Rocketsports Racing Denver Qualifying Report
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Heather Haupt ▪ cell: (517) 927-8472 ▪ e-mail: heatherh@rocketsportsracing.com ROCKETSPORTS RACING QUALFIES IN DENVER; GLOCK TOP ROOKIE AS HUNTER-REAY LOSES FASTEST LAP DENVER, Col. (August 13, 2005) – Final qualifying for tomorrow’s Centrix Financial Grand Prix of Denver Presented by PacifiCare took place this afternoon as Timo Glock locked a top ten start and teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay will grid 17th due to an incident late in the qualifying session. Glock, who will start tenth in tomorrow’s event, found himself as high as sixth on the timing and scoring charts this afternoon on his seventh lap out on old tires. The rookie posted a time of 1:00.529 (98.551 mph) in the #8 DHL Global Mail Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone. He came in to put on sticker tires for his remaining eight laps of an allotted 15 during qualifying with the hopes of improving his time and position. Lack of good track time dismantled the chance for progress, as red flags and traffic hindered the German from improving his time. Currently leading the Roshfrans Rookie-of-the-Year battle by eleven points over Ronnie Bremer, Glock will take the green flag tomorrow afternoon as the top rookie in Round Nine of the Bridgestone Presents The Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford on the streets of Denver. Hunter-Reay was looking to earn one of his better qualifying efforts this season, but ended the session in the tires and brought out the red and checkered flag. Trying to avoid a troubled car on track, the American had to brake early, as a result, losing the rear and sliding into the tires. Damage to the #31 Rocketsports Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone was not the only disappointment of the afternoon for the third-year Champ Car driver and Rocketsports team. Sitting in the twelfth spot just before the incident, he would lose his fastest time of qualifying as a penalty for bringing out a red flag during a qualifying session. As a result, Hunter-Reay will start 17th on the grid with his second best time of 1:01.342 (97.245 mph). Rocketsports Racing will have a 30-minute warm-up session tomorrow morning, before heading out to the grid at 1:00 p.m. local time. The green flag is expected to drop at 1:45 p.m. Highlights from this afternoon’s qualifying session can be seen on SPEED Channel tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. ET. Live race coverage from the downtown Denver will follow at 3:30 p.m. Quotes Timo Glock #8 DHL Global Mail/Rocketsports Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone “With wet conditions this morning, the track had no grip. This afternoon the track was better, but pretty much it was the same as it was yesterday afternoon. We just had another unlucky day. We lost one set of sticker tires on Friday when I spun out, so we had to run our first stint this afternoon on old tires. During those first laps of qualifying, I posted my fastest time of the afternoon and I was sitting P6. Then we came in and put new tires on for the last stint. As I headed out and started to get those tires up to temperature, the red flag came out. That just seems to be the way things go for us, and I am sure other drivers as well, but it is so frustrating. Then if it is not the red flag, it is traffic, and we just couldn’t improve our time. It is like the team just can’t get a break during qualifying. So we will start P10 and see what we can do tomorrow during the race.” Ryan Hunter-Reay #31 Rocketsports Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone “I was running P12 at the time, with about a minute and a half to go in the qualifying session. During that time, I was on my last qualifying lap and AJ (Allmendinger) went off into the runoff area in front of me. I had to brake early because of this, causing me to carry more speed into Turn 5 and the rear end came around on me. It is a shame, because we lost our fastest lap time because I brought out a red flag, which dropped us from 12th to 17th on the starting grip for tomorrow’s race.” Subscriptions: [Champ Car Press Releases] Change subscriptions: http://rocket.cmagic.com/index.php?option=com_mamml&Itemid=&action=unregistered&type=unregistered&userid=1294&test=a316e055424f1abe35a0c84e23d899f1