2012 Karjala Grand Prix qualifying races

Pre-Qualifying Race 1
Race 1

Mika Tervo led off the line until Vladimir Simonov passed him on lap 4. Tervo nearly binned it on lap 7, allowing Antero Virtanen into 2nd. Virtanen was amazingly fast, taking the lead at halfway and never looking back.

Contact between Franz Redlich and Denis Predikin in turn 1 cost both drivers a shot of prequalifying. Redlich bogged down in the sand while Predikin continued on albeit very slowly.

Vijay Pushanda escorted Jacques Bouvier into the tire wall after the Dwyer S on lap 2. Needless to say, the Frenchman was not pleased.

Ike Durbin was the other retirement, when he spun off in the same place Pushanda crashed, hitting the tire barriers and eliminating himself immediately.

The hero of this race was Tolyatti, on the simple fact that neither of the two Tolyattis in this race blew up, and Vladimirovich made it through. Also, Yevgeny Kuznetsov made it through in the second RUS Autosport car. The third PSI car, driven by Jim Hayes, DNPQ'd as well as Andreas Laporta and Kraig Mummert.

Pre Qualifying Race 2
Race 2

First off, Tom Delgado makes an idiot of himself and tries to run Kevin Dwyer off the road, but Dwyer has none of that, backs off just enough for Delgado to hook himself on Dwyer's front end and spin off into the tires. Derp derp derp...

To rub salt into the wound, Dwyer made it through.

As if things couldn't get worse for Delgado, his teammate, pole man Louis Kingston, slowly drifted back through the field but he hung on to the top 14 and passed Pre-Qualifying.

Jared Warth and Justin Keith collided after the former was booted by Ethan Everett on lap 2 in the Dwyer S. All three cars pitted for damage and were all a lap down afterwards.

Grigory Novakovsky pushed wide coming out of turn 3 and smashed the wall, taking himself out. Vladimir Nikolayev did the exact same thing the following lap.

Charlie Waters crashed, but this time he was completely innocent. In fact, Milano Rossini plowed through him like a bulldozer and eliminated both of them in turn 2 on the 11th lap. James Dalton reportedly threw his headset.

Speaking of notorious crashers, Anthony Griffith was bumped off the course by Cameron Taylor in turn 1 and lost a few positions as a result. He might have made the race otherwise, because Griffith set third fastest lap of the race...

Pre-Qualifying race 3
First corner, first lap, Radomir Stanyochev hooks Dieter Hallenstein and puts him out on the first corner. Oops. Early in the race, one of the biggest obstacles proved to be Chris Davenport. The Volpi driver managed to jam up the field quite hilariously, allowing everyone in front of him to build a huge gap.

Further back in the field on lap 1, Stan Rosenstreter got booted off the road into the expanded runoffs in turn 7. This one wasn't really anyone's fault, as the field stacked up in front of him.

Kurt Plissken pitted after the first lap for mechanical difficulties.

The big hero of the race was Marcos Leonard, who came from 33rd (last) to 13th -- good enough to make it past pre-qualifying.

Avery Holtzmann was the only other retirement, ending his run against the tires coming out of the Dwyer S trying to hold off the aforementioned Leonard.

Nosova dominated this race thoroughly, leading start-to-finish. Packer Carroll is the most notable DNPQ, and that couldn't have made team owner Cyril Volpi too happy...