Hinchcliffe and Lacroix Enjoy Durban Debuts (S)

A1GP Round 8 - Friday Practice

Hinchcliffe and Lacroix Enjoy Durban Debuts

Friday 23 February, 2007 - A1 Team Canada hit the 
streets of Durban, South Africa Friday as 
practice commenced ahead of Sunday's eighth round 
of the 2006-07 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport. 
Quebec's Kevin Lacroix made his A1GP debut 
running in the morning's Rookie-Only session 
followed in the car by Toronto's James 
Hinchcliffe in the shortened afternoon session.

Driving an open-wheel race car for the first time 
in several months, Lacroix quickly dialed himself 
in to the team's 550bhp, V8-powered A1GP car 
while tackling the demands of the tight, twisting 
3.28km street course at the same time.  Logging a 
total of 26 laps during his two 25-minute runs, 
the 17-year-old from Saint-Eustache ended the 
Rookie-Only session 14th fastest with a best lap 
of 1m21.943s - the team pleased with Kevin's 
approach and feedback throughout his first 
competitive outing.

"I really enjoyed my time in the car," stated 
Lacroix.  "Having not driven for a while it felt 
good to get back into a race car and my 
confidence was growing with each lap.  I'm happy 
with my lap times considering this was only my 
second time in an A1GP car and first time at the 
track.  I can't wait to get another shot in 
Mexico next month."

With Hinchcliffe set to compete in Sunday's 
Sprint and Feature races, the 20-year-old Champ 
Car Atlantic standout strapped himself in for the 
afternoon's official practice session with the 
same objective as Lacroix, to learn the layout 
and work on set-up.  Unfortunately James' 
progress was halted when the session was stopped 
halfway through when parts of the track surface 
began to break up at Turn 7 - track officials 
ending the day's on-track activities to make the 
necessary repairs.

"I was super impressed with the layout of the 
circuit," Hinchcliffe commented.  "There's a 
really nice mix of tight turns and fast 
straights.  We started off with our set-up from 
Beijing earlier in the season as that worked well 
there but this is a different animal so we were 
forced to start making some changes.  We lost out 
on track time with the session ending early so 
there's lots to do tomorrow."

Official Practice (1 Hour Session)
1	France	Loic Duval	1:18.620
2	Ireland	Richard Lyons	1:19.179
3	Germany	Nico Hülkenberg	1:19.350
4	Czech Republic	Tomas Enge	1:19.358
5	Netherlands	Jeroen Bleekemolen	1:19.441
*19th	CANADA	James Hinchcliffe	1:21.137

Rookie Practice (2 x 25 Minute Sessions)
1	France	Loic Duval	1:19.836
2	India	N. Karthikeyan	1:20.120
3	China	Ho-Pin Tung	1:20.746
4	Switzerland	Marcel Fassler	1:20.924
5	Italy	Michele Rugolo	1:20.947
*14	CANADA	Kevin Lacroix	1:21.943

Sunday's Sprint race starts at 11am local time 
(4am EST) with the Feature race starting at 3pm 
in Durban (8am EST).  SPEED will air all the 
action from Round 8 in South Africa as a 
tape-delayed broadcast on Wednesday 28th February 
starting at 4pm EST - www.speedtv.com

ENDS - www.a1teamcan.com

Picture Credit - 'Canada's Kevin Lacroix on the 
Durban street course' - Jakob Ebrey Photography

Copyright-free A1 Team Canada images are available at www.a1gp-photo.com/can
A1 Team Canada Media Relations: Stuart Morrison - PR & Media Manager
Cell: +1 514 945 3253 / Email: stuart@a1teamcan.com