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CART: Gugelmin has best Friday Road Course Run of 2000

19 August 2000

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
(Elkhart Lake, Wi)--PacWest Racings Mauricio Gugelmin produced his best provisional road course qualifying run of the season when he clocked the seventh fastest time in preparation for the Motorola 220 at Elkhart Lake in Wisconsin today.

Gugelmin, driver of the #17 Nextel PacWest Mercedes-Benz, clocked a time of 1:41.044 around the challenging 4.048-mile course to be the quickest of the Mercedes-Benz runners in the field.

While Gugelmin, whose previous best Friday run was eighth at Toronto, had a trouble-free day it was exactly the opposite for his teammate Mark Blundell.

Blundell, driver of the #18 Motorola PacWest Mercedes-Benz, recorded less than 10 trouble-free laps all day and was simply left looking forward to tomorrow.

Red flags cost teams 45 minutes of their allotted 90 minutes in the morning practice session and all of them seemed to wave at the wrong time for Blundell. He then had to change to his back-up car after a mechanical problem crippled his prime car and forced a major transplant during the sessions.

MAURICIO GUGELMIN - # 17 NEXTEL PACWEST MERCEDES-BENZ 7th Qualifying: 1:41.044

"We really had a trouble free day and I believe there is still a little more left in the car for tomorrow," said Gugelmin. I was on an even quicker lap than the 41 dead when Paul Tracy crashed and brought out the red flag with a couple of minutes left in the session.

"I still have a little push in the car, but we have not done anything to even start chasing that yet. I guess if you keep working at something long enough it has to pay off for you.

"The fact that we tested here a couple of weeks ago was certainly a big asset for us today.

MARK BLUNDELL - # 18 MOTOROLA PACWEST MERCEDES-BENZ 20th Qualifying: 1:42.657

"I dont think we got 10 full timed laps all day," said Blundell.

"We had a horror run this morning with just a handful of laps because we had mechanical problems and had to go to the back-up car.

"I had the new set of tires on and was about seven 10ths up on my best lap in qualifying when Paul Tracy crashed with two and a half minutes left of the clock and stopped the session. Our luck has to turn around eventually maybe I need to make a call to my fairy godmother."

PROVISIONAL QUALIFYING TOP TEN: 1: Gil de Ferran 1:40.392; 2: Michael Andretti 1:40.401; 3: Dario Franchitti 1:40.477; 4: Alex Tagliani 1:40.482; 5: Adrian Fernandez 1:40.581; 6: Christian Fittipaldi 1:41.016; 7: Mauricio Gugelmin 1:41.044; 8: Helio Castroneves 1:41.072; 9: Kenny Brack 1:41.358; 10: Juan Montoya 1:41.431.

Text provided by Brett Murray

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