CART Toyota Atlantic drivers descended onto the long, 4.048-mile permanent road course at Road America for an early 9:00 a.m. practice session. Finishing 13th at yesterday’s Provisional Qualifying, a full 1.808 seconds off the fastest lap set by Dorricott Racing’s Jon Fogarty, Macri and P-1 Racing-NTN Bearings/Miller Genuine Draft/Battlefield Equipment Rentals had much pace to make up in Official Qualifying this afternoon. The Saturday morning practice would, therefore, carry utmost importance for the 20-year-old Gormley, Ontario, native and P-1 Racing; an opportunity to test a re-configured car - one that would be heavily relied upon to close that daunting two second gap. By the end of Saturday morning practice Macri and P-1 Racing showed significant progress, as Jonathan raced his blue #31 car to a 4th-place finish. However lap times were significantly slower than yesterday’s due mainly to showers that swept through Road America, leaving some standing water on several turns.
Official Qualifying, therefore, saw Macri fighting for more speed. He finished the session in 11th spot, however. If there was any consolation to be found, it was in Macri’s narrowing of the lap time as he finished 1.013 seconds behind leader Michael Valiante (Lynx Racing).
“We’re still off on the set-up,” Jonathan said. “We’re not sure where we are lacking. The speed is just not there. We’ll be making a few changes to the car. In all, I don’t think we are too far off. If we can pick up the speed, we should be in pretty good shape tomorrow. We’re running on a track with long straights, so, hopefully, we’ll be able to race well in traffic and use the draft generated from the long straights to make some passes and move up in the field. You never want to qualify too far back, but if you have to, Road America is one of the best tracks to start from the back. Passing is a lot easier here.”
Jonathan’s combined qualifying times will see him start 14th on the start grid for tomorrow’s race. Michael Valiante was quickest in final qualifying, posting a lap time of 2:01.892 seconds. However, because Valiante’s time fell short of beating the time set by Jon Fogarty (Dorricott Racing) at yesterday’s provisional qualifier, he will be starting 2nd on the grid. Dorricott drivers Luiz Diaz and Alex Gurney will be starting 3rd and 4th, respectively. Starting 5th on the grid will be Waldemar Coronas for Squadra Fortia.
Tomorrow will see Atlantic drivers take to the track for an early-morning warm-up session (8:45 a.m. EST). The 17 lap race begins at 11:15 a.m. EST.
Speed Channel will broadcast the 10th leg of the Atlantic Championship at Road America on same day delay at 1:30 EST.
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