ATLANTICS: Fast Facts: Lynx Racing in the KOOL/Toyota Atlantic Support Race
7 July 1999
At The Texaco/ Havoline 200 at Road America, July 10 - 11
1. Lynx Racing's latest CART FedEx hot prospect, Buddy Rice, has finished
on the podium in the last two KOOL/Toyota Atlantic races, and is currently
second in the championship battle.
2. Rice qualified seventh in the Road America Atlantic event last year, but
sidelined after two laps by transmission trouble. Rice's Lynx Racing
teammate, Mike Conte -- then driving for another team -- qualified 17th and
moved up to finish sixth.
3. Lynx Racing, owned by Peggy Haas and Jackie Doty, is the most successful
driver development program in open wheel racing today. Three Lynx
graduates -- Patrick Carpentier (Player's/Forsythe) Memo Gidley
(Alpine/Walker Racing) and Alex Barron (a major team yet to be named) --
are competing in the CART FedEx Series.
4. Lynx Racing drivers have a history of success at Road America: Gidley
started on the front row and finished second in 1998; 1997 Atlantic
champion Alex Barron won during a rainstorm; Patrick Carpentier won the
1996 series championship by taking the pole, and then went on to win the
race.
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Buddy Rice, Lynx Racing's latest CART FedEx hot prospect, has
driven down a long and winding road since this time last year.
But after strong podium performances in the last two KOOL/Toyota Atlantic
races at Milwaukee and Montreal that boosted him to second in the
championship battle, he's looking at the long and winding road through the
hills of Elkhart Lake as another opportunity to help lead this unique
championship-winning team back to its accustomed place in victory circle.
"The team has been building back to its strengths, building
momentum and confidence, and we're all feeling it's about time to start
winning again," says Rice, 23, from Phoenix, Arizona. "It's impossible to
predict the outcome of any individual race, but we've had some good results
lately, and some very productive testing leading up to this race. We ran
Ralts during the first half of last year, and this is the first track in
the 1999 schedule where we've run the Swift before. My teammate last year
qualified on the front row and finished second, and the team has a history
of doing well here, so we're heading into the weekend expecting to run up
front."
Although Rice had an equivocal race here last year, qualifying
seventh and retiring after two laps with a broken transmission, Lynx does
indeed have a history of success at Road America, including Gidley's second
place in 1998, and a win by Alex Barron during a driving rainstorm in 1997.
Patrick Carpentier won the series championship by taking the pole here in
1996, and went on to win the race. Carpentier and Barron won consecutive
championships, and all three drivers have gone on to compete in the CART
FedEx Series.
Rice's current Lynx Racing teammate, Mike Conte, fared better here
last year, although he was driving for another team. He qualified 17th and
made his best run of the season up to finish 6th. Conte, currently tied
for 10th place in the championship points, has scored four top-10 finishes
with Lynx in the Atlantic series, and a podium finish in the 12 Hours of
Sebring driving a Porsche entered under his own Contemporary Motorsports
banner. He is a former top software developer for MicroSoft, and helped
create several of their most popular products.
"Road America is definitely an 'old school' track; they don't make
them like that anymore," says Conte, 30, of Seattle, Washington. "The
track is beautiful and fast and all the drivers love it. But it's also
narrow and very long, so it's hard to pass and a lap takes so long that in
a 30 minute session you may only get nine laps or so. This puts a premium
on being able to unload off the trailer with a good setup, which is where
all the testing we've done lately should really pay off."
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 Sara Senske, 20, of
Kennewick, Washington. Senske competes in the Star Mazda Championship,
driving a car fielded by Kent Stacy's S3 Racing. In 1998, her rookie year,
Senske finished eighth in the series championship battle, and in 1999, with
six of 13 races complete, she is tied for fifth in the points. Her most
recent finish was third on the oval at Pike's Peak, and her next race is
under the lights on the new short oval at the Irwindale Speedway near Los
Angeles.
Road America Event Schedule:
Thursday, July 8
6:30 a.m. - 7:30 p.m. Teams begin moving into paddock
Friday, July 9
8:30 a.m. Driver's and Crew Chiefs meeting
9:30 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. Atlantic practice
1:45 p.m. - 2:15 p.m. Atlantic preliminary qualifying
Saturday, July 10
11:15 a.m. -11:45 a.m. Atlantic practice
3:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. Atlantic final qualifying
Sunday, July 11
8:25 a.m. - 8:40 a.m. Atlantic warm-up
10:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. Atlantic race / 17 laps
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Television Schedule (ESPN2 - EST):
Saturday, July 17 5:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. First broadcast
ESPN2 and ESPN Intl.
Monday, July 19 1:00 a.m. - 2:00 a.m. Repeat broadcast
Monday, July 19 5:00 a.m. - 6:00 a.m. Repeat broadcast
Tuesday, July 20 8:00 p.m. / CTV (Canada)
Sunday, August 1 Check local listings / RDS (Canada)
Next KOOL/Toyota Atlantic event on the schedule:
Grand Prix Player's de Trois-Rivieres / August 1
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