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CART: Road America Friday Notes/Quotes, Robby Gordon

10 July 1999

Robby Gordon

#22 Johns Manville/Panasonic/Menards Toyota-Swift
Practice/Qualifying Notes/Quotes ­ Friday, July 9, 1999
Texaco/Havoline 200
Round 10 of 20 in the CART FedEx Championship Series
At Road America, Elkhart Lake, Wis.

After a frustrating morning practice in which Team Gordon was unable to
turn a lap, Robby Gordon came back to post the 20th-fastest time in
Friday's provisional qualifying for the Texaco/Havoline 200 at Elkhart
Lake, Wisconsin's legendary Road America.  Gordon's time of 103.760
seconds (an average speed of 140.447 mph) was a reasonable achievement
considering his absence from the morning session.

Quotes

ROBBY GORDON ­ "Not bad for six laps today!  Before this qualifying
session, I probably would have said that this day couldn't get much
worse.  But after qualifying, I have to say things don't look too bad. 
The car is okay. The last lap where I spun was definitely my best. I
knew I was low on fuel and I was pushing it every corner.  The last one
just got away from me. There might have been something on the track,
too. A couple of other guys went off in the same spot right after me. 
It's too bad. I was trying as hard as I could to get into the fast group
for tomorrow."

MIKE HELD (co-owner) ­ "I'm glad we made something out of the day after
the tough luck this morning.  There was a problem with the clutch on the
primary car in practice. Then, the backup just failed on us. We're still
waiting to find out what the problem was.  We only ran six laps, but
they were good laps.  Really, for a group of guys who were forced to
miss the morning session, we're pleased with the effort in qualifying
right now."

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