Indy NXT
IPS: Simmons gets first career pole at Pikes Peak
Rookie driver Jeff Simmons scored his first Infiniti Pro Series pole today at Pikes Peak International Raceway. The former and only two-time champion of the Barber Dodge Pro Series held nothing back at the one mile oval to take the top spot with a ...
Edited: Mar 27, 2008, 11:54 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Rookie driver Jeff Simmons scored his first Infiniti Pro Series pole today at Pikes Peak International Raceway. The former and only two-time champion of the Barber Dodge Pro Series held nothing back at the one mile oval to take the top spot with a speed of 154.220 mph (23.3433 seconds).
The Keith Duesenberg Racing driver from Connecticut proved why the team signed him this year to pilot the No. 20 Western Union Speed Team Dallara. Simmons started his racing career in quarter-midgets, the Sports Car Club of America's Formula 2000 series, CART's Barber Pro and the now-defunct Indy Lights before joining the Infiniti Pro Series this season. Along the way, the talented young man found time to attend Boston College (graduated in 1998 with a bachelor of arts in computer science).
"It's really great to be on pole here because with Western Union being based in Denver, this is sort of like a home race," said the very happy Simmons. "When all of them come to the track tomorrow, they're going to be excited to see us up front.
"Qualifying was the first time that we were on the track after the motor change. The car was really good. The wind died down. It seemed like there wasn't much wind, so the car was almost exactly the way I want it."
Simmons is currently seventh in the standings. Just ahead of him in the standings is Cory Witherill who will start alongside on the front row. Witherill was clocked at 151.942 mph, 0.350 seconds slower than Simmons.
The native American Indian driver in open-wheel competition won the 2002 Nashville race. Hemelgarn Johnson Motorsports driver is pleased to have scored his best qualifying position in the 2003 season.
"It's great," stated Witherill. "Especially at a track like this, where you're flat all the way around. The closer you start to the front, the less work you have to do. It's a sprint race to get to the front, so we won't have to work as hard. We'll just have to work hard to fight off the competition."
Witherill's teammate, Aaron Fike will start third. "Overall, I'm pretty happy with the Hemelgarn Johnson team. The crew did a great job. We got faster as it cooled down, and I'm sure it's equal for everybody. This is probably one of my favorite tracks. I've always had good luck in open-wheel stuff as far as (USAC) Silver Crown and Midget cars."
Rounding out the second row is A.J. Foyt's driver Ed Carpenter. The winner of the inaugural Indy Freedom 100 had his motor seize up on his qualifying attempt: "A hundred feet before I got to the start/finish line on my first lap, the motor started seizing up. It's kind of a bummer. I think we would have put in a quick time, for sure. We came in here really confident, and the car has been perfect. The whole Foyt team has just been great."
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article IPS: Pikes Peak: Hemelgarn/Johnson Racing preview
Next article IPS: Pikes Peak: Post-race quotes
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Ed Carpenter
ECR and Chevrolet reaffirm 15-Year bond with multi-year extension
IndyCar
IndyCar
ECR and Chevrolet reaffirm 15-Year bond with multi-year extension
Ed Carpenter explains why he was so angry with Takuma Sato
IndyCar
IndyCar
110th Running of the Indianapolis 500
Ed Carpenter explains why he was so angry with Takuma Sato
Ed Carpenter set for one-off Indy 500 run with SlimFast as primary sponsor
IndyCar
IndyCar
110th Running of the Indianapolis 500
Ed Carpenter set for one-off Indy 500 run with SlimFast as primary sponsor
Latest news
Esteban Ocon responds to Haas signing Rafael Camara for F1 2027
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
United States GP
46 min
Esteban Ocon responds to Haas signing Rafael Camara for F1 2027
Tim Clark wants NASCAR to be better storytellers to counter "brand perception problem"
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup 1 h
Tim Clark wants NASCAR to be better storytellers to counter "brand perception problem"
Why NASCAR's Zane Smith fine for Carson Hocevar contact was consistent
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Talladega II
2 h
Why NASCAR's Zane Smith fine for Carson Hocevar contact was consistent
Jimmie Johnson on the NASCAR business world: "It's a war"
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup 2 h
Jimmie Johnson on the NASCAR business world: "It's a war"
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe