Northern Light IRL: Buhl and Cheever Hope For Infiniti Repeat at Pikes Peak
Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
June 17, 2001Fountain, COLO. -- Qualifying solidly in the top-11, Robbie Buhl and Eddie Cheever Jr. both hope to be the driver to repeat Infiniti's 2000 victory at Pikes Peak International Raceway.
Robbie Buhl qualified fourth for the Radisson Indy 200 in his Team Purex/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Infiniti. He was fastest in the cooler temperatures of the morning practice session, with a 175.502 mph lap, but lost ground as the temperatures rose for the afternoon qualifying session. His qualifying lap of 174.213 mph lands him on the outside of row two for the June 17 running of the Radisson Indy 200. Buhl started second and led 61 laps with his Infiniti entry last year at Pikes Peak.
Eddie Cheever Jr., who won last year's Pikes Peak race from his tenth-place starting position, qualified 11th today with a 172.525 mph lap. Driving the No. 51 Cheever Indy Racing Infiniti, Cheever was fifth fastest in both practice sessions prior to qualifying.
The Radisson Indy 200 will be televised live on ABC at 4 p.m. (EDT) June 17. The "Indy Racing 2Day" pre-race show will air at 10:30 a.m. (EDT) June 17. A live timing and scoring report for the race will be available on the Internet at www.indyracing.com.
QUOTES
Robbie Buhl, No. 24 Team Purex Dreyer & Reinbold Racing GForce-Infiniti: "We came here with a lot of confidence. We knew we had a good car. This morning we wanted to be on the front row, but after this afternoon, when it got away from us, we just wanted a good, solid qualifying run. It's going to be a tough race track here with the heat, air, and humidity changes. We've got something to make up for after last year's race here. We had a strong lead for awhile. Infiniti was making gains with the motor, but then we had problems with it that took us out of the running. We are on track now with our Infiniti powerplant. Eddie (Cheever Jr.) won here last year with an Infiniti, so between him and myself we got to repeat that this year. I am hoping this time it will be the Team Purex car in victory circle over the Cheever Indy Racing car."
Eddie Cheever Jr., No. 51 Cheever Indy Racing Infiniti: "The weather conditions have changed a lot over the course of the day. This morning we did a 20.6 (seconds) relatively easily, and this afternoon we did a 20.8 in qualifying. It's tough. The air is very thin and any temperature change you have on the asphalt makes a very big difference. I've got a bit of push in turns three and four. I'm not very happy with that but we didn't really qualify that well here last year either, and things turned out alright. We're good. The Infiniti 35A is strong, and I think we have a good race setup. It's a long, hard race, and a lot of it comes down to tire management."
Text provided by Heather Handley
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