Saturday, August 05, 2006
Jonathan Goring made up for his less than stellar qualifying effort for race one (he'll start 11th) with a pole for the weekend's second race.
TROIS-RIVIИRES, Que., Canada – Qualifying for the second Skip Barber National race at Trois-Rivieres produced its share of surprises, too. No shock to see Jonathan Goring on pole and Alexander Rossi alongside, but National rookie Yannick Hofman’s P3 and Peter Husser starting fourth are out of the ordinary. Street circuits have a ‘‘psychology’’ much different than road courses and some come to grips with it faster than others. That said, two drivers who should have been fighting for pole but didn’t had troubles that had little to do with that aspect: Marco Di Leo had a gearshift lever break, while Richard Heistand pushed it a bit too far and bought a right-front corner’s worth of tire barrier exiting the Arch Corner. Kyle Lawrence added further proof that the pole he took yesterday for today’s race was not an aberration. He’ll start fifth on Sunday. And Jason Fennessey will have his best start of the year, on the outside of the third row. Alex Doman and Di Leo are seventh and eighth. Qualifying times and starting grid for Sunday race two Skip Barber National Presented by RACER Grand Prix de Trois-Riviиres, 1.52-mile, 10-turn street course Conditions: Perfect 1. Jonathan Goring, 1:13.565 / 74.432 mph 2. Alexander Rossi, 1:13.710 / 74.286 3. Yannick Hofman, 1:14.131 4. Peter Husser, 1:14.265 5. Kyle Lawrence, 1:14.276 6. Jason Fennessey 1:14.304 7. Alex Doman, 1:14.621 8. Marco Di Leo, 1:14.709 9. Darius Trinka, 1:14.829 10. Mario Adrian Ochoa, 1:14.849 11. Philip Major, 1:14.980 12. Richard Heistand, 1:15.078 13. Jonathan Gore, 1:15.692 Today's race green flags at 4:50 p.m. local time; Sunday's race has a 9:10 a.m. start.
Alexander Rossi has given himself two good chances for wins with an outside-row starting spot for both races.
Yannick Hofman's jig-a-loo to a second-row grid position for the Sunday race was a bit of a surprise.
Career-wise, Peter Husser has less than 20 races under his belt, yet he qualified fourth for Sunday's race.
Rick Roso
