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| October 13, 2007 News |
| EKN Trackside: Mazda RoboPong 200 presented by Bridgestone - Saturday Report |
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 | Tony Loniewski and Chris Larson will start the Mazda RoboPong 200 from the pole position
(Photo: DavidLeePhoto.com) |
The first official day of the Mazda RoboPong 200 presented by Bridgestone is in the books after a great day of qualifying and racing action at the New Castle Motorsports Park. Under bright sunny skies and temperatures around the 60s, teams were able to get in roughly three hours of practice before getting three fast laps to record their fastest lap to line them up for tomorrow’s main event. The First Kart USA team of Tony Loniewski and Chris Larson will start from P1 in tomorrow’s main event.
Following the timed practice, teams were split into groups of ten for qualifying with the fast teams from practice hitting the track last. Part of the last group was the #222 machine of Loniewski and Larson, who was just two-hundredths off their fast lap from practice to score the pole position. Dealing with engine trouble all day, the Screaming Talent/Gillard team of 2006 Indy Pro Series champion Jay Howard and Nicholas Boulle were able to make a last minute engine change just before heading out for qualifying to record the second best lap to start outside row one. Qualifying in the third group, the Industrial Anodizing/Call-CP team of Josh Call and Jeff Wimmenauer (Margay) recorded the third fastest lap, improving half a second from their fastest time in practice. Rounding out the top five was last year’s contender Josef Newgarden and Timmy Megenbier in the Racer of Tomorrow Arrow kart and DB Motorsports team consisting of WKA Manufacturer’s Cup Series New Castle winner Caleb Loniewski and Indy Pro Series driver Robbie Pecorari.
The top 50 from qualifying earn an automatic spot to the main event on Sunday, leaving 44 of the 94 teams to battle for 20 transfer spots to the 200 lap race. The start of the 75-lap Las Chance Qualifier started with a clean first couple of laps before drivers began to get dicey. Everywhere around the track was a battle for position and the leaders began running into lap traffic early with multiple drivers going off-track in numerous spots. With the teams required to make one pit spot and including a driver change, the result saw the 2Js Engineering/Motorama 2 team (Birel) of John Dixon and Jason Lee take the victory after starting eighth. The Screaming Talent/Gillard team of David Sutton and John Mossey came from 41st after suffering brake failure during qualifying to finish second, leading from about lap 30 to lap 53 when they pitted for fuel.
During the LCQ, few teams saw engine failure, some had brake issues, while others could just not keep it on the track. At the checkered flag, only 25 of the 44 teams were running at the end and the transfer spot being decided on the last lap with Mudd Turtles Racers just missing out by one lap with the Part Time Racers getting the 20th and final transfer spot to Sunday’s race.
EKN will have updates throughout the 200 lap event, which begins at 12:30pm.
Qualifying Results, click HERE
LCQ Results, click HERE |
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