An exciting Indy Lights qualifying session that had three drivers hold the provisional pole in the final few minutes ended with Aaron Telitz grabbing his third career Indy Lights pole. It’s the 13th career Road To Indy pole for Rice Lake, Wisc. driver and the third time that Telitz will start on the inside of the front row in Toronto.
It’s the fifth pole on the streets of Exhibition Place for a Belardi Auto Racing driver.
After leading the most of the session, VeeKay had to settle for the outside front row, his sixth front row start of the season.
The second row consists of a pair of Andretti Autosport teammates, with Oliver Askew and Ryan Norman both ending up less than three-tenths behind pole winner Telitz.
After a 22-hour break, the Indy Lights series hit the 1.786-mile, 11-turn Exhibition Place street circuit for their first qualifying session of the weekend. The skies were sunny with an ambient temperature of 69 F and a track temperature of 81F.
Drivers went out on used tires for the first half of the session with Askew, Teltiz, and VeeKay all spending time holding onto the provisional pole.
At the half-way mark of the 30-minute session, the field was on pit road making adjustments and bolting on fresh Cooper Tire slicks. A lap by 65.1092 seconds by VeeKay led the way. He was followed in the top five by points leader Oliver Askew, Malukas, Telitz, and Ryan Norman.
Telitz was the first driver to go faster after getting their Coopers up to the proper operating temperature, turning a lap within three-tenths of VeeKay. On the next lap, the Belardi Auto Racing veteran moved to within four-hundredths of VeeKay.
With seven minutes remaining in the session, Telitz grabbed the provisional pole, with the first lap in the 64-second range.
Askew, on his 18th lap of the session, moved past VeeKay to move to second on the timing screen.
VeeKay, who was the last driver to move to fresh tires, jumped back to second on his 20th lap of the session with just under three minutes remaining.
On the next lap, the Soul Red No. 21 moved to the top of timing screen, giving the reigning Indy Pro 2000 driver the provisional pole by a slime nine-hundredths over Telitz.
Further down the order, Malukas, Ryan Norman and Toby Sowery were trading the fourth through sixth spots amongst themselves, with Norman ending up with the outside row two starting spot.
Just before the checkered flag came out, Telitz jumped back to the provisional pole.
Indy Lights Qualifying #1 – Unofficial Results
RANK | CAR NO | NAME | TEAM | QUICK LAP | DIFFERENCE | TOTAL LAPS |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 4 | Aaron Telitz | Belardi Auto Racing | 1:04.429 | –.—- | 20 |
2 | 21 | Rinus VeeKay | Juncos Racing | 1:04.512 | 0.0827 | 24 |
3 | 28 | Oliver Askew | Andretti Autosport | 1:04.652 | 0.2230 | 23 |
4 | 48 | Ryan Norman | Andretti Autosport | 1:04.682 | 0.2525 | 21 |
5 | 2 | Toby Sowery | BN Racing/Team Pelfrey | 1:04.831 | 0.4019 | 23 |
6 | 79 | David Malukas | BN Racing | 1:04.962 | 0.5327 | 23 |
7 | 67 | Dalton Kellett | Juncos Racing | 1:05.637 | 1.2080 | 21 |
8 | 5 | Lucas Kohl | Belardi Auto Racing | 1:06.129 | 1.6999 | 21 |
9 | 27 | Robert Megennis | Andretti Autosport | 1:07.105 | 2.6758 | 7 |
The first of two Cooper Tires Grand Prix Presented by Allied Building Products races of the weekend is scheduled to get the green flag at 12:45 pm.