August 2007

ROAD AMERICA - ROUND 12 - QUALIFYING

Gutierrez Awarded Eighth Pole in Round 12 Qualifying

	Esteban Guiterrez

Elkhart Lake, Wis. – Aug. 10, 2007… For the first time ALMS and Champ Car World Series share the circuit at historic Road America, in front of an impressive Friday crowd, Esteban Gutierrez (Autotecnica) continued to set records in Formula BMW USA by being awarded his eighth pole of the season only days after his sixteenth birthday. The talented rookie has now taken three quarters of the poles in the 2007 championship.

Gutierrez benefited from another driver’s trouble in post-qualifying inspection today to be awarded the Round 12 pole for Sunday’s Formula BMW USA Championship race at Road America. Gutierrez, who was disqualified from the pole in yesterday’s Round 11 qualifying session, set the second fastest time today, but will move to his record eighth pole of the season following the disqualification of Maxime Pelletier (HBR Motorsport Team USA).

Pelletier, the sophomore Formula BMW driver, from Montreal, Quebec, Canada, lapped the 4.048-mile, 14-turn circuit in 2:17.467 minutes to top the 16-car field, but will now start at the rear of the grid. Rookie point standings leader Esteban Gutierrez (Autotecnica) will now line up first with a time of 2:17.920 minutes. Formula BMW Germany Junior and Rookie Adrien Tambay (Eurointernational) will start second (2:18.225), equaling his effort yesterday before he moved up to the front row following Gutierrez’s disqualification.

Ricardo Favoretto (HBR Motorsport Team USA) will start third (2:18.229) to make it three Rookie drivers in the top-three. Overall point standings leader Daniel Morad (Eurointernational) will start fourth (2:18.232). Tambay, Favoretto and Morad qualified within .007 seconds of each other - evidence of the close competition at the front of the field.

Gutierrez commented, “Well yesterday wasn’t my day, I got disqualified, but today is a new day. I forgot about yesterday and focused on getting my eighth pole of the season and I am going to try to extend that record with the final two races.”

Visiting Tambay said, “It was a tricky qualifying because the track was so slow at the beginning. So the problem was the times kept improving and at the end my tires were pushed to the limit and so it was difficult at the end. But I am not sure I had a full second to find so it was not likely possible for me to get the pole today, but anyway a good qualifying.”

The Round 11 race will start at 10:50 a.m. Saturday and Round 12 will start at 10:30 a.m. Sunday.

Round 12 Qualifying – Results

1 Esteban Gutierrez (R) Autotecnica 2:17.920
2 Adrien Tambay (R) EUROINTERNATIONAL 2:18.225
3 Ricardo Favoretto (R) HBR Motorsport Team USA 2:18.229
4 Daniel Morad EUROINTERNATIONAL 2:18.232
5 Alexander Rossi Team Apex Racing USA 2:18.824
6 Philip Major Autotecnica 2:19.097
7 Yannick Hofman EUROINTERNATIONAL 2:19.255
8 Robert Thorne Team Apex Racing USA 2:19.320
9 Steven Guerrero HBR Motorsport Team USA 2:19.326
10 Julia Landauer Team KMA Racing 2:19.581
11 Jordan Dick JD Racing 2:19.827
12 Mike Hill Team KMA Racing 2:19.943
13 Eric Morrow (R) Hearn Motorsports 2:20.169
14 Timothy Hollowell (R) Team KMA Racing 2:20.325
15 Jordan Lynch Hearn Motorsports 2:22.467
* Maxime Pelletier HBR Motorsport Team USA
(* Car 11 excluded from results for violation of 5.10.5 of the 2007 Formula BMW USA regulations.)

Courtesy of formulabmwusa.com