Sundaramoorthy, Palacio and Grant to Start P1 at VIR
Alton, VA – Yuven Sundaramoorthy, Nicolas Palacio, and David Grant will each start first in the Saturday F1600, F2000 and Atlantic Championship Series season-opening races from VIR after an exciting day of Friday qualifying sessions.
F1600: Cowley Goes Fastest, Sundaramoorthy to Start P1
Alton, VA – Matthew Cowley led the way in late Friday afternoon qualifying from VIR in the No. 80 Team Pelfrey entry, taking his Mygale/Honda to the top of the time sheets to score pole for the F1600 Championship Series season opener. However, a penalty from Thursday will cost the rookie two grid positions, promoting Yuven Sundaramoorthy to the first starting position alongside David Osborne.
Cowley turned in a quick time of 1:59.475 in the 30-minute qualifying session, fastest, but a mistake on Thursday that saw him turn a lap after the checkered flag will push him back to third. Cowley makes his F1600 debut this weekend at VIR, but is no stranger to Formula F competition, having run the last two years in UK competition.
A late flying lap in the final moments of the session sent Sundaramoorthy vaulting up the timesheets for second place, ultimately netting him the first-place starting spot heading to turn one on Saturday afternoon in the No. 13 K-Hill Motorsports Mygale/Honda.
Sundaramoorthy was just .04 seconds ahead of Pelfrey’s Osborne on the timesheets, as Osborne was a late-signing to the team’s F1600 program, announced just this week.
Lance Fenderson, in a K-Hill Mygale/Honda, was just two more hundredths back from Osborne in fourth place, narrowly ahead of Ryan Bjerke in the Raceworks Spectrum, who rounded out the top five.
Jonathan Kotyk was sixth fastest for Team Pelfrey, another two-hundredths back from Bjerke in a tight qualifying session.
Zach Holden took his K-Hill Motorsports Mygale/Honda to the seventh qualifying spot after leading the way in Thursday practice with two fast laps.
Holden, alongside his F1600 season, is also competing in the karting SKUSA Pro Tour this year, running the X30 Senior Class. He recently won the second race of the WinterNationals doubleheader in New Orleans.
Joe Colasacco was fastest of the Masters Class drivers and only 1.2 seconds off pole, qualifying eighth overall.
The weekend marks the season-opening round of the seven-event Championship season.
The 30-minute qualifying session was run at 5:30 p.m. local time at VIR after a hot and humid day, with the track still extremely hot but well “rubbered” in after multi-series practice and qualifying having taken place since 8:00 a.m.
F2000: Palacio On Top in F2000 Qualifying
Alton, VA – Nicholas Palacio scored his first F2000 Championship Series pole position in qualifying for the 2017 season opener held on Friday afternoon under hot and humid conditions at VIRginia International Raceway. Palacio drove to pole with a lap of 1:52.900 over Reece Everard and Steve Jenks.
Palacio said he wanted to group himself with other fast cars at the start of the 30-minute session; cars he could chase. That didn’t happen, before or after an early stoppage, leaving him alone to run fast laps.
“I’ve been here to VIR a few times, and after an extensive off-season rebuild, I had a lot of confidence in the car,” said the driver of the No. 25. “I was pushing in areas I hadn’t in the past.”
Palacio is at the track with a sole crewmember this weekend, with his family arriving for Saturday and Sunday festivities, including Saturday morning qualifying for race two and both F2000 races, which are scheduled for Saturday and Sunday afternoon, respectively.
Everard, representing another small family team with his father overseeing the car, was second fastest after leading both Thursday practice sessions.
“The car felt awesome, but I’m looking for some more time,” said Everard, in the No. 61 Van Diemen. “I just overdrove the car a bit. It was a lot hotter this afternoon compared to yesterday.”
Jenks was third in the No. 68 Van Diemen/Mazda, ahead of fellow Mazda-powered cars in John McCusker and Al Guibord, who completed the top five in qualifying for the opening race of the 14-round 2017 F2000 season.
Matt McDonough was pushed back to sixth after qualifying fourth in the No. 69 Radon. The 2006 F2000 Champion lost two grid positions for bringing out an early session stoppage when he spun off the track and needed to be retrieved by the VIR safety team.
Davy D’Addario was a strong seventh while 2016 New Jersey winner Brandon Dixon only ran a handful of laps, qualifying eighth with Tim Paul and Dave Weitzenhof completing the top 10. Peter Gonzalez followed in 11th while 2016 VIR winner Bob Reid was 12th in the R-Sport Metrik.
Connor Gawry saw session come to an early close with rear wing damage to the No. 71 from CJ Motorsports.
Of note, Rob Allaer is running a shortened weekend and is due to arrive at the track for race two qualifying on Saturday morning. For race one, he will be forced to start his No. 52 L.T.D. Motorsports Van Diemen at the back of the field.
Atlantic: Grant Rockets to Atlantic Pole
Alton, VA – David Grant put together a lap in the dying moments of a Friday Atlantic Championship Series qualifying session to vault his No. 29 Polestar Swift 016/Mazda to the pole position for the opening round of the 2017 season at VIRginia International Raceway, scheduled to take place on Saturday afternoon. Grant qualified first for the season opener ahead of teammate Keith Grant.
On his last flying lap around the 17-turn facility, Grant was looking for every bit of real estate, dropping two wheels in the dirt on his entrance to the back straight, and ultimately taking the pole by just two-tenths of a second over K-Hill’s Peter Portante, who was then moved to the back of the field by Series officials due to a technical issue.
“The car was on rails. It was great,” said Grant. “We sat out a bit at the beginning of the session and it took to the last lap to get everything up to temperature. I knew I had one lap left and knew by the dash readout we had a good lap going.”
Grant’s pole time of 1:42.743 bettered Portante’s 1:42.943, his first ever Atlantic qualifying session in the No. 24 for K-Hill Motorsports. That was all for nothing, as Portante will start last following the technical issue.
“Honestly, car is fantastic to drive. It gets better and better the quicker you go and as you learn more quirks about her,” said Portante. “I think there a ton of potential for more time, as I have only turned a handful laps at most ever in this car at this point, every session we should be seeing improvements.”
Grant’s brother and Polestar teammate Keith Grant qualified third, and was bumped up to second, also opting to sit out the first 10 minutes of the session, which proved to be a gamble when a lengthy black flag ate up the clock for clean-up from an incident.
“The stop didn’t hurt us, and it actually limited the miles we put on the tires,” said Grant, who drives the No. 40. “I just didn’t put together a whole lap.”
Comprent’s Chris Ash qualified third in one of his best performances to date followed by K-Hill’s Jenna Grillo.
Bob Corliss qualified fifth in the Swift 014/Toyota, but went off late in the session. Comprent is expected to have the car ready for Saturday morning’s race-two qualifying session with only light suspension damage.
In other news, Spencer Brockman’s No. 34 failed to complete a lap in qualifying with the team citing fuel delivery issues. The aspiring racer will have to come from the back of the field in Saturday afternoon’s race at VIR in the Swift 014/Mazda.
Full results from all three sessions are available on www.F1600ChampionshipSeries.com;www.F2000ChampionshipSeries.com; and www.AtlanticChampionshipSeries.com.
Photos:
1. Yuven Sundaramoorthy
2. Nicolas Palacio
3. David Grant
Photos: JDS-Photos.com
On the Web:
F1600: www.F1600Series.com | Facebook | Twitter
F2000: www.F2000Series.com | Facebook | Twitter
Atlantic: www.AtlanticChampionshipSeries.com | Facebook | Twitter
About Formula Race Promotions:
Formula Race Promotions (FRP) operates the F1600, F2000 and Atlantic Championship Series. Starting with F2000 in 2006, FRP added F1600 in 2011 and Atlantic in 2012. The Series’ philosophy is to offer a vertical integration between club and professional racing, while offering some of the best race tracks and significant amounts of track time in single-class running. The 2017 schedule is composed of seven-points paying weekends. FRP is privately owned and sanctioned by USAC.
Sources: Monty Mathisen/MathisenMedia