Groff Places Fourth in the Early Qualifying for Long Beach Super Vee

Mike Groff of Northridge placed fourth in the first round of qualifying Friday for today’s super vee race at the Long Beach Grand Prix.

Groff, last year’s co-rookie of the year on the Sports Car Club of America’s super vee circuit, qualified with an average speed of 79.918 m.p.h. behind a front row of Scott Atchison of Bakersfield and Ted Prappas of Los Angeles. Atchison took the pole position (80.119), and Prappas got the other front-row spot (79.944).

Groff will start alongside Steve Bren of Los Angeles, who qualified third at an average speed of 79.944.

Dave Kudrave of La Canada qualified 20th (77.26) in Friday’s opening round. Kudrave’s time would start him in row 10. But the field of 39 drivers will make another qualifying run. That begins today at 8:30 a.m.

The race will start at 3 p.m. Drivers will make 37 laps through the streets of Long Beach for a total of 61.79 miles.

Long Beach is the first stop for this year’s 14-race SCCA super vee race schedule.

Friday’s Qualifying

1. Scott Atchison (Bakersfield) 80.152; 2. Ted Prappas (Los Angeles), 80.119 m.p.h.; 3. Steve Bren (Los Angeles), 79.944; 4. Mike Groff (Northridge), 79.918; 5. Ross Cheever (Phoenix), 79.895; 6. Didier Theys (Belgium), 79.869; 7. Jeff Andretti (Nazareth, Pa.), 79.818; 8. Davy Jones (McGraw, N.Y.), 79.462; 9. Tommy Byrne (Dundalk, Ireland), 79.377; 10. Dennis Vitolo (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.), 78.819.

Others include: 20. Dave Kudrave (La Canada) 77.26.