2011 Air Canada 200 Pre-Race Thread

1 13 1 A Jates 97.157 30 8 180 Running
2 2 09 S Glossum -3.86 30 13* 180 Running
3 1 16 J Pisani -5.66 30 0 165 Running
4 20 20 R Lowrey -7.10 30 0 160 Running
5 4 52 J MIller -7.40 30 0 155 Running
6 6 32 B Wilkinson -8.23 30 0 150 Running
7 8 89 B Corna -8.64 30 0 146 Running
8 12 96 M DiCario -9.78 30 0 142 Running
9 26 11 W Fisher -11.64 30 0 138 Running
10 14 57 D Bibson -11.87 30 0 134 Running
11 34 88 L Rody -12.19 30 0 130 Running
12 7 25 S Rossini -12.66 30 0 127 Running
13 28 50 J Kash -13.21 30 0 124 Running
14 19 73 D Maneren -13.58 30 0 121 Running
15 27 46 T Deefer -13.91 30 0 118 Running
16 32 41 M Johnson -15.24 30 0 115 Running
17 21 83 N Knowitall -15.27 30 0 112 Running
18 17 24 G Sauer -15.34 30 0 109 Running
19 22 39 Nzo -18.64 30 0 106 Running
20 9 44 A Kingston -25.48 30 9 108 Running
21 10 23 C Long -27.88 30 0 100 Running
22 25 10 B Sabo -28.88 30 0 97 Running
23 16 97 K Talofa -30.61 30 0 94 Running
24 23 48 L Rossini -33.25 30 0 91 Running
25 31 14 K Gerrelds -33.89 30 0 88 Running
26 15 35 C Silvester -34.63 30 0 85 Running
27 30 36 B Wilson -34.72 30 0 82 Running
28 11 03 B Simmons -35.01 30 0 79 Running
29 33 85 M Contey -35.42 30 0 76 Running
30 3 68 D Micks -37.30 30 0 73 Running
31 29 05 E Webler -37.97 30 0 70 Running
32 24 38 J Johnson -38.49 30 0 67 Running
33 35 76 C Kennedy -38.76 30 0 64 Running
34 5 54 J Richson -14L 16 0 61 Camshaft
35 18 65 D Edwards, Jr. -26L 4 0 58 Accident

A massive surprise coming into the weekend was the sight of two of the three former Eichholtz Motorsports Buicks, numbers 35 and 73, at the track on Friday. Cindy Silvester and Darrien Maneren, as it turned out, had leased the cars and formed separate teams as a one-shot deal for this event. They rolled off the grid in 15th and 19th, respectively.

Justin Pisani led the field to the start alongside Shawn Glossum in the #09, but Glossum had a much better run into the first set of esses, took the spot away, and promptly marched off, building up a 1.4-second lead...until lap 5 when Donnie Edwards Jr., making his first road-course appearance, pushed up into Brandon Corna coming into turn 5, slapped the wall, ramped into the air and gyrated through the grass a few times, the car coming to rest on its wheels. No word yet on Edwards' medical condition.

Everyone came into the pits under the subsequent caution, except for Alex Jates in the #1 Ford who thought it best to stay out. A few laps after the restart, Jates misjudged a braking point and slapped one of the right-side walls on the hill. Daniel Micks, just a moment later, got punted into the Panasonic wall by Brandon Corna, who appeared to have overdriven the corner. The second caution waved, and coming onto the long straightaway preceding turn 4, Darrien Maneren temporarily stalled the car and as a result stacked the back half of the field up somewhat. Wendy Fisher, Kimo Talofa, Mike Johnson, and Eric Webler all took light damage, but not enough to hinder their performance much.

On lap 17, Jerry Richson tried to slide in behind Nick K from the outside going into turn 12, but severely misjudged the positioning of his car and clipped the #39 in its left rear quarter panel. Both Chargers took a lick into the outside barrier, but he was able to continue.

A bunch of cars pitted under the yellow, and Austin Kingston and CJ Long made for an interesting pair as they stayed out and led the field to the restart. Kingston, in only his third AARO attempt, was building up a 1.3-second lead until the bottom half of Nick's rear panel flew off, landed on the asphalt of Turn 6, and brought out a caution for debris. The only taker on pit road was Tyler Deefer, who took a quick splash-and-go in his Lincoln. Kingston continued to lead on the restart, but on lap 28, he, Long, Kimo Talofa, and basically the rest of the top 7 were short on fuel and, not wanting to take the risk of coasting to a stop smack in the middle of a lengthy 3.3-mile ribbon, came into the pits. Darn shame, too, considering the runs they were having would EASILY have gotten them in. This handed the top 2 positions to the KGI Tauruses of Alex Jates and Shawn Glossum, the first of whose strategy worked to perfection as he cruised to a 3-second victory. Kenny Gerrelds Inc. clearly has something figured out this weekend. Look out for them.

The battle for the transfer spot was also quite a nailbiter, with Mike Johnson, Nate Knowitall, and Greg Sauer crossing the line in 16th, 17th, and 18th within a tenth of each other. The #83 Ford, affectionately called the "Black Cat" by some in the garage due to its infamously steady misfortune, actually had luck in its side for once as it edged Sauer by .07 of a second.

The whole thing turned out to be moot, though, because following post-race inspection, the #35 and #73 were, ironically, found to be a full 1.5 inches too low and were promptly disqualified.

Both Maneren and Silvester claimed they had no knowledge of such a setup.

Being that only Maneren would have qualified, the event bumped Sauer's #24 into the field, meaning he will now get a second chance to defend his two straight victories here in 2009 Season 2 and 2010. Sauer has never finished lower than 8th at the circuit in his career.

Noooo I missed the race!

finally, maybe that 83 can have some luck.

2nd race of the year all three cars are in YES!!

Updated with an extensive summary of the race.

Damn, Kingston DNQs.

lol love the Black Cat nickname

Sauer has won the past 2 events at Calgary.

Nick399 wrote:

Sauer has won the past 2 events at Calgary.

Fixed the post. When was the other one?

AAROdynamic426 wrote:

Nick399 wrote:

Sauer has won the past 2 events at Calgary.

Fixed the post. When was the other one?

He has won Calgary in 2009 S2 and 2010. He also has a finish no lower than 8th at the track.

Nick399 wrote:

Sauer has won the past 2 events at Calgary.

I'm about to give GSR #3.

Session: Qualifying


P # DRIVER TIME
1 27 D Leckliter 1:34.988
2 15 W Legge 1:35.065
3 83 N Knowitall 1:35.089
4 24 G Sauer 1:35.107
5 50 J Kash 1:35.184
6 40 G Jacobs 1:35.189
7 30 B VanPelt 1:35.233
8 34 K Lachner 1:35.268
9 13 F Ritcher 1:35.324
10 96 M DiCario 1:35.324
11 90 A Fisher 1:35.335
12 52 J MIller 1:35.391
13 26 J Scransen 1:35.415
14 00 T Lautenschlager 1:35.424
15 18 C Lapinski 1:35.430
16 0 J Ringer 1:35.499
17 06 J Smith 1:35.505
18 28 S Donnelly 1:35.506
19 20 R Lowrey 1:35.524
20 72 P Eichholtz 1:35.542
21 99 M Oppenheimer 1:35.545
22 19 A Reeds 1:35.547
23 1 A Jates 1:35.548
24 09 S Glossum 1:35.556
25 53 K Davis 1:35.596
26 12 L Tellez 1:35.611
27 32 B Wilkinson 1:35.623
28 49 G Garcia 1:35.629
29 16 J Pisani 1:35.633
30 88 L Rody 1:35.634
31 25 S Rossini 1:35.679
32 56 T Hendricks 1:35.702
33 42 H Cilantro 1:35.716
34 98 T Bradshaw 1:35.776
35 87 M Carter 1:35.808
36 46 T Deefer 1:35.824
37 11 W Fisher 1:35.873
38 89 B Corna 1:35.990
39 41 M Johnson 1:36.000
40 57 D Bibson 1:36.050
41 8 C Crompton 1:36.064
42 94 J Williams 1:49.556


Weather: Clear, 32 °F, North 0 mph

Leckliter determined to win this from the pole

"Calgary has been good to Greg here, and both our cars are tuned almost identically for this race, either way I hope we bring GSR a 1-2 finish."

Legge very happy with 2nd place start

"We've been having a bit of an up and down season and its nice to get such a good starting position and I have a good feeling that i am going to be knocking GSR off their totem pole this weekend."

Rain Tires to be implemented for Air Canada 200

Rain is in the forecast, and the AARO has decided to go with rain tires on the first pit stop of the race, changing strategies of many.

Nick399 wrote:

Rain Tires to be implemented for Air Canada 200

Rain is in the forecast, and the AARO has decided to go with rain tires on the first pit stop of the race, changing strategies of many.

Spoiler:

SHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Nick399 wrote:

SHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiIT.

Nick399 wrote:

SHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

whoops, my bad.