Lime Rock: Touring qualifying summary

Cunningham captures Woody's Ice Touring car pole at Lime Rock.

LAKEVILLE, Conn. (May 25, 2002) - Peter Cunningham, of W. Bend, Wis., captured the Woody's Ice Pole Position for the SCCA Pro Racing Speed World Challenge Touring Car race at Lime Rock Park with a new track record. Scott Bradley, of Mountain View, Calif., qualified second, followed by Pierre Kleinubing, of Brazil, in third.

Cunningham grabbed the pole with a lap of 1:01:137 (90.092 mph) in the No. 42 RealTime Racing Acura Integra R to collect his 22nd career pole position, tying him with Kleinubing as the top pole winner in Speed World Challenge series history.

"The track was fast," said Cunningham. "The combination of new tires, cool temperatures and a grippy track was the key to such fast laps. Not slowing down and just throwing the car into corners was crucial. This RealTime Integra is just handling great."

Bradley, fresh off his first career Touring Car pole last week at Mosport International Raceway, drove his No. 14 Mazda/TriPoint Motorsports Mazda Protégé ES to the second best time of 1:01:124 (90.088 mph). Defending series champion Kleinubing, driving the No. 1 RealTime Racing Acura Integra R, put together a fast lap of 1:01:161 (90.057mph), which was good enough for third starting spot.

Shauna Marinus, of Folsom, Calif., and Tom Fowler, of Cumming, Ga., completed the top five in one of the closest qualifying sessions ever for the series. The top six cars qualified within 0.060-second and the first 19 cars on the grid broke the previous qualifying record set last year at this event.

The top 25 positions for Monday's Speed World Challenge Touring Car event were decided in this qualifying session, with the remaining 20 positions decided in a 20-lap qualifying race won by John Bosch, of Fairport, N.Y.

Bosch, driving the No. 27 Techmark Corp/Pizza Hut BMW 328i, held off a charging Mark Kirberg, of Madera, Calif., for the win in the 32-car last chance event. Kirberg had originally qualified third in Woody's Ice Pole Qualifying, but the rear wing on his No. 37 SSF Imported Auto Parts BMW 325is was found to be out of compliance, so he was forced to start shotgun on the field in the qualifying race.

Raan Rodriquez, of Puerto Rico, benefited from an incident on the last lap between Rudy Vajdak, of New York, N.Y. and Thomas Amabile, of Hopkinton, Mass., to take the fifteenth and final transfer spot. The five remaining positions in the 45-car field were determined by the promoter.

-scca pro racing-