Monterrey, Mexico (March 17, 02) - Open-wheel racing excitement comes alive this weekend at Fundidora Park for the running of the CART Toyota Atlantic’s Tecate/Telmex Grand Prix of Monterrey, Mexico. The first race of a twelve-leg, 2003 Atlantic season, Monterrey’s 2.1-mile road course will provide the ideal racing platform for Atlantic drivers and teams to shake off any race rust that might have accumulated over the winter months. Last year’s top teams and drivers are back, and they will be driving hard to capture the elusive Championship.
Twenty-year-old Jonathan Macri makes his return to the Atlantic Series, having just recently signed with Polestar Atlantic. In its inaugural year in the Championship, Polestar Atlantic promises to deliver a competitive package. Under the helm of principal engineer and co-owner Jim Griffith, repeating his success in 2000, which saw him lead a new Atlantic team to a Championship, would seem to be Jim’s vision for Polestar Atlantic in 2003. To add potency to the Polestar Atlantic racing package, Gormley, Ontario’s Jonathan Macri will be behind the wheel driving hard to bring the vision to fruition.
It was not long after the ink had dried to officially seal the union between Macri and Polestar, that team and driver descended onto the race courses of Arizona for testing.
“Testing went really well. We tested at Firebird on the 4th and 5th of March and on another track in Arizona on the 10th and 11th,” Jonathan said. “Firebird was my first time with the team and in the car, so it served as a great opportunity to get familiar with everything. It was a sort of orientation for the team and myself. Things seemed to really come together on the second track that we tested in Arizona. There was a definite improvement in the car’s performance. It was well balanced and drove equally well on the slow, medium and high corners and on straights. I’m now comfortable with the car and am really happy to be driving for Polestar Atlantic. I’m looking forward to being part of the team and hope to help bring it success this year. I’d like to do the same for my major sponsor NTN Bearings who have supported my Atlantic racing ambitions from the start. Monterrey will definitely be exciting. It will be my first race with Polestar Atlantic and the first race of the season. I’m expecting a really tough field of drivers and teams. Fortunately, I’ll be racing Monterrey in a Swift 014.a car. Last year I drove the older Swift 008.a, which was just not competitive enough. So, all in all, things look good and I’m anxious to run for the Championship this year.”
The 2002 Atlantic Championship marked the most competitive year of the Atlantic’s 29-year history for racing cognoscenti and fans, with the Championship undecided until the last race of the season, in Denver. The 2003 Championship, the Atlantic’s 30th anniversary, will no doubt match, if not surpass the wheel-to-wheel duelling and competitive battling that made 2002 such a spectacular season. Whatever bit of race rust that might have accumulated during the off-season will, no doubt, need to be sandedaway quickly. Judging by the tight competition fielded this year, there will be no time to get into the racing groove. Teams and drivers will need to be on target from the first race right through to the last to make a successful run for the Championship. Jonathan Macri and Polestar Atlantic know this well. That both team and driver will be there with racing experience and skill fully in tact and ready to apply in their bid for success in Monterrey and in their run for the Championship will no doubt have been emblazoned in their stars.
The CART Toyota Atlantic race weekend kicks off Friday, March 21, with a morning practice session followed by an afternoon qualifier. Saturday will see competitors enter onto the track for a second practice session in the morning and a final qualifying session in the afternoon. The Atlantic Grand Prix of Monterrey will go Green Sunday March 23 and will be televised LIVE on SPEED Channel at 11:30 a.m. |
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