Grand Prix Trois-Rivieres Firestone Indy Lights qualifying
The Argentinean extended is his streak of front row starts to six, a series record and set an outright track record with a lap of 57.4541 during the final round of the shoot-out style qualifying session.
Guerrieri's lap broke the track record previously held by ALMS driver Marco Werner of 57.740 seconds and beat the fastest open-wheel lap set by Simona de Silvestro, who had a lap of 58.662 seconds while she was racing in Formula Atlantic in 2009.
Guerrieri's teammate Conor Daly qualified second (57.4962) while Peter Dempsey will start third (57.5599) in his third start with Andretti Autosport. Firestone Indy Lights points leader Josef Newgarden (57.6385) and Team Moore Racing's Gustavo Yacaman (57.8510) round out the top-five.
The pole position for Guerrieri gives him a record for consecutive front row starts in Firestone Indy Lights dating to Milwaukee. Guerrieri was previously tied with 2004 series champion Thiago Medeiros with five consecutive front row starts.
DAY 2 NOTEBOOK:
In the past year, two major modifications have been made to the Grand Prix de Trois-Rivieres circuit. In 2010, parts of the track were re-paved due to abuse brought on by extreme winter temperatures the city of Trois-Rivieres experiences. At the beginning of this year, per suggestion of ASN, Canada's National Motorsports Sanctioning Authority, the wall leading into the outlet of turn six was backed up 10 feet to increase safety and speed.
Conor Daly, driver of the #77 Mazda Road to Indy/SSM car, raced on the track in Star Mazda last year before Turn 6 had been modified. Of the change he said, "I think it really has helped, it's wide pretty late in the corner though so you have to watch the edge of the tire barrier. But I think it's a good change and will improve everything in that corner."
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Norway-born Anders Krohn had Canadian fans sign the rear wing of his car after an autograph session on Saturday in support of the victims of the Norway shootings. On July 22, 77 Norwegians were killed in a two-pronged attack carried out by Anders Behring Breivik that started in the capital city of Oslo and ended on Utoya, an island off the coast of Norway that was hosting a youth camp at the time.
"The reason I wanted to do this was because I couldn't believe how many people here in North America were shocked and showed their concern for Norway and our people. I wanted to show my people back home that there are people across the globe that truly does care," said Krohn during the car signing.
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All but two of the Firestone Indy Lights drivers failed to break IZOD IndyCar Series driver Simona de Silvestro's open-wheel driving record in Saturday's qualifications. The previous record was set in 2009 at 58.662 seconds during the Formula Atlantic Qualifications.
"It's something that was really special to me because a lot of great drivers such as Jacques Villeneuve have raced at Trois Rivieres," de Silvestro said. "I remember when we used to go there the people of the city came out to support us like we were in the big leagues. It's something really cool."
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GRAND PRIX TROIS RIVIÈRES POST QUALIFYING QUOTES:
JOSEF NEWGARDEN (No. 11 Copart/Score Big/Robo-Pong/SSM): "It was a good day for the team. Esteban got first, Daly was right there in second so I just think it's a good day for the crew. But we've got to look at the race now. We struggled some in practice with the brakes, going into qualifying we thought we were good but I think we miscalculated with the track temperature and everything, but overall I think the car is good overall. At the end I was pushing a little too hard and clipped the wall a little bit, not a good way to end the session, but a good learning experience overall."
STEFAN WILSON (No. 5 Andretti Autosport): "We really weren't where we should be which is kind of surprising. We were actually kind of slow. We thought we had some really good pace coming in here. We did well in Toronto and we thought it would carry over into this race but it seems like we just can't find the speed this weekend so I guess we'll just keep working on that. Peter has a really good setup so we might use some of that data to prepare us for the race tomorrow and it should be good."
CONOR DALY (No. 77 Mazda Road to Indy/ SSM): "The car was good the whole time. I really should have had the pole. Unfortunately the marshal was waving the yellow flag on the last turn like there was a ten car crash around the next turn so I had to back off just for safety. Unfortunately, that was my best lap so I'm pretty disappointed because I wanted this pole so bad but there's still a race ahead of us. The Sam Schmidt team has done a great job and the car is really fast so I think my goal is just to get around Esteban."
ESTEBAN GUERRIERI (No. 7 Lucas Oil/Sam Schmidt Motorsports): "We were not in a good situation this morning. We were ok but not the best. So we just worked on the car a little bit and I tried my best on the track and it won us the pole position. I wasn't too worried about being out of the top six. I knew I had the speed for the top six but I didn't know I had the speed for the pole position. I was a little worried about the tires staying on the ground but the Firestone Firehawks served me well. We might do some changes before the race because it's a longer distance. Hopefully with some changes to the car I will be able to stay in the top."
MIKAEL GRENIER (No. 22 TMR-Xtreme Coil Drilling): "I'm kind of disappointed after qualifying. I had some great times in practice this morning, but I got blocked three times in the qualifying by Esteban which is frustrating but it should be fine tomorrow. We have a pretty good racecar and a good set of tires so I think if we stay strong in the race it will be good. The team did a great job and we deserve to be in the top five or top three. It's really exciting being here. We have a lot of fans, a lot of sponsors and I think tomorrow should be some really good racing."
08/06/11 Qualifying Saturday for the Grand Prix Trois-Rivieres Firestone Indy Lights event on the 1.51 mile(s) Streets of Trois-Rivieres circuit, with starting position, car number in parentheses, driver, chassis-engine, time and speed in parentheses:
1. (7) Esteban Guerrieri, 57.4541 (94.615)
2. (77) Conor Daly, 57.4962 (94.545)
3. (26) Peter Dempsey, 57.5599 (94.441)
4. (11) Josef Newgarden, 57.6385 (94.312)
5. (2) Gustavo Yacaman, 57.8510 (93.966)
6. (5) Stefan Wilson, 58.0259 (93.682)
7. (22) Mikael Grenier, 58.3012 (93.240)
8. (3) Victor Carbone, 58.3898 (93.098)
9. (29) Bruno Andrade, 58.4417 (93.016)
10. (9) Anders Krohn, 58.5812 (92.794)
11. (4) Jorge Goncalvez, 58.6107 (92.748)
12. (16) David Ostella, 58.7465 (92.533)
13. (28) Duarte Ferreira, 58.9677 (92.186)