Today, speed was the order of the day in downtown Houston, Texas, where Cart Toyota Atlantic Drivers descended on the 1.527-mile street course to run the first of two qualifying sessions in preparation for the penultimate race of the Atlantic’s 2001 Championship Series.
Gormley Ontario rookie Jonathan Macri, piloting the P1-Racing/NTN Bearings Swift, posted the 5th best time of the qualifying session with a lap time of 76.511 seconds (71.848mph), .782 seconds off the pace of top qualifier Martin Basso (75.729 seconds).
“Things went really well for us today. We qualified 4th in this morning’s practice session and except for a slight turn under steer, I felt comfortable in the car,”, Jonathan said. With the drizzle coming down in between sessions, we decided to change the car to a wet-weather set up. After about five or six laps into qualifying, the car started to come to me. I felt confident pushing, and we got as high as 3rd place on the 15th lap. But, by this point the track started drying up and my time fell to other drivers, I guess, whose cars were not on a full wet-weather set-up. I’m still very happy though. The team did a great job, and we were able to show fast, consistent speed both in dry and wet track conditions. Tomorrow, we will be looking to better our time and grid position.”
For Jonathan, qualifying high on the grid is of ultimate importance if he wishes to mount a real challenge this weekend for the Rookie of the Year Championship. Mechanical problems kept him from accumulating any points at Vancouver, and allowed rookie leader Joey Hand to significantly extend his lead to 22 points with a first place finish there.
Hoover Orsi, Joey Hand and David Rutledge rounded off the top four at provisional qualifying today. The second practice session takes place Saturday morning followed by official qualifying in the afternoon.
Report by Fedele Fortino
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