Livengood Breaks Track Record for Pole
Watkins Glen, NY – Shades of a year ago, Chris Livengood waited until his very last lap to bump Remy Audette off the F2000 Championship Series pole for the first race of the double-header at Watkins Glen by just eight hundredths of a second.
Livengood smashed the existing track record by more than a full second and sat on pole for the very same race a year ago, scoring his first-ever F2000 podium en route to a second place finish in the #37 Van Diemen for Work Racing/John Walko Racing.
Audette will line up on the outside of row one in what was an absolutely thrilling qualifying session for the 33-car field.
Robert La Rocca was third quick and first of the new RFR cars, driving for HP-Tech.
Kyle Connery will line up fourth after a heavy crash and hospital visit on Friday.
Multiple-time SCCA National Champion Niki Coello rounded out the top five, also in a new RFR chassis. The top six cars were under the existing track record.
Tim Minor, Jonathan Scarallo, Craig Clawson, Thomas Schwietz and Zach Craigo rounded out the top ten.
Gustavo Rizzo was 11th for Alegra Motorsports, followed by Tim Paul. Mark Defer will line up 13th for Polestar, undoubetely helped by Tonis Kasemets who is assisting the three-car squad this weekend. Teammates Bill Jordan and Dan Denison were 16th and 26th, respectively.
Angel Benitez will lose two grid positions for bringing out a black flag.
Nathan Morcom continued to battle mechanical gremlins in the Primus Racing Van Diemen, barely turning in any laps. The Australian should be a good candidate for the CellMark Paper Hard Charger, as he starts 33rd.
The race is scheduled to start at 11:00 a.m. local time. All times are eastern. Fans can follow live on F2000Series.com or on Twitter @F2000.
Race 1 Grid:
Pos No. Name Best Tm Best Spd In Lap Diff Gap 1 37 Chris Livengood 1:51.801 108.514 13 - - 2 21 Remy Audette 1:51.880 108.438 13 +0.079 +0.079 3 10 Robert La Rocca 1:52.056 108.267 14 +0.255 +0.176 4 91 Kyle Connery 1:52.193 108.135 7 +0.392 +0.137 5 81 Niki Coello 1:52.568 107.775 7 +0.767 +0.375 6 88 Tim Minor/M 1:52.924 107.435 11 +1.123 +0.356 7 13 Jonathan Scarallo 1:53.316 107.063 4 +1.515 +0.392 8 27 Craig Clawson/M 1:53.435 106.951 14 +1.634 +0.119 9 72 Thomas Schwietz/M 1:53.476 106.912 7 +1.675 +0.041 10 9 Zach Craigo 1:53.538 106.854 11 +1.737 +0.062 11 23 Gustavo Rizzo 1:53.579 106.816 7 +1.778 +0.041 12 06 Tim Paul 1:53.625 106.772 14 +1.824 +0.046 13 8 Mark Defer/M 1:53.670 106.730 14 +1.869 +0.045 14 22 Enzo Potolicchio/M 1:53.751 106.654 13 +1.950 +0.081 15 1 Ethan Ringel 1:53.861 106.551 14 +2.060 +0.036 16 60 Dwight Rider/M 1:53.925 106.491 14 +2.124 +0.064 17 26 Angel Benitez 1:53.825 106.585 4 +2.024 +0.074 18 90 Robert Wright/M 1:54.350 106.095 8 +2.549 +0.425 19 42 Bill Jordan/M 1:54.507 105.950 14 +2.706 +0.157 20 70 Tom Fatur/M 1:54.582 105.881 7 +2.781 +0.075 21 83 Charles Finelli/M 1:54.608 105.856 10 +2.807 +0.026 22 28 Ardie Greenamyer/M 1:54.714 105.759 13 +2.913 +0.106 23 24 Fabio Orsolon 1:55.004 105.492 4 +3.203 +0.290 24 7 Brent Gilkes/M 1:55.178 105.333 13 +3.377 +0.174 25 14 Fred Bross 1:55.779 104.786 8 +3.978 +0.601 26 51 Dan Denison/M 1:56.081 104.513 7 +4.280 +0.302 27 17 John LaRue 1:56.205 104.402 11 +4.404 +0.124 28 67 Dave Weitzenhof/M 1:56.754 103.911 7 +4.953 +0.549 29 86 Jim Hanrahan/M 1:56.968 103.721 7 +5.167 +0.214 30 31 Brendan Puderbach 1:58.933 102.007 12 +7.132 +1.965 31 47 Chris Monteleone 1:59.631 101.412 5 +7.830 +0.698 32 61 Tom Drake 1:59.848 101.228 5 +8.047 +0.217 33 2 Nathan Morcom 2:15.984 89.216 1 +24.183 +16.136