Rocketsports Racing Mexico City Report - Saturday
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Heather Haupt ▪ cell: (517) 927-8472 ▪ e-mail: heatherh@rocketsportsracing.com ROCKETSPORTS RACING’S QUALIFYING RESULTS DID NOT MEET SATISFACTION BUT GLOCK WILL START AS TOP ROOKIE FOR THE SEVENTH TIME THIS SEASON IN CHAMP CAR SEASON FINALE MEXICO CITY, Mexico (November 5, 2005) – Rocketsports Racing drivers will both be starting outside of the top ten for tomorrow’s Champ Car season finale, a result they were not expecting as Timo Glock had a consistent top-five car and Michael McDowell had the confidence of getting the car in the top ten this afternoon. At the end of the 15-minute practice segment during the qualifying session this afternoon, Glock was sitting P5 after running a quick time of 1:28.919. The #8 Rocketsports crew had a bit of an advantage this afternoon having saved the two sets of red tires they had available to qualifying with during Friday and Saturday. During his first qualifying run, he went out running what should have been a six lap stint. However, he was trying to radio to the team at the exact same time the team was telling him to pit, and he did not hear them. He went on his seventh qualifying lap with directions to slow down and save fuel, which he did a good job making it around the 2.786-mile permanent road course and running out of fuel as he entered pit lane, thus not causing a red flag for being stop on course. The crew went down to get him into his pit box and made some changes. However, things just didn’t come together this afternoon for the German, as he posted his fastest time of the qualifying period running a 1:28.141(113.790 mph). He will start 12th on tomorrow’s grid in Round 13 of the Bridgestone Presents The Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford. He did out-qualify the other eight rookies in the field this morning, and will be starting as the top rookie for the seventh time this season. McDowell, who is only competing in his second Champ Car race with Rocketsports, matched his debut starting position of 16th this afternoon. Posting his fastest time of the weekend this afternoon, the young-American recorded a lap time of 1:28.481 (113.353 mph). Trying to meet his team’s request of finding just a little more speed in the car out on track, he was running a quick lap on his last lap of the afternoon that would have started him further up the grid, but a slight mistake would cost the rookie a chance to improve his overall qualifying result. Rocketsports Racing will have a 30-minute Warm Up session tomorrow morning before rolling the cars out onto the grid for the 2:45 p.m. CT race start. The Gran Premio Telmex-Tecate Presented by Banamex can be seen live on SPEED Channel starting at 3:30 p.m. ET. Quotes Timo Glock #8 DHL Global Mail/Rocketsports Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone “It is a shame our final result today in qualifying because we had a better car than that (finishing 12th). We had a top-five car, for sure a top-ten car all weekend, thus far. We had a radio miscommunication at the end of my first stint, and I ran out of fuel, which cost us a lap and that was misfortunate. We made some changes to the car during the session, but never really got a handle on things this afternoon to post the time that we were looking for.” Michael McDowell #31 Rocketsports Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone “We made a lot of changes today during qualifying and the #31 Rocketsports car was easier to drive. I was trying very hard on my last lap of the day that I pushed too much and overshot Turn 15. That cost us three or four positions. But now qualifying is over and we will be starting 16th, but that is ok. We will work on developing a good race strategy tonight; focus on finding just the perfect setup for the race tomorrow. I am confident in my team, I know they will give me good pit stops, so I will have to do all that I can out there tomorrow afternoon to try to finish the Rocketsports car in the top ten for the team.” Subscriptions: [Champ Car Press Releases] Change subscriptions: http://rocket.cmagic.com/index.php?option=com_mamml&Itemid=&action=unregistered&type=unregistered&userid=1029&test=6a5e400455253ffe31d6baa62f1590c7