Frenchman Tristan Vautier, who had dominated pre-season testing at Barber Motorsports Park grabbed pole position for Sunday’s second round of the Star Mazda Championshipto be held at the Barber road course.
"The track was very different from the series test here three weeks ago during IndyCar spring training," said Vautier.
"It was a bit slower, because the temperature was up and all the different kinds of rubber on the track from Grand-Am and IndyCar.
“My engineer Rick Cameron gave me a really good car for qualifying. Now we have to wait two days before we are on track again, and we will all be guessing what the best set-up is.”
Vautier was 0.200 second faster than Brazilian driver J.V. Horto and Chilean racer Martin Scuncio. Patrick McKenna and round 1 winner Connor De Phillippi round up the top-5.
The only woman driver of the series this year, Tatiana Calderon, qualified in 6th while Canadian Jérimy Daniel qualified second-to-last, in 15th position.
The top Expert Series driver was AMA Superbike racer Larry Pegram, who qualified in 13th position on the grid.
The series will only get back on the track on Sunday morning for a 15-minute practice session ending two hours before the race, set for 10:45 am.
Qualifying results – Barber Motorsports Park:
Pos No. Name BestTm BestSpeed InLap Diff Gap
1 5 Tristan Vautier 1:21.166 102.013 2
2 7 J.V. Horto 1:21.366 101.762 3 0.200 0.200
3 60 Martin Scuncio 1:21.440 101.670 4 0.274 0.074
4 48 Patrick McKenna 1:21.751 101.283 3 0.585 0.311
5 11 Connor De Phillippi 1:21.754 101.279 3 0.588 0.003
6 10 Tatiana Calderon 1:21.778 101.250 3 0.612 0.024
7 27 Nick Mancuso 1:21.931 101.061 4 0.765 0.153
8 88 Sage Karam 1:21.976 101.005 6 0.810 0.045
9 81 Nick Andries 1:22.114 100.835 4 0.948 0.138
10 28 Gustavo Menezes 1:22.358 100.537 2 1.192 0.244
11 66 Zach Meyer 1:22.891 99.890 6 1.725 0.533
12 19 Richard Heistand 1:23.027 99.727 4 1.861 0.136
13 72 Larry Pegram 1:23.261 99.446 9 2.095 0.234
14 20 Carlos Linares 1:23.715 98.907 1 2.549 0.454
15 26 Jérimy Daniel 1:23.730 98.889 5 2.564 0.015
16 23 Walt Bowlin 1:26.636 95.572 8 5.470 2.906
"The track was very different from the series test here three weeks ago during IndyCar spring training," said Vautier.
"It was a bit slower, because the temperature was up and all the different kinds of rubber on the track from Grand-Am and IndyCar.
“My engineer Rick Cameron gave me a really good car for qualifying. Now we have to wait two days before we are on track again, and we will all be guessing what the best set-up is.”
Vautier was 0.200 second faster than Brazilian driver J.V. Horto and Chilean racer Martin Scuncio. Patrick McKenna and round 1 winner Connor De Phillippi round up the top-5.
The only woman driver of the series this year, Tatiana Calderon, qualified in 6th while Canadian Jérimy Daniel qualified second-to-last, in 15th position.
The top Expert Series driver was AMA Superbike racer Larry Pegram, who qualified in 13th position on the grid.
The series will only get back on the track on Sunday morning for a 15-minute practice session ending two hours before the race, set for 10:45 am.
Qualifying results – Barber Motorsports Park:
Pos No. Name BestTm BestSpeed InLap Diff Gap
1 5 Tristan Vautier 1:21.166 102.013 2
2 7 J.V. Horto 1:21.366 101.762 3 0.200 0.200
3 60 Martin Scuncio 1:21.440 101.670 4 0.274 0.074
4 48 Patrick McKenna 1:21.751 101.283 3 0.585 0.311
5 11 Connor De Phillippi 1:21.754 101.279 3 0.588 0.003
6 10 Tatiana Calderon 1:21.778 101.250 3 0.612 0.024
7 27 Nick Mancuso 1:21.931 101.061 4 0.765 0.153
8 88 Sage Karam 1:21.976 101.005 6 0.810 0.045
9 81 Nick Andries 1:22.114 100.835 4 0.948 0.138
10 28 Gustavo Menezes 1:22.358 100.537 2 1.192 0.244
11 66 Zach Meyer 1:22.891 99.890 6 1.725 0.533
12 19 Richard Heistand 1:23.027 99.727 4 1.861 0.136
13 72 Larry Pegram 1:23.261 99.446 9 2.095 0.234
14 20 Carlos Linares 1:23.715 98.907 1 2.549 0.454
15 26 Jérimy Daniel 1:23.730 98.889 5 2.564 0.015
16 23 Walt Bowlin 1:26.636 95.572 8 5.470 2.906