Team Stargate Worlds Duo Excel at Salt Lake City

Tooele, May 16, 2009: The Team Stargate Worlds duo of Frankie Muniz and Simona De Silvestro arrived Saturday looking to continue the streak of good fortune that they've experienced since their arrival at the track where De Silvestro has enjoyed leading every session for the Cooper Tires Presents The Atlantic Championship Powered by Mazda at Miller Motorsports Park. The question on everyone's mind was whether De Silvestro and Muniz would be able to make it count for Saturday's 30 minute qualifying session.

Under sunny and breezy conditions the Team Stargate Worlds drivers took to the track and immediately put up fast numbers. De Silvestro once again rocketed to the top of the time charts and posted the fastest lap and continually improved her times. With ten minutes left Jonathan Summerton leaped to the front of Simona on the time sheets, relegating her to second best. With every lap thereafter it looked like the De Silvestro's efforts would only be good enough for second. Undeterred Simona charged ahead and with 1 minute left she retook the Pole Position with a lap of 1:36.891 (113.249 mph) and held it. Summerton would finish second while rookie driver Frederic Vervisch rounded out the top-3.

For his part the other half of the Team Stargate World driver combo Frankie Muniz hustled his #77 machine around the track and within 10 minutes posted a top-5 time. With each lap Muniz grew more confident and improved to fourth fastest. As the minutes ticked away the track grew faster and Muniz saw his times slip down to fifth as other drivers came up to speed, and with 2 minutes remaining a flurry of fast laps were completed by the field and Muniz saw his time dip to seventh best. For Muniz this was a great session as it represents his best qualifying effort yet.

Imran Safiulla and Shane Seneviratne, Principals of Team Stargate Worlds- “This is a very proud day for us. We have worked very hard over the last few weeks and the team has done a phenomenal job. Simona is getting stronger with each passing day and Frankie is not far behind. Simona has done a great job so far and we hope to have a strong finish tomorrow.