Miller Lite 200 - Lynx Racing
KOOL/Toyota Atlantic Series Preview
1 June 1999
A HISTORY OF VICTORY AT THE MONSTER MILE
Fast Facts: Lynx Racing in the KOOL/Toyota Atlantic Support Race at the
Miller Lite 200 - June 5 - 6
· Lynx Racing drivers have won the KOOL/Toyota Atlantic support race at
Milwaukee the last two years in a row - Alex Barron in 1997 and Memo Gidley
in 1998.
· The last three Lynx drivers, Patrick Carpentier, Barron and Gidley, have
all moved up to drive in the CART FedEx series.
· Lynx Racing is the only major, championship-winning auto racing team
owned by women. The team's mission is to seek out young drivers with
championship potential and provide them with the resources and training to
make the jump to the CART series.
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Lynx Racing has a history of victory at the Monster Mile, and has a
reasonable expectation of continuing that tradition this weekend at the
Miller Lite 200, June 5 - 6.
And not merely victory, but success, since this unique,
female-owned team's mission is to seek out young drivers with championship
potential and provide them with the resources and training to make the jump
to the CART FedEx series… and since the team's last three drivers have all
made that jump.
Although he never rolled into victory lane at Milwaukee, Lynx
Racing's 1996 Atlantic Champion Patrick Carpentier did win 9 of 21 races -
eight of them in a row from the pole. He was immediately signed by the
Bettenhausen team and was CART's 1997 'Rookie of the Year.' He now drives
for the Player's/ Forsythe team.
Lynx's 1998 phenom, Alex Barron, won five of 12 races in the 1997
season - including Milwaukee - and took both the series championship and
the 'Rookie of the Year' award in his first and only season of Atlantic
racing. He was quickly signed by Dan Gurney's All-American Racers and is
now in his second year as a CART FedEx driver.
Last year's rising star, Lynx driver Memo Gidley, won three of the
first four races of the season - including Milwaukee - and has now been
signed to drive for Walker Racing in the CART FedEx series beginning with
the Budweiser/G.I. Joe's 200 in Portland on June 20.
This year's crop of hot prospects in the Lynx pipeline include
Buddy Rice, 23, of Phoenix, Arizona, and Mike Conte, 30, of Seattle,
Washington.
Rice is now in his second year with the Lynx Atlantic team after
having come up through the Formula 2000 ranks with the Lynx-affiliated DSTP
Motorsports. In 1998, his rookie year as an Atlantic driver, he stunned
the series regulars by putting his car on the pole for his first-ever
Atlantic race, the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. And he won his
second-ever Atlantic race, also from the pole, the Bosch Spark Plug Grand
Prix Presented by Toyota at Nazareth.
It was an all-Lynx front row at this race last year, with eventual winner
Gidley on the pole and Rice right next to him in second. While Gidley went
on to a dominant victory, Rice was consigned to an 11th-place finish with
handling problems. He arrives at Milwaukee this year with a string of
three top-ten finishes under his belt and tied for third in the
championship points battle with nine races to go.
"I really like the Milwaukee track and thought I had a shot at a win last
year, but I learned a lot anyway, including respect for those turns with no
banking," says Rice. "Our test program this year with the new cars has
been progressing well, and our results keep getting better at every race.
We'll be coming to Milwaukee off a couple of days of intensive testing, and
I think we should be in good shape to run at the front."
Rice's Lynx Racing teammate, Mike Conte, ran this race last year with
another team, and like Rice had handling problems, although he was able to
move up from his 22nd place qualifying spot to finish 14th. Conte comes to
Milwaukee this year with a strong finish in the previous event at Gateway;
he set second-fastest time in practice but crashed and was unable to
qualify. Starting from the back of the pack, he worked his way up to
finish 8th.
"Milwaukee was kind of a lost weekend for me last year,' says Conte.
"Although I really like both the track and the city, we struggled all
weekend and the race itself was more a matter of survival than competition.
With the resources and expertise of the Lynx team behind me this year, and
all the testing we've done recently, I'm really looking forward to the
weekend and the race."
Lynx Racing, owned by Peggy Haas and Jackie Doty and now entering
its ninth year of operation, is both a championship-winning racing team and
a unique driver development program. The team's mission is to seek out
young drivers with championship potential and provide them with the
training, resources and opportunity to realize that potential and make the
jump to auto racing's 'major leagues.'
In addition to Buddy Rice and Mike Conte in the KOOL/Toyota
Atlantic series, Lynx also sponsors a car for the team's first female
driver, Sara Senske, 20, of Kennewick, Washington. Senske competes in the
Star Mazda Championship, driving a car fielded by Kent Stacy's championship
winning S3 Racing.
In her most recent race, on Memorial Day at the Phoenix
International Raceway oval, she qualified on the front row and scored a
podium finish. Her next race is a Sports Car Club of America national
event, June 12 - 13 at the Willow Springs Raceway in Southern California.
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For further information on Lynx Racing and its drivers, please
visit the team's web site at www.LynxRacing.com, or telephone team public
relations manager Peter W. Frey at (818) 909-0985 - office / (818) 378-5309
- cell phone / (818) 909-0922 - fax.
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KOOL/Toyota Atlantic Event Schedule:
Wednesday, June 2
8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Teams begin moving into paddock
Thursday, June 3
10:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. Atlantic practice session
2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. Atlantic practice session
Friday, June 4
8:45 a.m. - 9:15 a.m. Atlantic practice
1:45 p.m. - 2:15 p.m. Atlantic practice
5:05 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. Atlantic qualifying
Saturday, June 5
11:15 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. Atlantic warm-up
3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. Atlantic race / 60 laps
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Television Schedule (ESPN2 - EST):
Saturday, June12 3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. First broadcast
Tuesday, June 15 5:00 a.m. - 6:00 a.m. Repeat broadcast
Thursday, June 17 4:00 a.m. - 5:00 a.m. Repeat broadcast
Monday, May 31, 1999