|
|
|
7/2/2010 |
|
LIME ROCK -
QUALIFYING DAY
by
Polly Reid |
|
 Today
is the known, tomorrow remains the unknown. The famous line fits
well here. We know the field is set for the Lime Rock 100 tomorrow
and that it’s Todd Szegedy of Ridgefield, CT who set fast time
winning the first ever NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Coors Light Pole
Award at Lime Rock Park turning a lap around the 1.5 mile road
course in 53.099 seconds.
Picking up his is ninth career pole, the day was anything but easy
for Szegedy and the MSR team.
“I wasn’t sure what to expect, we had a good car but we broke a
front drive pulley on the engine and it knocked the belts off,” said
Szegedy who at the time was only 6 circuits into the first practice.
“The first thing I noticed was we didn’t have any power steering
then I looked and the oil pressure was zero so I shut it off. We
couldn’t risk taking a chance so we swapped engines. We had to take
it out of our other car and put it in this one.”
Missing the second session of practice, Szegedy was happy with the
final outcome. “It’s cool, it’s awesome,” said Szegedy about his
historic qualifying run in his Wisk/Snuggle Ford. “I have to win the
race tomorrow but today’s the start. I like road racing, it’s neat.”
A former SCCA competitor, Szegedy was impressed so far with the
Tour’s first appearance at Lime Rock. “Everybody had great composure
today hopefully that carries over into tomorrow and maybe we can get
some more road races. I’m very proud of how everyone ran, we have to
do the same thing tomorrow so we can come back here.”
Szegedy will be joined up front by Ted Christopher who turned a
54.02 second qualifying circuit with Erik Rudolph third. Rudolph in
the Mohawk N.E./Original Pizza Logs Chevrolet topped the speed chart
in the first practice session while Stefanik, who has a NASCAR K&N
Pro Series
East win at Lime Rock will roll off the grid fourth. And finding his
name at the top of the speed chart in the final practice was Rowan
Pennink who will take the green fifth.
A couple of quick notes, Doug Coby who is redefining the term “does
not have a ride this year” will start just out of the top 15 in the
Cape Cod Aggregates/J&R Pre-Cast number 46. And Dale Quarterly,
considered the road course ‘ringer’ in the field will start sixth.
Quarterly has a pair of NASCAR K&N Pro Series East wins at Lime Rock
but only two NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour starts under his belt, the
Glen in 1996 and NHMS in 2008.
The green flag drops on Saturday just after 12noon. Pack a lunch,
find a spot on the hill and enjoy the show. In less than 24 hours
from now we’ll all know the unknown. |
|
|
|
Source: Polly Reid / TheChromeHorn.com
Posted: July
2, 2010 |
|
|
