Northern Light IRL: Buzz Calkins marches into Miami race
Posted By Terry CallahanMotorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
April 8, 2001
HOMESTEAD, Fla- Bradley Motorsports and driver Buzz Calkins qualified 15th for tomorrow's Infiniti Grand Prix of Miami presented by 123.com Americatel. The Bradley Food Marts/ Sav-O-Mat Dallara turned an opening lap of 27.6388 seconds (195.378 mph) around the flat 1.5 mile oval. The Denver native's second lap was just a tick slower at 27.7192 seconds (194.811 mph). Calkins will be starting on the inside of row eight in the Indy Racing Northern Light Series second event of the season alongside Eddie Cheever, Jr.
"I think the car could have gone quicker," remarked the 1996 Northern Light Series co-champion. "I was making some adjustments that would have gotten the Bradley Food Marts/ Sav-O-Mat Dallara there but I needed one more lap. We have a good, stable platform so it should make for a good race car. We'll just build from here."
Calkins, winner of the inaugural Northern Light Series event in 1996 at Walt Disney World, is expecting the unique Homestead-Miami facility to challenge the drivers and teams in Sunday's event. "The biggest factor is going to be the wind," offered Calkins. "There is nothing to block it. It is constant and then it gusts even higher. Because of the constant sun, the track is inherently slippery and, from what everyone that I have talked to that has run here before tells me, it just keeps getting worse and worse throughout the race. I think you may see some people that have been fast all weekend start to slip back pretty quickly in the race. We have been working on the race setup the whole weekend because tomorrow is going to be a long day and that is the day that counts. I think the Bradley Motorsports guys have a good race car under me."
Text provided by Bradley Motorsports
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