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July 23, West
Allis, Wis. -- In a performance reminiscent of last week in Nashville,
Jaime Camara turned in a extremely quick qualifying speed of 142.852 mph to put
himself on the pole position for tomorrow's running of the Milwaukee 100 at the
Milwaukee Mile. Jon Herb will start on
the outside of Row 1, followed by the two Brian Stewart entries of Wade
Cunningham (series points leader) and Arie Luyendyk, Jr. 
As
the qualifying session began, it looked as if 140 mph was going to be the speed
to beat. Scott Mayer made the first
attempt, and turned in a speed of 128.830 mph.
Mayer, who hasn't made an IPS start since Phoenix, indicated that they
were lacking practice time on the track and were still searching for a good
setup. Following Mayer were Festa,
Simmons, Drake, and Roth who all ran in the high 130's.
But the drama of the day was just beginning...
Then,
Wade Cunningham took to the track and posted his fastest speed of the weekend
at 140.864. About the effort, Cunningham
said, "We had the quickest out lap, but the car was understeering slightly
on the corner exits. This makes it a
safe race car, and good for the race, but takes a little speed away from
qualifying. We should be very strong
tomorrow." (Photo right, Jaime Camara)
After
Cunningham, Jaime Camara shocked the fans in attendance at the historic
Milwaukee Mile, by turning a lap at 142.852 mph -- the fastest lap of the
weekend for any driver. This earned
Camara his third pole of the year, and seemed to further build his momentum
after his flag to flag victory in Nashville last week.
Nick
Bussell, in his second race for Vision Racing, was next on the track, and put
up a respectable 140.007 mph lap speed to ultimately earn a fifth place
start. Of his first-ever qualifying
effort at the Milwaukee Mile, Bussell said, "This place demands
respect. If you push too hard, you lose
the car very fast. So, it's a matter of
finding out how close you can get to the edge and still feel comfortable."
Camara's
closest competition of the day came from Jon Herb, who had been fast in
practice throughout the weekend. Herb
ended up just missing Camara's pole speed to qualify second at 142.644 mph. "We gave it everything we had,"
Herb recounted, "we just came up a hair short. This is the car we're going to race
with. It's good."
Arie
Luyendyk, Jr. finished off the qualifications with an effort which put him on
the outside of Row 2 with a solid speed of 140.513 mph. Travis Gregg did not qualify because of a
damage to his car sustained in an incident during an earlier practice session
in which he made light contact with the Turn 2 wall.
The
unforgiving, flat turns of the Milwaukee Mile combined with the closely matched
cars of the Menards Infiniti Pro Series should be a great recipe to brew a
hard-fought, exciting race tomorrow.
This is the final qualifying order for the Milwaukee 100:
1. (1) Jaime Camara, Dallara-Infiniti, 142.852
2. (6) Jon Herb, Dallara-Infiniti, 142.644
3. (33) Wade Cunningham, Dallara-Infiniti, 140.864
4. (3) Arie Luyendyk Jr., Dallara-Infiniti, 140.513
5. (9) Nick Bussell, Dallara-Infiniti, 140.007
6. (20) Jay Drake, Dallara-Infiniti, 139.867
7. (24) Jeff Simmons, Dallara-Infiniti, 138.595
8. (19) Chris Festa, Dallara-Infiniti, 137.820
9. (4) Marty Roth, Dallara-Infiniti, 137.166
10. (11) Scott Mayer, Dallara-Infiniti, 128.830
11. (7) Travis Gregg, Dallara-Infiniti, no speed |
