IRL: Chicagoland: G Force qualifying report

Just over 1/10th of a second or less than one mile an hour covered the top four G Force chassis in Indy Racing League qualifying today for the Delphi Indy 300 at Chicagoland Speedway.

Robbie Buhl was the fastest G Force driver in 9th position with a fastest time of 220.945mph.

He was closely followed by Felipe Giaffone (10th - 220.595mph), Sarah Fisher (12th - 220.296mph) and Jeff Ward (13th - 220.037mph).

While the fastest G Force cars will start from the 5th row of the grid, the leading drivers believe their race pace will prove strong in tomorrow's 200 lap event.

"The tows here really make a difference, and by ourselves, that's as good as we've gone here. The stagger was good, and we could get through the corners really well," Buhl said.

"We want to be a part of that lead pack of cars, either at the front or in the middle. We know we can make it work from there."

Felipe Giaffone is hoping to put the disappointment of engine problems from the last race at Gateway behind him in tomorrow's Chicago race.

"For qualifying, I knew we were never going to be the fastest guy. We’re not worried about the qualifying. We’re actually a little bit quicker than I was expecting," Giaffone said.

"For tomorrow, you need to have a good engine, which I think I have. You have to have a good chassis, as well, in traffic, which I think I have, too. I know my car is good for tomorrow, so we should have a good race.”

Jeff Ward is another driver who believes he has the equipment to move to front tomorrow on the fast 1.5 mile oval.

"We're pretty happy. We actually pulled a gear even better than we thought," Ward said.

"We're real happy with how the car is. We're not losing any speed in the corners at all. We've got the car running well. I was pretty surprised with that time.

"We have an even better race car, so I am pretty optimistic that we'll be in the hunt come tomorrow.”

Part of Don Panoz's Elan Motorsport Technologies organization, the G Force headquarters in Georgia features full in-house design, fabrication, machining and composite construction facilities.

The American manufacturer has entered a major growth period, recently opening a new design center in the UK and recruiting new Chief Designer, Simon Marshall and new Chief Executive Officer, David Bowes. Both were previously at Lola Cars International Ltd.

-irl/ips--