Rocketsports Racing San Jose Qualifying Report

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Heather Haupt ▪ cell: (517) 927-8472 ▪ e-mail: heatherh@rocketsportsracing.com

A GOOD RUN IN SAN JOSE BUT NOT GOOD RESULTS FOR ROCKETSPORTS RACING

SAN JOSE, California (July 29, 2006) – It was an error-free day for Nicky Pastorelli and the Rocketsports Racing team today in San Jose, but that wasn’t enough to improve their starting position for tomorrow’s Canary Foundation San Jose Grand Prix Presented by Taylor Woodrow.

This afternoon hosted the final round of qualifying which determined the starting lineup for Round Nine of the Bridgestone Presents The Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford.  The 15-minute practice segment of qualifying saw two incidents causing red flags and taking time away from the drivers’ on-track as a final preparation for qualifying.

At the drop of the green flag marking the start of final qualifying, the Italo-Dutch driver was one of the first drivers to head out onto the track to record lap times.  After seven orbits on a fresh set of Bridgestone Potenza Red Tires, he came into the pits sitting P6 with a time of 52.262 seconds.  After taking a short break in addition to getting new tires and fuel, he headed back out onto the 1.443-mile temporary street course for his final eight laps of an allotted 15 in qualifying.

Posting his fastest time of the weekend on his final lap this afternoon, the Former F1 Jordan test driver recorded a 51.628 (100.620 mph) and will start on the inside of row nine in the 17th spot.

“I am pretty frustrated,” said Pastorelli.  “The #8 Curacao/Rocketsports car is improving each time we go out for a session, but it obviously was not enough to give us a good qualifying spot for tomorrow.  So we are not happy how things went today, but we were able to have a good clean day.  I will sit down with my engineers tonight and we will work together to try to get a better car for the race tomorrow, then we will see how things go tomorrow afternoon and hope for a good finish.”

There is a thirty-minute Warm Up session tomorrow morning before the race festivities officially begin.  The Rocketsports team will grid the #8 Curacao/Rocketsports Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone at noon local time and will be ready to go racing when the green flag drops at 12:45 p.m.  The Grand Prix of San Jose can be seen live on NBC Sports with coverage beginning at 3:30 p.m. EST.
 

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