By Steve Wittich
Rinus van Kalmthout (VeeKay), with a lap of 113.562 seconds, won his second straight Indy Lights pole at Road America. It’s the Juncos Racing rookie’s third straight Indy Lights road course pole and his 10th career Road To Indy Presented by Cooper Tires pole.
The pole is the third in the last four Indy Lights races by a Juncos Racing pilot.
Ryan Norman will start on the outside of the front row of an Indy Lights race for the third straight race, and fourth time in nine races so far this season.
Qualifying for the second Indy Lights race of the weekend followed a 40-minute Radical Cup Race.
With ten minutes remaining in the session, Aaron Telitz was the quickest driver with a lap that was timed 114.4421 seconds. Right after he grabbed the provisional pole, the Badger State driver came to pit road for adjustments and his second set of Cooper Tire slicks.
Teltiz’s teammate Kohl, along with Toby Sowery, Oliver and Dalton Kellett joined Telitz as drivers on pit road before the half-way point of the 30-minute qualifying session.
It was still Telitz that held the provisional pole when at the half-way point of the session. His quickest lap was 0.3224 quicker than Askew, who was joined in the top five by Robert Megennis, VeeKay, and Kohl. All nine cars were on pit-road at that point.
The K-Line Insulators USA sponsored No. 67 of Dalton Kellett was the first driver to head back out on the 4.014-mile, 14-turn natural terrain road course in an attempt to improve on his eighth starting spot.
Askew, Megennis, and VeeKay were still on pit-road with ten minutes remaining in the qualifying session, but it got back out on track quickly.
The first driver to jump up the timing screens was Kellett, who moved up to third. Kellett went quicker yet on his next lap, moving to within three-tenths of a second Telitz.
Telitz on his 7th lap of the session reset the quickest lap at 114.2451.
With seven minutes remaining, Toby Sowery moved up to third quickest.
Telitz lowered the provisional pole time to 113.7797 seconds.
With four minutes left in the session, yesterday’s pole winner VeeKay and outside pole sitter Norman both took shots at Teltiz but came up just short on their first hot laps.
VeeKay went even quicker on his second hot lap on his fresh Cooper Tire slicks, moving to the provisional pole with a lap that was two-tenths ahead of Telitz.
Norman was also able to go quicker than Telitz on his final hot lap by a slim margin of five-thousandths. He told IndyCar Radio that he made a mistake at the beginning of his quickest lap.
With two minutes remaining in the session, Toby Sowery ended up nosing his Gap Guard/Rich Energy No. 2 into the tire barriers on the outside of Turn 14. That ended any chance of drivers having the opportunity to go quicker.
Cooper Tires Grand Prix of Road America Powered by AER qualifying #2 unofficial results
RANK | CAR NO | DRIVER | TEAM | QUICK LAP | DIFFERENCE | TOTAL LAPS |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 21 | Rinus VeeKay | Juncos Racing | 1:53.562 | –.—- | 11 |
2 | 48 | Ryan Norman | Andretti Autosport | 1:53.775 | 0.2122 | 12 |
3 | 4 | Aaron Telitz | Belardi Auto Racing | 1:53.780 | 0.2172 | 10 |
4 | 28 | Oliver Askew | Andretti Autosport | 1:53.979 | 0.4161 | 11 |
5 | 27 | Robert Megennis | Andretti Autosport | 1:54.324 | 0.7614 | 12 |
6 | 67 | Dalton Kellett | Juncos Racing | 1:54.560 | 0.9971 | 13 |
7 | 79 | David Malukas | BN Racing | 1:54.589 | 1.0266 | 12 |
8 | 2 | Toby Sowery | BN Racing/Team Pelfrey | 1:54.739 | 1.1763 | 11 |
9 | 5 | Lucas Kohl | Belardi Auto Racing | 1:54.832 | 1.2697 | 12 |
Today’s 20-lap Cooper Tires Grand Prix Of Road America Powered By AER is scheduled to see the green flag at 1:50 pm.