Qualifying
complete for Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen
No 61 Ford Riley will line up seventh on the starting grid
(2009.06.05) With Mark Wilkins at the wheel, the AIM Autosport No 61 Ford Riley
rolled to the grid for qualifying this afternoon after the crew made some setup
changes following this morning's practice. With only fifteen minutes for qualifying,
the focus is to get some heat in the tires quickly and find a gap on the track
to get a clean run. Mark's times improved with each lap and the gap to first
seemed to close until the eventual pole sitter put in one very quick lap and
put a large gap over the field. Mark had closed up on traffic and was hanging
back to create a gap for another clean run when the session ended. Mark's final
time was a 1:41.930 at 120.082 mph.
"The car was quick and the changes we made from this morning gave us much
better balance." commented Wilkins after the session. "We are pretty
close to the cars ahead of us - just four tenths out of second but the guy on
pole was just that much quicker than the rest of us. It is a long race tomorrow
and we definitely have a good car for the race. The goal is to be at the front
around 8:15 on Saturday night."
"I like to look at it that we are only four tenths off the DP2 pole" laughed
team principal Ian Willis. "Seriously though, from second place down to
us the times are really close and we are happy with the changes we made to the
car. As Mark said, we have a good car for the race and a lot can happen over
six hours. The plan is to be at the front for the end."
The Rolex Series has a 30 minute warm up Saturday morning with the green flag
for the race coming at 2:15 p.m. ET. The race will be broadcast live on SPEED
TV is two segments. The first show is from 2:00-4:00 p.m. with the final two
and a half hours of the race being broadcast live at 6:00 p.m.
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