Rocketsports Racing Mexico City Report - Friday

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (November 4, 2005) – Rocketsports Racing drivers Timo Glock and Michael McDowell may sit tenth and sixteenth, respectively, on the timing scoring charts after today’s provisional qualifying, but attitudes are positive throughout the garage area with the hopes of improving times and qualifying both cars in the top ten tomorrow for Sunday’s Champ Car season finale.

McDowell put his name on top of the charts on this afternoon, heading out early to run some qualifying laps with an open track.  After four laps, the American sat P1after posting a time of 1:30.757 (110.510 mph).  He ran an even quicker time on his next lap before ending his first stint, recording a 1:30.349 (111.010 mph).  That time would be the fastest time that McDowell posted this afternoon, finishing the day 16th overall. 

Glock posted a quick lap immediately this afternoon on his second out lap, running a 1:28.928 (112.783 mph) to sit second on the charts.  During his fifth lap of provisional qualifying the 2005 Rookie-of-the-Year spun and stalled at the entrance to the Pit Lane as he was trying to make his way back to the pits to end his first run of the afternoon.  Unfortunately, the red flag came out because the Champ Car Safety Team had to get him restarted, costing the young German his fastest lap time.  

If he would not have lost that lap time he posted early on during the qualifying session, he would be sitting eighth on the charts in today’s official results.  However, he was unable to match or improve that time, finishing the day with a time of 1:29.496 (112.068 mph) and sits tenth overall after the first day of on-track activities.  

Tomorrow Rocketsports Racing will participate in a morning practice session, before heading out in the afternoon to qualifying for Sunday’s Gran Premio Tecate/Telmex Presented by Banamex.  

Quotes
Timo Glock #8 DHL Global Mail/Rocketsports Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone
“This morning was difficult, there was no grip on the track and the car was not real good.  However, we made some good changes to the car and we are going in the right direction.  That is good; it gives me, my engineer David Watson, and my Rocketsports team confidence for tomorrow’s qualifying and on race day.  We saved tires for tomorrow, using only one set of stickers this afternoon, which will be to our advantage tomorrow afternoon.”

Michael McDowell #31 Rocketsports Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone
“Well we are not where we want to be on the timing and scoring charts, but we are working on it.  The Rocketsports car has been improving during each session we did today, we just need to gain some speed and I need to gain just a little more confidence out there.  But I think things are going well.  We will sit down and analyze our results from today, in an effort to make the car go quicker tomorrow and qualify in the top ten for the starting grid.”