, 1:07.979 Dan Moen, 1:07.986 Ralf Ludwig, 1:08.087 Frank DeNicola, 1:08.568 Michael Luzich, 1:08.960 Al Delattre, 1:09.283
A.J. Riley will start at the very back in race one and at the very front in race two.
Never count Peter Ludwig out when it comes to races at Lime Rock.
Lee Carpentier is a regular in the BFGoodrich/Skip Barber National Presented by Mazda. He qualified sixth and fourth, respectively, in the two MAZDASPEED Challenge races.
Sy Aryeh has a good record when it comes to Skip Barber Invitational races.
Danny Steyn, third and second on the grids, will see if he can keep Ludwig and Riley honest. Photo by Greg Clark
Words & photos, Rick Roso
