ANOTHER EXCELLENT RESULT FOR URLIN
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ANOTHER EXCELLENT RESULT FOR URLIN London, Ont., Can. (June 30, 2002) -Race driver JW Urlin, of London, Ont., Can., finished fourth in the latest round of the Formula Ford 2000 Zetec Championship at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, near Lexington, Ohio. After a slow start to the season, the eighteen-year-old continues to launch himself up the championship rankings with a series of top finishes. Sunday's race, the eighth in the thirteen-race Zetec Championship, brought the teams and drivers back to a road course after a stint of three oval races. Qualifying, on Saturday, saw Urlin capture his first Zetec Championship front-row start, as he guided his yellow Budget Rent-A-Car/Mygale Cars/OTM Motorsports machine around the 3.634-km (2.258-mile) thirteen-turn circuit in 1 minute, 23.696 seconds, ranking second. The field was very closely matched with less than three-quarters of a second separating first place from 15th. Twenty-two cars lined up for a 22-lap race, held in conjunction with a round of the American Le Mans Series. As the field went into the first turn, Urlin and polesitter Sean McIntosh were neck and neck, but gave each other lots of room. They may, however, have left too much room as Tonis Kasemets, who started third, shot between them and took the lead. Urlin fell back to fourth and spent 10 laps looking for a way past Lawson Aschenbach. On lap 11, Bryan Sellers demoted Urlin to fifth as the battle for third heated up. Aschenbach, Sellers and Urlin raced nose-to-tail for nearly a third of the race until Sellers passed Aschenbach on the 18 lap and Urlin followed suit. The final laps rolled off with no changes. Kasemets was first to the line, followed by McIntosh, Sellers, Urlin and Aschenbach. "I was hoping for better," Urlin said after the race. "We were having trouble with weight transfer most of the weekend. The car was better for the race, good balance, but still not perfect. We're back here (at Mid-Ohio) in a couple of weeks and we've got a good starting point for the set up, so we should be able to get it fine tuned." Urlin has finished fourth or better in the last five races and lies just six points behind second-placed Jeffrey Jones in the Zetec Championship standings. Developing a French-made Mygale chassis, Urlin has the only car in the field not made by Van Diemen. During the first few races of the season, results were humbling and points were scarce, but Urlin is now arguably the hottest driver in the series. "We've been getting great results lately," said Urlin. "It's awesome to be so high up in the point standings, but I'm hungry for more. I want to start winning some races." The Zetec Championship series returns to the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in four weeks for a pair of races with the CART FedEx Championship Series, when the Miller Lite 200 takes place August 10-11. Be sure to visit JW's website, www.jwurlin.com. For additional information, please contact Mark Jackson (tel: 416-402-9368 / e-mail: mark@markjackson.ca). - 30 - Allan Craighead Director of Public Relations Formula Ford 2000 Zetec Championship 3608 Morris St. North St. Petersburg, Fla. 33713 727-522-7544 303-883-8521 Cell www.usf2000.com