Pescatori grabs pole in wet qualifying
Christian Pescatori notched up his first pole position of the 2000 SportsRacing World Cup at Donington Park this weekend. The JMB Ferrari driver pipped early pacesetter Werner Lupberger in the Judd-engined Ascari by just over two tenths of a second in the wet qualifying session
Pescatori completed a hat-trick of poles for the JMB 333SP. David Terrien, who shares the championship lead with his Italian team mate, headed the qualifying times at the previous rounds of the series at Brno and Spa.
"I'm happy to get my first pole of the year, especially because the conditions were so bad," said Pescatori, whose late-session bid to improve his time on intermediate tyres was thwarted by oil on the circuit.
Lupberger, who shares the Ascari A410 with marque boss Klaas Zwart, was happy with his performance.
"The race may be two and half hours long, but grid position is important here, especially if it stays wet for tomorrow," said the South African. "You don't want to be in another car's spray during the early laps."
Third fastest was Italian sportscar veteran Mauro Baldi in the Italian R&M team's Judd-powered Riley & Scott. The former World Sports-Prototype Champion's best time was just half a second behind pole man Pescatori, while Nicolas Filiberti made it four cars within a second in his GLV Brums Ferrari 333SP.
Formula 3000 refugee Dino Morelli headed the times in the secondary SR2 division at the wheel of one of the two factory Tampolli-Alfa Romeos entered this weekend. The Ulsterman, who shares this weekend with Richard Lyons, ended up just over two tenths up on Roberto Tonetti in the Benvenuto team's similarly-powered Lucchini.
A total of 28 cars are entered - 13 in the top or SR1 class and the renaining 15 more in SR2 - for the seventh round of the SRWC.
Christian Pescatori JMB Ferrari 333SP 1m40.218s
Werner Lupberger Ascari A410 1m40.484
Mauro Baldi R&M Riley & Scott-Judd MkIII 1m40.746s
Nicolas Filiberti GLV Brums Ferrari 333SP 1m41.165s
Klaus Graf Den Bla Avis Panoz LMP Roadster S 1m1m41.737s
Philip Peter Scuderia Italia Ferrari 333SP 1m42.239s
SR2
Dino Morelli Tampolli-Alfa Romeo RS2-RTA99 1m43.703s
Roberti Tonetti A&B Lucchini-Alfa Romeo 99 1m43.954s
Fabio Mancini Lucchini-Alfa Romeo 99 1m44.237s
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