Vernay nips Hinchcliffe for Indy Lights pole in Toronto

J.K. Vernay

Frenchman J.K. Vernay stole the pole. Less than 24 hours later, the Firestone Indy Lights points leader hopes to steal the show.

Vernay recorded the quickest lap – 1 minute, 5.2989 seconds — in qualifications for the Toronto 100 with a minute left in the 50-minute session to earn the pole for the 50-lap race on the 1.75-mile, 11-turn street circuit at Exhibition Place.

It was the second pole and fourth front-row start of the season for Vernay in the No. 7 Lucas Oil/CJ/Sam Schmidt Motorsports car (and the 34th Firestone Indy Lights pole for the team). James Hinchcliffe, driving the No. 2 TMR-Xtreme Coil Drilling car, was atop the time sheet throughout the session with a best lap of 1:05.3478 and will start second for the second year in a row in his home race.

“It was great really, really hot, but great," Vernay said. "My whole team did such a great job, my engineer and the crew they were great. At the beginning we were struggling a little bit but towards the end we found the right line and made it work. Hopefully tomorrow we will have a repeat."

Hinchcliffe, 36 points behind Vernay in the championship standings, will make his fourth front-row start of the season.

“It was pretty exciting qualifying today," Hinchcliffe said. "It didn’t quite go as we planned, we came in on our first set of tires, hit a bunch of traffic, got a great lap in, came in to get an adjustment and as we went to go leave the pit the car wouldn’t start. So as a result we ha dot pull in the second set of tires and just decided to go for broke. The car was good but we didn’t quite have enough. We’re going to give him a run for his money tomorrow and it’s great to be racing here in Toronto."

Dan Clarke posted his best qualifying effort in the No. 40 Wasteco Deans Knight Special of third (1:05.7733). He’ll be joined on the second row by Gustavo Yacaman (1:05.8067), who also notched his best starting effort in the No. 10 Cape Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing car.

Adrian Campos Jr. (1:05.8434) in the No. 22 TMR-Xtreme Coil Drilling car and Sebastian Saavedra (1:05.9239), who won the race last year, will start on Row 3. AFS Racing Andretti Autosport teammates Charlie Kimball and Martin Plowman will start from Row 3.

Results