A1 TEAM USA finishes 2nd in Sprint at Brands Hatch

KENT, England—A1 TEAM USA’s Jonathan Summerton finished second in the Sprint race, but mechanical problems reduced a top-10 run to 12th Sunday in the Feature in the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport at Brands Hatch.

Summerton started second in the Sprint and ran there throughout the 15-lap race on the 2.6-mile Grand Prix circuit. It was the third straight round that A1 TEAM USA stood on the podium.

With 12 points for second, A1 TEAM USA moved into 10th in the championship with the 48-lap Feature remaining in the 10-round season.

The 20-year-old from Kissimmee, Fla., was in eighth place when he made the Feature’s second mandatory pit stop on the 35th lap.

“We’d been stopped for four or five seconds and the engine suddenly shut off,” Summerton said. “We don’t know why.”

Stalled for several seconds before being push started, Summerton rejoined in 16th place and moved up to 12th at the checkered flag. It left A1 TEAM USA outside the points and dropped it to 12th in the final standings.

“It was good to finish on the podium in the Sprint and we were happy for that, but it’s a very big disappointment when it comes down to the car making the final decision on where you finish in the championship,” Summerton said. “We started having gearbox problems, slipping gears, just before the second pit stop and it made it difficult to gain positions. Then, the engine quit and we lost several positions. What can you do? It was the car that caused us to lose our shot at 10th in the standings.”

A1 TEAM USA ended with 56 points and would have needed to finish fifth to overtake India for 10th.

“We continued our very strong close to the season with second place in the Sprint and reached, temporarily at least, our redefined goal of 10th in the championship,” A1 TEAM USA Holdings owner Rick Weidinger said. “We were in contention to complete our late-season mission when we had those mechanical problems.

“We had very good reliability this season with the ‘We the People’ car and it was unfortunate that we had them in the final race of the season. We’re still very proud of the tremendous progress we made this season, closing with a victory in the Feature at Shanghai, second in the Sprint at Brands Hatch and third in the Feature at Mexico City. We’re looking forward to our fourth season in A1GP in 2008-09 and will be announcing our plans in the coming months.”