TORONTO -- The nose of Jack Hawksworth's car found the Turn 8 tire barrier on his first lap of a 45-minute qualifying session for the Toronto 100. On his final lap, the first-year Firestone Indy Lights driver set the pace to earn his first Sunoco Pole Award.
Hawksworth recorded a fast lap of 1 minute, 4.3994 seconds on the 1.7-mile, 11-turn street course in the No. 77 Schmidt Peterson with Curb-Agajanian entry and will start on the inside of Row 1 for the 50-lap race (11:30 a.m. ET). The IMS Radio Network broadcast with live Timing & Scoring is available on www.indycar.com and the INDYCAR 13 app. NBC Sports Network will broadcast the race at 2 p.m. July 14 to kick off its coverage of Race 2 of the Honda Indy Toronto.
Click it: Toronto 100 qualifying results
"I hope I get a good start and we’ll pull away," said Hawksworth, who won both Pro Mazda races on the circuit in 2012. "I know there are people who will try to make it difficult for me. I don’t know what to expect. I’m trying to focus on my own thing. Hopefully, I’ll get a good start, pull away and win the race.”
Carlos Munoz, who reclaimed the championship points lead with a dominating victory at Pocono Raceway a week earlier, was .0369 of a second behind in the No. 26 Dialy-Ser car for Andretti Autosport. Gabby Chaves tied his series-best start of third in the No. 7 Schmidt Peterson with Curb-Agajanian car, and Jorge Goncalvez also tied his series-best starting position of fourth in the No. 4 Belardi Auto Racing car.
Hawksworth's car didn't sustain damage that prevented him from continuing in the session.
“I made a mistake on the first lap, but we were able to put that behind us and after that the car was pretty decent," he said. "I think we can improve the car even more for the race. Great to respond with a pole after the run we’ve been on."
Seconds afterward, a red flag waved for an incident in Turn 5 involving the No. 8 Schmidt Peterson with Curb-Agajanian car of Sage Karam. The driver, who enters the eighth race of the season four points behind Munoz, will start at the rear of the field.
An incident 18 minutes later took out the cars of Peter Dempsey and Zach Veach, both of whom were in the top five on the time chart in practice July 12.