Diehard, open-wheel, race fans lined the stands and streets of Trois-Rivieres, Quebec, Canada, to watch Atlantic drivers qualify for tomorrow’s Grand Prix de Trois-Rivieres.
The feature event of the race weekend, drivers rewarded fans for their enthusiastic support with an adrenalin rush of high-paced qualifying around the 1.52-mile temporary street course. Early morning practice provided solid proof of the competitiveness of the field, with both Alex Gurney (Dorricott/Behr/Castrol) and Jonathan Macri (P-1 Racing – NTN Bearings/Miller Genuine Draft/ Battlefield Equipment) running under the previous track record set by Hoover Orsi last year. Official qualifying did not see drivers set a lap record; however, the excitement promised was delivered.
After a stellar start saw Gormley, Ontario’s Jonathan Macri improve steadily from 6th place in Friday morning’s practice session, to third spot in the Friday afternoon qualifying session, the weekend looked bright for Macri and P-1 Racing. The 20-year-old’s performance at Saturday morning’s practice session continued the success as Macri finished second, a miniscule .083 seconds off the quickest lap set by Alex Gurney. Macri and P-1 Racing would now be qualifying for no less than pole-position. However, their expectations did not materialize as Jonathan finished the afternoon session qualifying only seventh.
“We’re pretty disappointed. We had high expectations coming into official qualifying this afternoon,” Jonathan said. “Why wouldn’t we. I mean, we did really well right up to official qualifying today. P-1 Racing prepared an excellent car and improved it from session to session. The package worked well and we were able to finish second in practice this morning. We were looking for pole-position this afternoon. The first ten minutes went well. We managed to capture first spot. But after we made a few changes to the car, I sensed a decrease in performance. I came in for a second time, and the story was the same. We continued falling back. We’ll have to unwind the changes that have been made up until now and hopefully get it right at the Sunday-morning warm-up. Trois-Rivieres is highly technical, tight and unforgiving. Hopefully, we can get a strong jump at the start and make a few places. We’ll be in tough tomorrow”.
Official Qualifying saw current points leader Michael Valiante win pole-position for Lynx Racing. Alex Gurney (Dorricott Racing) and Grant Ryley (Lynx Racing) will start 2nd and 3rd, followed by Jon Fogarty (Dorricott Racing) and Joey Hand.
The Grand Prix de Trois-Rivieres will be broadcast live on Speed Channel Sunday August 4, at 1:00 p.m. ET. Atlantic fans in Canada can watch the race on RDS or same day delay Sunday August 04 at 7:00 p.m. The race will be rebroadcast on Speed Channel Monday, August 5, at 3.00 p.m.
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