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SBRS: Laguna Seca round 11 qualifying report

Allmendinger Takes Maiden Pole Answering the charge of Round 10 qualifier Robbie Montinola, Barber-CART Karting Scholarship winner A.J. Allmendinger took his first pole in Formula Dodge National Championship presented by RACER ...

Edited: Dec 29, 2009, 6:56 PM

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Allmendinger Takes Maiden Pole

Answering the charge of Round 10 qualifier Robbie Montinola, Barber-CART Karting Scholarship winner A.J. Allmendinger took his first pole in Formula Dodge National Championship presented by RACER magazine competition. Allmendinger, who qualified second earlier for today’s race at Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca, improved to the prime grid spot of Round 11 with a best time of 1:39.394 sec. to set up tomorrow’s action from Monterey. Justin Blower surprised a few with his spirited performance and will start from outside of row 1. The Californian, like Montinola, has raced on the 2.24-mile 11-turn circuit before and showed remarkable improvement over his earlier session in which he qualified 11th.

Peruvian hotshoe Juan Manuel Polar earned the right to start from third, setting his fastest lap in the waning moments of the session. Similarly, Tophie Stewart used his last lap to edge out Dan Di Leo for the fourth spot. Di Leo will start Round 11 from fifth.

Said Allmendinger,“ Everything felt great, the car, the track, I felt great. I tripped my best time on lap 5 [of 11]. I knew I got one good one under me and could have settled back a bit but I kept my foot in it. I’m always looking for more speed and to learn something that might help me during the race.”

Blower found his best time by coming into the pit, then going out with some space on the track. Subsequently, he managed to run faster by himself than he had been earlier in the session. Polar, who after early success in the series has had a run of hard luck, is thrilled to start near the front and would like nothing else than to establish some late season momentum.

While Campos still leads the championship tally, a strong weekend by Allmendinger or Landon Yee would be enough to reduce the advantage presented held by the Brazilian heading to the final rounds at Daytona.

The Skip Barber News will have race results tomorrow noon PST.

-BARBER/CART-

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