ATLANTICS: Momentum and elbow roorm, Lynx racing report from Clevelend
3 July 2000
MOMENTUM & ELBOW ROOM
Part 3: Liftoff and Lurid Moments -- Results of Lynx Racing's CART Toyota
Atlantic Weekend At The Marconi Grand Prix of Cleveland
"Momentum and Elbow Room," as it turns out, was more wish than
reality for Lynx Racing drivers David Rutledge and Mike Conte... the
weekend would more appropriately have been titled "Liftoff and Lurid
Moments."
As has happened each and every time Lynx comes to Milwaukee, one of
it's drivers winds up featured on the weekend's 'wild moments' reel
emerging from a melee in turn one sideways with all four wheels in the air.
In 1997 it was Memo Gidley bouncing over the top of Lynx teammate Alex
Barron. In 1998, it was again Memo Gidley, this time the pole sitter,
bouncing over the top of eventual race winner Anthony Lazzaro.
The Atlantics didn't race at Cleveland in 1999, and in 2000 it was
David Rutledge's turn to continue the tradition as he bounced over a whole
group of spinning cars on the 24th of 32 laps and came down with his rear
suspension too damaged to continue.
"This is not at all the kind of follow-up to Montreal that we'd
hoped for," said Rutledge. "It looked good on Friday morning when we were
fastest in the first practice session, but everything we did from that
point on made the car worse. That's the puzzle with these cars - you build
up a data base of how to adjust them and then you go to a new track and
it's all different. I got a really good re-start after the yellow flag and
got clobbered by somebody I didn't even see and it damaged the rear
suspension too much for me to continue. The team remains really upbeat,
however, and we'll do several days of testing between now and Toronto and
go into that weekend running for the win."
Rutledge's Lynx teammate, Mike Conte, moved up from his 11th place
qualifying spot to finish 8th, keeping his string of top-10 finishes alive.
"I had some pretty lurid moments out there," said Conte. "The car
wasn't great, but I got a monster re-start after they cleaned up the
accident that got Dave and was up to fourth. Then it all got very physical
with cars bumping each other off into the grass and I felt like Luke
Skywalker in the asteroid belt. Once I got back on the track I was back in
8th, and there weren't any laps left to try and move back up. Overall, not
too bad a weekend, but the testing we have coming up should give us a
running start going into Toronto."
The race was won by Buddy Rice, the Lynx Racing graduate now
driving for DSTP Motorsports. Rice has now won three times this season and
extends his points lead after a DNF in Montreal. Martin Basso finished
second, with Hoover Orsi third. Rutledge drops from fourth to fifth in the
championship points battle, but with six races remaining in the 2000
Atlantic season, is still in contention. Rice leads with 82, followed by
Dan Wheldon (73), Andrew Bordin (69), Martin Basso (66) and Rutledge (60).
In the Atlantic series, 20 points are awarded for a win. Round 7 of the
12-race Atlantic Championship will be held in two weeks at the Molson Indy
Toronto, in Toronto Canada
2000 marks the 10th anniversary of Lynx Racing, one of the most
unique organizations in auto racing today. Created and owned by two women,
Peggy Haas and Jackie Doty, Lynx is both a championship winning racing team
and a uniquely successful driver development program that focuses on a
driver's spiritual and psychological growth in addition to their on-track
skills.
The Lynx mission is to seek out young drivers with the desire and
potential to become champions at the highest levels of the sport and
provide them with the funding, equipment and training to take the last step
toward realizing that potential, a process the team calls 'destiny by
design.' Lynx alumni include CART FedEx drivers Patrick Carpentier, Alex
Barron and Memo Gidley.
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CART Toyota Atlantic Television Coverage (EDT)
3:00 pm to 4:00 pm Saturday, July 8 / ESPN2
3:00 pm to 4:00 pm Saturday, July 8 / ESPN International
4:30 am to 5:30 am Thursday, July 13 / ESPN2 (repeat)
8:30 am to 9:30 am Saturday, July 15 / RDS (Canada)
7:00 pm to 8:00 pm Monday, July 10 / CTV
4:00 pm to 5:00 pm Tuesday, July 11 / CTV (repeat)
Barber Dodge Pro Series Television Coverage (EDT)
6:30 pm to 7:30 pm Friday, July 21 / ESPN2
5:00 am to 6:00 am Saturday, July 22 / ESPN2 (repeat)
______________________
1. (3), Buddy Rice, 32, Running.
2. (2), Martin Basso (R), 32, Running.
3. (8), Hoover Orsi (R), 32, Running.
4. (9), Rocky Moran Jr., 32, Running.
5. (7), William Langhorne, 32, Running.
6. (5), Daniel Wheldon (R), 32, Running.
7. (13), T.J. Bell (R), 32, Running.
8. (11), Mike Conte, 32, Running.
9. (16), Bob Perona, 32, Running.
10. (18), Stephen C. Roy (R), 31, Running.
11. (4), Andrew Bordin, 31, Running.
12. (21), Steve Lorenzen (R), 31, Running.
13. (22), David Cutler, 31, Running.
14. (17), Masaoki Nagashima, 31, Running.
15. (24), Bob Siska, 29, Running.
16. (23), Sergei Szortyka, 28, Running.
17. (15), Cemal Yelkin (R), 23, Running.
18. (1), Alex Gurney, 22, Mechanical.
19. (6), David Rutledge, 22, Contact.
20. (19), Ted Sahley, 21, Contact.
21. (20), Joey Scarallo (R), 21, Contact.
22. (25), DeWayne Cassel (R), 4, Mechanical.
23. (10), Akihiro Asai (R), 3, Contact.
24. (12), Pete Mercier (R), 2, Contact.
25. (14), Christophe Beauvais, 2, Mechanical.