Dorricott Racing - Toronto Preview
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: James Hyneman
jhyneman@compuserve.com
DORRICOTT RACING LOOKS FOR SECOND HALF COMEBACK
BEGINNING AT TORONTO IN TOYOTA ATLANTIC CHAMPIONSHIP
TORONTO, Ont., Canada (July 10, 2003) - Six races are complete but
six races still remain before the 2003 Toyota Atlantic Championship is
decided. With that in mind, Dorricott Racing's Luis Diaz, of Mexico City,
and Kyle Krisiloff, of Indianapolis, Ind., will be in Toronto at the Molson
Indy Toronto seeking to jump-start their season for a down-to-the-wire
title chase.
The 35-lap (61.425 mile) Atlantic race around the 1.755-mile,
11-turn temporary street circuit of Toronto's Exhibition Place will be
round seven of the 12-race series and is scheduled to begin this Saturday,
July 12, at 4:00 p.m. ET. It will mark the 13th time since 1990 the
Atlantic series has competed at Toronto, and is the featured support race
for Sunday's CART Championship Molson Indy Toronto. Atlantic did not run in
Toronto in 1999.
Dorricott Racing is seeking to find a more fair and equitable
result this year than it endured last year. The 2002 race was essentially
decided on an early race re-start. Atlantic champion Jon Fogarty started on
the pole. Alex Gurney was on the outside pole. Diaz started fourth.
Two yellow flags slowed the early portion of the event. This,
however, set the stage for the one of the most controversial incidents in
recent Toyota Atlantic history. On the lap six restart, Canadian Michael
Valiante, who was in third place at the time, charged to the inside of
Gurney and Fogarty heading into Turn 1. Valiante ducked low nearly striking
the wall before completing a clearly illegal pass of Fogarty and Gurney.
Regardless, Fogarty battled Valiante down the long straight heading into
Turn 3. As the pair jockeyed for position, the field became compressed.
Diaz was most affected and was unable to avoid tire-to-tire contact with
the rear of Fogarty's car due to Valiante's irregular positioning. Diaz
went airborne into the tire wall. The incident eliminated both of the
Dorricott cars from the race. Gurney was not directly affected but finished
fifth place.
Valiante, meanwhile, continued unchallenged for the next 29 laps to
win the race over fellow countryman, Jonathan Macri, of Gormley, Ontario,
by 0.909-seconds. The Canadian sweep of the top two spots may have thrilled
a partisan audience, but that audience was unaware that Valiante's race
winning maneuver was actually an illegal pass as determined by series
officials nearly five hours after the race had ended.
Diaz is looking to overcome a nightmarish season start where he has
been victimized on five occasions ranging from driver error of others to a
blown motor. He suffer back-to-back disappointments at Monterrey, Mexico,
and Long Beach when other drivers literally were responsible for him being
unable to either finish the race or mount a challenge to win.
Last weekend, a fractured tub forced him to abandon starting eighth
at Cleveland and relegated him to the rear of the 14-car field.
Nonetheless, Diaz was passing cars on the first lap and moved into sixth
place with six laps remaining. He had just completed his fastest lap of the
race and seventh fastest overall race lap around Cleveland's 10-turn,
2.106-mile circuit when he closed on Stephan C. Roy, of Canada. Roy lost
control of his car and slammed against an outside wall. Diaz was unable to
negotiate around Roy's carnage and rammed into the wall too. Diaz's left
front tire, wheel, suspension, and left front part of the chassis were
destroyed albeit he was able to limp back to pit lane.
Krisiloff has been showing signs of front-running capabilities but
has faced subtle obstacles that have led to finishes short of where he
thought they would end. At Cleveland, Krisiloff nearly went airborne in the
U.S. Grand Prix Formula One Swift on the front straight-away with two
minutes remaining in a pre-race warm-up. The cause of his off-track flight
was never determined but Krisloff's car landed hard and square before going
off the track and across the grass in front of pit lane. He came to a
sliding stop after only striking a television cable that was strung along
the grass. The resulting damage from the off-road detour, however,
"totaled" his car's undertray. This required his crew to undergo a near
complete overhaul within three hours of the race. They completed repairs
with literally minutes to spare before all cars had to be on the starting
grid. Regardless, a smart and solid race at Cleveland resulted in a 7th
place finish after starting 11th. Krisiloff joined Dorricott Racing at
Milwaukee where he earned an Atlantic career best second-place finish.
Dorricott Racing has had past success at Toronto when it dominated
the Dayton Indy Lights Championship. In the 2001 Indy Lights race, current
Formula 3000 driver and former Dorricott Racing star, Townsend Bell,
literally "swept" through the downtown street circuit to claim his third
victory Indy Lights win in 2001.
Bell's teammates, Damien Faulkner, of Moville, Ireland, and Geoff
Boss, of Narragansett, R.I., also had outstanding finishes in 2001.
Faulkner finished third and Boss scored sixth place as a substitute for
Fogarty, who was sidelined with a neck injury that year.
Speed Channel will provide a same-day, one-half hour delayed
telecast of the Toyota Atlantic Championship from Toronto beginning at 4:30
p.m. ET (1:30 p.m. PT), Saturday, July 12. Check
http://www.toyotaatlantic.com for updated series information.
Dorricott Racing is a year-round professional motorsports
organization with its race shop located in Bakersfield, Calif. Detailed
race results, team, and sponsor information are available on Dorricott
Racing's official web site, http://www.dorricottracing.com.
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