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Phoenix

Sun Automotive 200

21/04/2001

Qualifying Report

Practice Makes Perfect

Qualifying for the Phoenix 250 largely followed the pattern set during practice, with James Weaver easily grabbing the pole by nearly one second in the Riley & Scott. This came despite a take-no-prisoners charge by Jon Field, the team owner electing to qualify his Lola-Judd instead of Oliver Gavin. Didier Theys was at least a competitive third in the gradually improving Crawford. Didier Theys: “We are making progress. We are missing front downforce. That doesn’t help us on this twisty track. We have slow reaction, left to right and right to left - that is where we are missing the most speed. At Homestead, Kevin Doran made good strategy to keep up with the lead lap. Hopefully he can manage that here. He’s good at it.”

SRPII was not close, with Andy Lally easily outpacing the other Archangel Lola as well as Robert Julien’s Porsche Haus Racing Lola (yes, it does have a Nissan motor despite the team name). The GTS contest followed the same Saleen (below)-Porsche (left) pattern seen since yesterday, and the gap between the two has grown. The biggest breath of fresh air came in GT, where Randy Pobst proved again why he is becoming the king of Porscheteers and placed the Kim Hiskey car at the front of the class. Two of other prime contenders in GT, the #54 BMW and the #81 Porsche, played down qualifying and elected to use their slower drivers instead. The rationale is that they expect it to be one-stop race and want to have the quicker one behind the wheel for the run to the flag. Thus, Terry Borcheller and Darren Law sat out the session.

Dick Conway had no problem being the quickest in AGT. Two cars did not participate in the session, the #6 Miracle Motorsports R & S-Ford and the #32 GT class Phoenix American Corvette. Both had problems during practice but are expected to make the start from the back of the grid. Gaps between cars are particularly important here, since the course is only 1.51 miles long and a one second difference translates to about two miles per hour.

Janos Wimpffen