Skeer Leads CJ Wilson Racing Sweep of Playboy MX-5 Cup Qualifying At Sebring
Mar. 16, 2012 - SEBRING, Fla. - Elliott Skeer, of Vista, Calif., slipped under the time of CJ Wilson Racing teammate Stevan McAleer on the final lap of the SCCA Pro Racing Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup qualifying to take the pole position for Friday’s Round Two race at Sebring International Raceway.
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| Elliott Skeer is on pole for Race 2 at Sebring (Weber photo) |
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The cool morning air and the additional rubber laid down at the 60th Anniversary Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida led to lap times more than a second quicker than Thursday’s qualifying and opening race, and the final lap run of 2:29.155 (90.269 mph) in the No. 17 MAZDASPEED/Sparco/Pelican Windows & Remodeling MX-5 puts the rookie driver on the point for the afternoon’s standing start.
Skeer finished second to McAleer in the opening race a day ago.
“After yesterdays’ race, we felt like we could make a couple of changes,” Skeer said. “We had an idea of what to make and we just went with it, pretty much on gut feeling to see what would happen and it definitely helped out a lot. The first couple of laps it was feeling good, but I just felt like there was a little bit more out there. So for the second run, we got us to about a 15 car gap to the others so that we’d kind of have some rabbits to chase, and it seemed to work out. It was pretty much a perfect lap, I don’t think I could have done much more than that.”
McAleer, who led flag-to-flag in Thursday’s race, set a target time of 2:29.479 (90.073 mph) early in the session, and for a while it looked like the No. 28 Children’s Charities/Blue Mercury Capital/RUfocused.com/Sambo Website Design Mazda MX-5 would sit on pole for the second time in as many days. Instead, the last-lap flying lap by Skeer leaves McAleer on the outside of row one.
Chad McCumbee, driving the No. 29 ModSpace MX-5 and a third CJ Wilson Racing entry, followed Skeer across the line to sandwich McAleer in the second spot with a time of 2:29.668 (89.959 mph). McCumbee broke on the standing start on Thursday and didn’t even pull away from his starting box, so is looking forward to an improvement in Round Two.
A pair of ProMoMo Speed teammates put two of the local team’s cars in the top five on the grid. Christian Szymczak, driving the No. 34 Projections Research/Sick Sideways MX-5, finished fifth on Thursday and will start fourth on Friday after a lap of 2:30.080 (89.712 mph). Teammate John Dean, from Sebring, will be fifth on the grid after a lap of 2:30.401 (89.521 mph) in the No. 16 Projections Research/Sick Sideways machine. Dean finished third in the opener behind McAleer and Skeer.
Each of the top five cars bested McAleer’s pole time of 2:30.796 from Thursday’s race.
Ara Malkhassian, driving the No. 11 ALARA Racing MX-5, will join Dean on row three for the standing start after a time of 2:30.924.
In the Skip Barber MAZDASPEED Pro Series class running concurrently with the Playboy MX-5 Cup, Dennis Trebing , of Cape Coral, Fla., took the pole in the No. 66 Trebing Tile/Uwe Alden Automotive MX-5, followed by David Knight and Zachry Lee.
Round Two of the Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup, along with the Skip Barber MAZDASPEED Pro Series, goes lights out for the standing start and a 30-minute race at noon on Friday.
More information and live timing and scoring is available at www.mx-5cup.com.
Follow the Playboy MX-5 Cup on Twitter @MazdaMX5Cup.
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