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Rough Weekend for Tommy Bahama, Huffaker/Qvale and Chris Neville

9 September 1999

QUALIFYING PROVES LONE BRIGHT SPOT FOR HUFFAKER/QVALE MOTORSPORTS, TOMMY 
BAHAMAAND CHRIS NEVILLE AT VANCOUVER TRANS-AM

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Canada — Chris Neville qualified the 
Huffaker/Qvale Tommy Bahama Mustang on the front row of the grid for last 
Saturday's BFGoodrich Tires Trans-Am Series at the Molson Indy Vancouver. It 
proved the lone bright spot of the weekend, though, as a pre-race technical 
infraction set him back to 11th on the grid, a broken input shaft ended his 
race early, and a penalty for contact with another competitor dropped him 
from the season points lead to a tie for fourth.

"The car was fantastic," lamented Neville, who had moved back up to third and 
was closing on second when the car broke. "I was just cruising around at 
about 90%, waiting for the last fifteen laps to really start racing when the 
input shaft broke. The car would go into all the gears, but there was no 
drive."

On the contact with Mike Lewis, which drew the penalty, he said, "I feel 
awful. I really didn't mean to get into the back of him. We were coming up to 
a really fast kink on the straight, one that I would always take with just a 
little lift on the throttle, and then back on the gas. I was right behind 
Mike, and he hit the brakes at that point, and it surprised me. I was too 
close to miss him."

"Some days just don't go the way you had them planned," said Joe Huffaker, 
Vice President and Technical Director of the Huffaker/Qvale Motorsports team. 
Of the penalty at tech inspection, he said, "We always get our engine 
declaration sheet typed neatly and handed in early, which we did this time as 
well. Unfortunately, there was a typo on the engine number, a single number 
that got overlooked."

SCCA rules state that any team in the top ten that changes engines between 
qualifying and the race may start no higher than tenth. The error on the 
declaration sheet was treated as a changed engine, putting Neville 11th. The 
#1 car of Paul Gentilozzi, which had qualified fourth, was also put back, as 
they had failed to turn in an engine declaration sheet at all. They were 
placed in the 12th position to start.

For the contact with Lewis, Neville was penalized $1900, and was docked six 
of his 11 points. Neville, who came into the weekend with a one-point lead in 
the championship, is now tied with Mike Lewis for fourth in season points at 
214, with three races remaining. Race winner Brian Simo now has the points 
lead at 244, while second-finishing Gentilozzi sits in second with 233. John 
Miller is third with 219. Next up is the Texaco Grand Prix of Houston, on 
September 24 and 25.

"I don’t know where this black cloud that's been over us the past few weeks 
has come from," noted Neville, "but I wish it would go away."

Quipped Huffaker, "We've paid our dues, and we're CERTAIN that cloud has 
passed. We plan on starting at the front — and finishing there — in these 
next three races."

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