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| Today, Cart Toyota Atlantic drivers descended on the streets of Vancouver to run the tenth of its twelve-race season. Canadian Atlantic rookie, Jonathan Macri, put his best racing foot forward clocking the second fasted lap time (1:11.149 seconds) during the morning warm-up. His excellent showing helped shake off a less than memorable qualifying session yesterday when his P1 – Racing/NTN Bearings Swift broke down with a crucial five minutes remaining in the session, forcing him to be content with an 8th place start position for today’s race. “We had an excellent warm-up session. The car ran really well and everything seemed to finally be coming together,” Jonathan said. We definitely had a podium car today.” The race testified to Macri’s claim as Jonathan wasted no time at the start of the race. Sitting 8th, he vaulted past both Stephan Roy and Rodolfo Lavin. Within four laps, Jonathan reeled in Martin Basso in 5th. Macri mauled Basso, covering Basso’s rear-view mirror with his blue # 31 car, plying his trademark aggressive style. Finally, using Basso’s draft, Macri pulled beside him in the straight, braking just a touch deeper in the breaking zone - enough to outmanoeuvre Basso for 5th. Macri than moved to attack the front-runners, who were racing tight, as he pulled away from Basso. However, in lap seven, mechanical woes befell Jonathan, once again. “I was coming out of the hairpin and just as I got on the throttle, my car gave. The CV joint bolts sheered right off,” Jonathan said. It’s unfortunate because up to that point the car was performing really well.” Hard luck for Jonathan. For all his determination, he came away with no points and was relegated to watching his rookie-of-the-year challenger Joey hand take the checkered flag. Standing only one point behind Joey before the race, Jonathan now sits 22 points behind with 69 points to Joey’s 91 points. “We are definitely in tough now for the Rookie Championship contention, Jonathan said. Joey ran a great race and has managed to build a really big points gap.” With only two races to go, Jonathan remains in good spirits. “There’s no use harping on it. It just wasn’t our weekend. So we’re just looking to do as well as we possibly can in the last two races of the season.” Rookie Michael Valiante finished 2nd, Atlantic Championship leader Hoover Orsi took 3rd and Martin Basso and Rodolfo Lavin completed the top 5. |
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