Rocketsports Racing Montreal Report - Friday

ROCKETSPORTS RACING DOES NOT GET IN A GOOD RUN TODAY IN MONTREAL

MONTREAL, Quebec, Canada (August 26, 2005) – Rocketsports Racing had a trying day in Montreal after an incident early in the morning threw off Ryan Hunter-Reay’s day and Timo Glock was running a bit off the pace.

After running 11 practice laps this morning on the 2.709-mile permanent road course, surprisingly Hunter-Reay found himself in the wall.  Damage was done to the #31 Red Paw Systems, Inc./Rocketsports Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone that was not repairable, so the crew had to pull out the backup car and prepare it for the next on-track run.  Working hard in the few hours they had before the afternoon session, the crew was still no where to be found at the start of provisional qualifying.  With about 15-minutes left in the session, the yellow and red backup Lola made its appearance with driver Hunter-Reay ready to jump in for a run.

Just as the crew was set to fire up the car, the red flag came out.  Andrew Ranger took a hard hit into the wall with ten minutes left in the first round of qualifying, ending the session early, leaving Hunter-Reay sidelined and unable to post a provisional qualifying time.  He was one of two cars that did not run this afternoon, as a similar incident late in the morning session involving Ricardo Sperafico resulted in a missed opportunity to post a time in today’s qualifying session.  

And to Glock’s continued lucky streak, the red flag came out just as he was starting his second run.  He recorded his fastest time of the day on his sixth provisional qualifying lap, of an allotted 15, with an orbit of 1:23.434 (116.888 mph).  That lap ended his first stint, as he came in for fuel and to assess the car.  Happy with changes that were made to the #8 DHL Global Mail Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone, which gave him the speed he was lacking in the morning to be running in the top ten, he headed back out for his second run with the hope to improve his quick time.  He got in only one lap before the eventual session ending red flag came out.

Glock sits ninth on the Champ Car timing and scoring sheets after the first round of qualifying for the Molson Indy Montreal.  Rocketsports Racing will have some more practice time tomorrow morning with an hour session starting at 10:30 a.m. ET.  Then they will roll out for final qualifying tomorrow afternoon at 2:00 p.m.

Quotes
Timo Glock #8 DHL Global Mail/Rocketsports Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone
“The #8 DHL Global Mail car was pretty good this afternoon.  It was a lot better and smoother than this morning, so I was happy overall with the change that we had made.  P9 is not a bad start, I think we can continue to improve the car and improve our overall position tomorrow.  It will all come down to how qualifying goes tomorrow afternoon, we should have the car to get a positive result, it will just come down to how much time we get to have a good run.  Maybe, if we are lucky, there will be no red flags!”

Ryan Hunter-Reay #31 Red Paw Systems, Inc./ Rocketsports Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone
“This morning during the practice session I touched the curb, but I thought it was at a normal angle.  However, it launched the rear into the air and it just never came back.  The guys did an amazing job preparing the backup car for me to qualifying in this afternoon.  They worked so hard and got the #31 Red Paw Systems, Inc. car out there in time to give us a run or two, but it was unfortunate that the red flag came out, preventing us from getting back out there this afternoon.”