Team Stargate Worlds Duo Completes Sebring Qualifying

Sebring, FL., March 19, 2009: The Team Stargate Worlds duo of Frankie Muniz and Simona De Silvestro completed two days of qualifying for the Cooper Tires Presents the Atlantic Championship Powered by Mazda at Sebring International Raceway. Under partly cloudy and breezy conditions the team was looking forward to completing two good sessions in the hope of getting great race start positioning

Wednesday's session saw Muniz run a best lap of 1:54.846 (115.981 mph) which put him in the ninth spot while his teammate Simona De Silvestro turned a best lap of 1:54.525 (116.306 mph) good enough for eighth. With another qualifying session scheduled for the next day the team worked hard into the night in preparation for the next session.

Thursday's session saw the track conditions change quite a bit from the previous day due to the various types of cars that had been on the track since. Muniz and De Silvestro entered the track and quickly got up to speed. Muniz muscled his #77 entry around the 3.7-mile permanent road course. The Scottsdale, Arizona resident jumped up as high as sixth on the grid before pitting for some adjustments . He quickly got back on track and eventually hung in to clench eleventh with a best lap time of 1:56350 (114.482 mph).

Simona De Silvestro attacked the track and immediately put up a lap that put her second on the grid, but she also experienced a different track from yesterday so the session was going to not be without its challenges. She pitted on her third lap and changed tires and the team made some minor adjustments before she was off again. De Silvestro was able to gain ground on the timesheet and was able to claw her way to an eighth best time of 1:55.161 (115.664 mph) as the checkered flag waved.

Frankie Muniz: “I'm satisfied with our performance today, especially since it's my best qualifying effort yet. The track was not as fast as it was yesterday so we dealt with that but overall I think the crew did a great job prepping the car and I am very excited about tomorrow and where we will be for tomorrow's race."

Simona De Silvestro - “We struggled a bit out there today but I am very confident going into the race tomorrow and I know the Team Stargate Worlds car will be ready for the challenge at hand. I have a great crew and a great teammate and we're all hoping for a great race tomorrow.”