Friday, March 14, 2008 Friday March 14 Qualifying order for race two BFGoodrich/Skip Barber National Presented by Mazda Sebring International Raceway, 3.7-miles SEBRING, Fla. (March 14) – In the manner that Felipe Polehtto blitzed the field in qualifying for race one, so did Fabio Orsolon for race two. Orsolon put up a 2:21.041 to take pole, 9/10s quicker than next-best Josef Newgarden. The gap underscores the importance of timing your drafts on all three of Sebring’s longest straights; Fabio did it best.
Fabulously named Fabio Orsolon rocketed to pole for race two.
The surprise of the morning was Hamilton Smith. With just 10 Regional races under his belt, Smith qualified an astounding third, ahead of Michael DeNino and Polehtto. Gabby Chaves did not qualify, as he is on his way overseas to another race weekend. By the way, the lap times are more than 2 seconds quicker than the usual Sebring full course times of the Skip Barber F2000s on slicks. BFGoodrich came out with a new two-groove g-Force R1 race slick that the drivers have been praising to the rafters. Braking is stellar and the tires don’t fall away nearly as soon as the older ones did. Qualifying order for race two, Skip Barber National at Sebring International: 1. Fabio Orsolon, 2:21.041 2. Josef Newgarden, 2:21.958 3. Hamilton Smith, 2:22.373 4. Michael DeNino, 2:22.934 5. Felipe Polehtto, 2:23.038 6. Conner De Phillippi, 2:23.403 7. Conor Daly, 2:23.611 8. Chris Holmes, 2:23.732 9. A.J. Riley, 2:23.777 10. Revere Greist, 2:23.872 11. Nick Tonkin, 2:23.958 12. Tyler Schaal, 2:24.036 13. Ryan Booth, 2:24.051 14. Hayden Duerson, 2:24.199 15. Stevan McAleer, 2:24.219 16. Marcio Pasaneli, 2:24.315 17. Mark Bumgarner, 2:24.417 18. Jeff Oleen, 2:24.575 19. Dom Bastien, 2:24.687 20. Eion Ryan, 2:24.736 21. Peter Tucker, 2:24.765 22. Dale Kistler-Collins, 2:24.819 23. Thiago Calvet, 2:25.048 24. Dex Tuttle, 2:25.120 25. Lee Carpentier, 2:25.633 26. Jose Polido, 2:26.935 27. Andre Polido, 2:30.419
Josef Newgarden bounced back from his less than stellar qualifying result for race one with a solid P2 for race two.
Hamilton Smith was uncommonly good, qualifying third-fastest.
Rick Roso
