CART Toyota Atlantic Qualifying and the Barber Dodge Pro Series Race
2 July 2000
Lynx Racing driver David Rutledge, who won the previous Atlantic
race in Montreal from the pole, qualified his #19 Lynx Racing Swift 008.a
in sixth ((68.946 sec. / 109.964 mph) for Sunday's CART Toyota Atlantic
support race at the Marconi Grand Prix of Cleveland Presented by Firstar.
The top six positions on the grid were all faster than the existing
Atlantic track record.
Alex Gurney, son of racing legend Dan Gurney, took the pole (68.484
sec. / 110.706 mph), the first of his Atlantic career. Argentine rookie
Martin Basso starts from second (68.638 mph / 110.456 mph), followed by
Atlantic series points leader Buddy Rice (68.664 sec. / 110.416 mph),
Canadian Andrew Bordin ((68.867 sec. / 110.134 mph) and Miami winner,
rookie Daniel Wheldon (68.867 sec. / 110.090).
"We kind of got caught out by a red flag near the end of the
session," said Rutledge. "We made a few more changes while the cars were
stopped, and when they let us go again, we only had time for two flying
laps. It turned out that the changes we made increased the front grip
which, we needed, but caused the rear end to move around more, which we
didn't. Still, we were on the pole for most of the session and all the
cars are really close, so it's anybody's race tomorrow, and we'll be in the
thick of it."
Rutledge's Lynx Racing teammate, Mike Conte, will be starting his
#17 Lynx Racing/Microsoft Network Swift 008.a from the 11th spot on the
25-car grid.
"We obviously went the wrong direction in the setup from what we
had yesterday," said Conte. "And now we're presented with a kind of
Catch-22 situation. Do we go back to what we know, which was driveable but
not particularly fast? Or do we gamble and go with something radical? The
usual first-lap melee will scramble the order and give those of us farther
back some opportunity, which makes me inclined to take a chance."
Lynx Racing driver Sara Senske, 21, of Kennewick, Washington,
qualified 19th for the Barber Dodge Pro Series race, and moved up seven
places to finish 12th. The race was won by Nilton Rossoni of Curitiba,
Brazil, followed by Sepp Koster of the Netherlands and Jon Fogarty of
Nevada.
"After what's happened to me in the past two races, it felt really
nice to finish one," said Senske. "I got a really good start and passed a
couple of cars going into the first turn. I got into a really good rhythm
during the race and turned laps more than a second faster than I qualified,
so I feel like I got things back on track and moving forward again."
2000 marks the 10th anniversary of Lynx Racing, one of the most unique
organizations in auto racing today. Created and owned by two women, Peggy
Haas and Jackie Doty, Lynx is both a championship winning racing team and a
uniquely successful driver development program that focuses on a driver's
spiritual and psychological growth in addition to their on-track skills.
The Lynx mission is to seek out young drivers with the desire and
potential to become champions at the highest levels of the sport and
provide them with the funding, equipment and training to take the last step
toward realizing that potential, a process the team calls 'destiny by
design.' Lynx alumni include CART FedEx drivers Patrick Carpentier, Alex
Barron and Memo Gidley.
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On Track Activities
Sunday, July 2
8:30 am to 8:45 am Atlantic warm-up
10:30 am to 11:30 am Atlantic race (37 laps or 1 hour, whichever comes
first)
CART Toyota Atlantic Television Coverage (EDT)
3:00 pm to 4:00 pm Saturday, July 8 / ESPN2
3:00 pm to 4:00 pm Saturday, July 8 / ESPN International
4:30 am to 5:30 am Thursday, July 13 / ESPN2 (repeat)
8:30 am to 9:30 am Saturday, July 15 / RDS (Canada)
7:00 pm to 8:00 pm Monday, July 10 / CTV
4:00 pm to 5:00 pm Tuesday, July 11 / CTV (repeat)
Barber Dodge Pro Series Television Coverage (EDT)
6:30 pm to 7:30 pm Friday, July 21 / ESPN2
5:00 am to 6:00 am Saturday, July 22 / ESPN2 (repeat)
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