INDIANAPOLIS — Mark Tunny captured his 10th-career World Figure-8 Championship Three Hour Endurance pole position Friday night after two rounds of single car qualifications.
Tunny will bring the field to the green in Saturday’s three-hour, $20,000-to-win Late Model Figure-8 event at the Indianapolis Speedrome.
The fastest 20 qualifiers are locked into Saturday’s event. Positions 21-28 will be determined by one final qualifying session Saturday afternoon.
It appeared as if Tunny would have to qualify into the race through Saturday’s final qualifying session. An apparent broken axle sent Tunny and his team scrambling to their shop to repair the issue. There were doubts if he could get the car repaired in time for Friday night’s two-round qualifying session.
As the qualifying line dwindled, Tunny returned just in time to rip off a 16.567-second lap to capture the pole position, despite no warmup laps.
“The axle tube snout got a crack and started breaking off in the first practice session,” explained Tunny. “We had to go back to the shop, take the axle tube and side bell off the rear end of the other car, get it all back together, and bring it back. I knew we’d be kind of behind the eight ball because we couldn’t scuff our tires and stuff.”
With his most recent pole position. Tunny is now the all-time World Figure 8 Championship pole position leader with 10 career poles. Tunny will share the front row with Cousin Ben Tunny in Saturday’s race.
Tunny explained how he will approach this year’s event starting from the pole.
“I like to be up front. I feel you’re in a lot better shape if your numbers on the board, top three. Sometimes you get more breaks that way. You can get caught up in stuff running mid-pack,” concluded Tunny.
For those unable to attend this year’s event, Saturday’s 46th annual World Figure 8 Championship will be streamed live by SPEED SPORT affiliate Speedrome.tv.