Goughary Leads Lime Rock Qualifying
Lakeville, CT – Jim Goughary, with tons of Lime Rock experience, paced both practice sessions and took poles for both Saturday races leading all four sessions on a Friday in Connecticut.
“The car isn’t perfect but is manageable,” commented Goughary. “We’re still making adjustments trying to find a bit more speed, but so far it’s okay.”
Goughary won the opening round of the season at VIR, and sits third in points, but didn’t leave much on the table at Lime Rock’s short roadcourse, only two hundredths of a second up on Ryan Leach in the Spectrum/Honda in the first qualifying for race one, and then just eight hundredths up for race two pole position honors in the next session.
Leach, driving the sole entry for Cape Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing, added: “The Spectrum is the best car I’ve ever driven. It was a bit loose in the first session.” It is Leach’s best qualifying effort in the F1600 Formula F Championship Series to date in the Honda-powered, Australian-built Formula F car.
Championship leader Tim Kautz qualified third, another hundredth back from Leach, and said: “The Piper/Ford is getting better, it’s my first time at Lime Rock and we didn’t have good tires on until qualifying.”
Championship contender Bill Valet was fourth, and will look to finish ahead of Kautz as the season starts to come to a close, with just four races to go. Valet sits second in the standings but is in striking distance to Kautz.
Forrest Hull was fifth quick with Art Foster, Bob Detrick, Caitlin Johnston, Mike Scanlan and Steve Oseth following in positions sixth through tenth.
For race two, the qualifying grid was a bit different as Colin Thompson bounced back following electrical issues in his Swift/Honda to qualify third, behind Leach and Goughary. But, that bouncing back means he will have to come from dead last in race one.
Forrest Hull will be fourth on the grid for the second race, followed by Steve Oseth, Art Foster, Bill Valet, Tim Kautz, Mike Scanlan and Caitlin Johnston.
Saturday September 17 is race day at Lime Rock, with a large crowd expected. An early-morning 9:20 a.m. warm-up is followed by race one at 11:15 and race two at 4:45 p.m. Live updates will be available on F1600Series.com