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NASCAR Pinty's Series

Alex Tagliani scores Pinty’s pole in Toronto

Matthew Manor | NASCAR

Alex Tagliani scored the E3 Sparks Plugs pole for the Pinty’s Grand Prix of Toronto Friday at Exhibition Place during an action-filled qualifying session.

Tagliani’s No.18 Rona/EpiPen Chevrolet set a fast time of 1 minute 16.893 seconds (82.166 mph), to take his first pole of the season and at the 1.755 mile street course. His time was not quick enough to beat the track record (1.16.260) set in 2011 by Jason Bowles.

The session was marred by numerous incidents, one involving fourth-place qualifier Kevin Lacroix. Lacroix suffered a hard crash coming out of turn seven and will go to a backup for Saturday’s race.

Tagliani won the 2016 Pinty’s Grand Prix of Toronto and looks to become the first driver since Andrew Ranger to score a second win on the street course.

“Car’s pretty good,” Tagliani said. “Team has done a tremendous job over the winter. We’ve been strong at CTMP also. We’re here. It’s going to be a fun event with those two guys [Ranger and Camirand] that are fairly quick as well. It should be a good show for the fans tomorrow.”

Marc-Antoine Camirand finished second with a time of 1:17.025 (82.025), while Andrew Ranger set a time of 1:17.251 (81.984) to start third in tomorrow’s race.

Camirand famously crashed out of this race last year, due to making a bold move on LaCroix.

“The car was really fast. I was a little impatient trying to pass on the outside of that corner,” he said. “To be honest, that pass, I dream a lot at night since last year. I won’t do it the same way this year.”

Anthony Simone rounded out the top five but will also have go to the rear of the field following a crash in Turn 3.

Gary Klutt and points leader LP Dumoulin finished sixth and seventh respectively. JF Dumoulin will start eighth, despite heavy contact with James Vance during the warm up lap in group two.

Kerry Micks and Peter Klutt will round out the top ten. Pete Shepherd III did not qualify due to damage suffered in a practice wreck.

The green flag for the Pinty’s Grand Prix of Toronto will drop at 3:40 p.m. on Saturday. The starting line-up can be found below.

  1. Alex Tagliani
  2. Marc-Antoine Camirand
  3. Andrew Ranger
  4. Kevin Lacroix
  5. Anthony Simone
  6. Gary Klutt
  7. LP Dumoulin
  8. JF Dumoulin
  9. Kerry Micks
  10. Peter Klutt
  11. DJ Kennington
  12. Cole Powell
  13. Brett Taylor
  14. Donald Theetge
  15. Larry Jackson
  16. Adam Martin
  17. Jason White
  18. James Vance
  19. Peter Shepherd III

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