August 24, 2002, Macri to Start 11th in Montreal
Official Qualifying for this afternoon’s 27-lap race at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, witnessed the continued open-wheel battle amongst this year’s highly competitive field. The penultimate race of the 12-leg, 2002 CART Toyota Atlantic Championship, teams and drives are pushing hard to show well at Montreal’s famed track.
Twenty-year-old Jonathan Macri is looking to be up to the task running on one of his favourite tracks, one that saw him narrowly miss a second-place finish last year in his rookie season. The Gormley, Ontario native ran his P-1 Racing - NTN Bearings/Miller Genuine Draft/Battlefield Equipment Rentals Swift 014.a to a 4th-place finish in yesterday’s late-morning practice session. Friday afternoon Provisional Qualifying witnessed Jonathan finish 7th, with a time of 133.937 seconds (103.819mph), 0.695 seconds off the pace of session leader Michael Valiante (Lynx Racing). However, Macri moved further down the start-grid with today’s Official Qualifying session, finishing 11th, with a time of 1:33.683 seconds, 1.403 seconds slower than session leader Jon Fogarty (Dorricott Racing).
“The car felt pretty good. We didn’t experience any real problems,” Jonathan said. “We chose to put on a new set of tires ten minutes into the session, so I drove conservatively for some time to give the tires a chance to work themselves in. Toward the end of the session, though, we came up to quite a bit of traffic, so we weren’t able to put in a good lap. We should have a good race. Montreal is an open track, with a lot of long, open straights. It’s a great track and the fans are terrific. I’m looking forward to running here.”
The tight battle for the 2002 Atlantic Championship between Michael Valiante (Lynx Racing) and Jon Fogarty (Dorricott Racing continues. Only 14 points separate the two drivers. Fogarty won pole position today; Valiante finished second. Ryan Dalziel (Hylton Motorsports) will start 3rd, followed by Luis Diaz (Dorricott Racing). Sigma Autosport’s Rocky Moran Jr. rounds off the front, starting 5th. Jonathan currently stands 7th in the Championship with 81 points.
The 21st Atlantic race to be held here since 1978, Atlantic drivers will descend onto the 2.709-mile Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve at 3:30 pm EST. The race will be broadcast LIVE on Speed Channel.
Report by Fedele Fortino
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