NWR Drivers Round Out The Podium At Trois-Rivieres

Mundelein, August 16, 2009: It was a beautiful day in Canada today as Newman Wachs Racing drivers both finished on the podium at the Grand Prix de Trois- Rivieres. John Edwards finished 2nd and teammate Jonathan Summerton claimed 3rd in the Atlantic Championship race at the historic circuit.

The top-three finished how they lined up on the grid, but all were running very similar lap times throughout the 50 minute race. Leader Simona De Silvestro pulled out an early lead, and Edwards had around a one-second gap on Summerton. They both made hard charges at the end of the race, with Edwards finishing just eight-tenths of a second behind De Silvestro. He made up two seconds in the closing laps.. Summerton had the fastest lap with three to go. This no longer earns a bonus point, but has become a bragging right amongst the NWR teammates.

After today’s race, Edwards remains 2nd in overall standings and Summerton 3rd. The Atlantic Championship has one weekend off before re-convening in Canada at the equally historic Mosport.

John Edwards, #36 MAZDASPEED/ Nuclear Clean Air Energy/ Entergy/ NEI/ Newman Wachs Racing: (P2)

“It was a bit of a weird race. In the first half, Simona was flying and I think the closest I ever got to her was within a couple tenths on one lap, but every other lap she was between two and five tenths quicker on each lap. I think she pulled out to, I don’t know, between a five- and seven-second gap. Then, in the middle of the race, I started to speed up and she started to slow down, and Jonathan made a mistake, so I had no pressure from behind. I kept pushing and knew there was a lot of race to go. I started reeling her in and I think I finished second by a second or so, so I closed the gap and was doing faster laps than her for about the second half of the race. It looked like she just had the car to beat in the beginning, but if we could have gotten pole, we could have stayed in front of her, because it’s so hard to pass here. Nonetheless, it’s a great day for the team. I need to thank everyone at the team and the series for putting it on. This is such a cool event at Three Rivers. The crowd’s really great and it’s really fun to come here. Thanks to Newman Wachs, the Atlantic series, Mazda, Cosworth and Cooper Tires. They all put on a great show here today.”

Jonathan Summerton, #34 Nuclear Clean Air Energy/ Entergy/ NEI/ Newman Wachs Racing: (P3)

“We had a great start. I think I had a better start than the two in front of me, but the problem was where we were starting. We were already on the inside of the track and I had nowhere to go to my right and, of course, to the left was John, so I kind of got boxed in there. It was kind of disappointing, because it’s one of the few starts where I’ve had a really good one on everybody else. After all that, we had a little bit of a mistake in the middle of the stint and then we were able to run the fastest lap, so it was really good. The car felt great. It just stinks we couldn’t have been there for qualifying on pole, because I think we had a car to win the race.”