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2006 CHAMP CARS         

ROUND 12: SEPT 24, 2006, ROAD AMERICA

DA MATTA UPDATE

• Cristiano da Matta Goes Home to Miami
• RuSPORT driver leaves hospital in Wisconsin; will continue rehabilitation at home
• ELKHART LAKE, Wisc., Sept. 23, 2006 Champ Car World Series driver Cristiano da Matta (#10 RuSPORT Ford-Cosworth / Lola / Bridgestone) has left Theda Clark Medical Center in Neenah, Wisc., yesterday, and was flown to his home in Miami to continue his rehabilitation process. Da Matta was injured after colliding with a deer that ran onto the track near Turn Six at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisc. during a Champ Car Open Test on August 3.
• Champ Car Medical Director Dr. Chris Pinderski traveled with da Matta and his family from Neenah to Miami, and was able to observe da Matta's condition throughout the trip.
• "We are pleased to announce that Cristiano da Matta went back to his home in Miami yesterday," said Pinderski. "His recovery so far has been nothing short of excellent and he's done so well that the remainder of his rehabilitation will take place on an outpatient basis. We are fortunate to have had excellent care provided at all levels for Cristiano including the Champ Car Safety Team, Theda Star Helicopter Service, Dr. Randall Johnson and all those involved with his care at Theda Clark Medical Center."
• Further updates on da Matta's condition will be issued by RuSPORT as they become available.
• After today's on-track activities are concluded at Road America, CARA and RuSPORT will host the CARA Cruise for Cristiano, a recreational bicycle riding event that will allow fans to take a lap around the track at Road America with some of their favorite Champ Car and Champ Car Atlantic Series drivers, such as Justin Wilson, Sebastien Bourdais, Bruno Junqueira, Nelson Philippe, Dan Clarke, Jan Heylen and Andreas Wirth, among others. Drivers participating in the CARA Cruise will also be available for autographs. The proceeds from both of these events will go to CARA Charities, to help support da Matta's recovery efforts. Registration for the event will be held all day on Saturday at the CARA Charities table in the infield of Road America, near the Champ Car Paddock. For more information on these events, please contact CARA Charities by phone at 317-299-2277, or by email at carachar@aol.com.
• Since da Matta's accident on August 3, RuSPORT and Champ Car have received many messages of support for da Matta. In response, RuSPORT also announced that, in lieu of sending flowers and gifts, anyone wishing to express their support for da Matta during his recovery is asked to please make a donation in his name to Hole in the Wall Camps, an official charity of the Champ Car World Series. Donation information can be found by visiting www.holeinthewallcamps.org, or by calling 203-562-1203.

RACE RESULT

RACE REPORT - FORSYTHE   (TOP OF PAGE)

• Allmendinger Wins at Road America
• Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin , September 24, 2006 , A.J. Allmendinger picked up his fifth win of the year today after holding off both Newman-Hass drivers in a two lap shootout for the Checkered Flag at the Champ Car Grand Prix of Road America. It was a whole team effort that sent Allmendinger to the front of the field from his fifth starting spot, combining brilliant pit strategy with brave on-track passes. Allmendinger keeps his Championship hopes alive by shortening his point deficit to 58 with two events remaining the 2006 Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford. After a great start Paul Tracy positioned himself in the top five but fell to the back off the pack after flatspotting a tire and going off into the sand trap. He now moves up to fourth place in the Championship standings, two points clear of fifth place.
• A.J. Allmendinger "This really just shows what the whole Forsythe Championship Racing team is made of. At the beginning of the race, we had nothing for Sebastien (Bourdais). I was barely trying to hang with Dan (Clarke). We kept making some changes, kept trying to play the tire strategy right, trying to figure out which tires were going to be better on my car, whether it was the reds or the blacks. I came up the front straightaway and saw P1 on my pit board and couldn't believe it. You know, the last two laps were probably the toughest that I've ever had in a Champ Car. Just to hold on against guys that I knew were a lot quicker than me. I tried to hit my marks. Fortunately we came away with it. It's still going to be tough to really come back and win the Championship. He's (Sebastien Bourdais) going to need some bad luck. Montreal killed us in respect to points. You know, you never know what's going to happen. If we can just go out there and try to win the last two races, at least try to beat him for the most wins during the season, you never know what's going to happen. If you win the race, you're going to get the most points. All you can ever do is worry about yourself. Everything else is going to take care of itself. If we come up short in the championship, finish second, it's still been a fantastic year no matter what, because after four races this year when I was like 80 points back and jobless! I didn't think I was actually going to be in contention for the championship."
• Paul Tracy "It's been pretty much a frustrating weekend all around. We had a bad qualifying session on Friday and had to start from the back. We never really rebounded from that. During the race we managed to pick up some positions in the pits and on the track, but then we flat spotted a tire and went off on Canada Corner and fell to the back again. We moved up to fourth in the points so at least we got something out of it; now we'll just have to make sure we stay there and hopefully pick up a race win before the season is over."

RACE REPORT - NEWMANN-HAAS   (TOP OF PAGE)

• HOLE IN THE WALL CAMPS DRIVER JUNQUEIRA FINISHED SECOND IN THE CHAMP CAR GRAND PRIX OF ROAD AMERICA AFTER LEADING 12 LAPS; McDONALD'S DRIVER BOURDAIS FINISHED THIRD AFTER HAVING TWO 12-PLUS SECOND LEADS
• - Hole in the Wall Camps driver Bruno Junqueira rebounded from a Lap 1 incident that put him in the back of the field to lead 12 laps in the 51-lap Champ Car Grand Prix of Road America and finish second to A.J. Allmendinger and move from eight place in the series rank to sixth, only five out of fourth place. The event was red flagged in the closing laps of the race for 42 minutes to clear the debris from a violent crash when Kathryn Legge's car experienced a rear wing failure. Fortunately she received only bruises from the experience. Wet conditions Friday and Saturday limited Junqueira's qualifying effort to tenth place despite being fast in the dry sessions. Junqueira was optimistic after setting the fastest lap in the pre-race warm-up today. At the start of the event under sunny, clear conditions, Junqueira gained a few positions on the front straight before being hit by rookie Will Power in Turn 1. He was stopped in the middle of the track but was quickly restarted by the Safety Team and traveled around the 4.048-mile road course before entering the pits to replace the damaged right sidepod and was able to return to the track on the same lap despite the lengthy stop due to the length of the course and the full course caution. When the race resumed on Lap 3 he was in 16th place but quickly moved up to 11th place by Lap 6 without using any of the 75 seconds of Push to Pass. As the field cycled through their first of three pit stops on Lap 15 he moved into second place before making his second stop, and first for fuel on Lap 16 and retuned to the race in ninth place. Once back on track he immediately reported a vibrating problem but was unable to pit for new tires without losing the ground he had regained. He continued until the second fuel window opened and he came in for his second stop on Lap 25, which was earlier than planned, so that the tires could be replaced. Once the stop was completed a large flat spot was found on his right front tire which explained the vibration. He was in 13th place but moved into 10th on the following lap and into the lead on Lap 28 when the field pitted during the caution for rookie Juan Caceres, who was making his first Champ Car start and went off course. He led Laps 29-40 while holding the lead for three restarted from caution and had built a lead of 5.5 seconds before he was quickly called into the pits for his final stop on Lap 40 as the team anticipated a caution period for Nelson Philippe, who had just returned to the track from a pit stop without one of his tires being properly attached. Junqueira was temporarily held up by Philippe but was able to safely get around him. Allmendinger, who had started fifth pitted one lap later than Junqueira and was able to get back on track ahead of him in fifth place while Junqueira was sixth. On Lap 44 race leader Bourdais pit and got back on track in front of Allmendinger but the American took advantage of the cold tires Bourdais was on and passed him as did Junqueira who was now in second place after the field cycled through their pits. On Lap 46 a caution flag came out for Legge's accident and was subsequently replaced by the red flag. Engines were restarted 42 minutes later and the field took one warm-up lap before the green flag was thrown. Race leader Allmendinger had no Push to Pass left while Junqueira had 23 seconds. Due to understeer when he closed on Allmendinger he was unable to get close enough to attempt a pass despite using the Push to Pass and he finished in second place. He earned 27 points for his finish and one for leading the race to bring his total to 177 and move from eight to sixth place in the standings, only five out of fourth place. It was his fourth podium finish in five races at Road America.
• Following are his post race comments: "It was very entertaining race for me," said Junqueira. "I made a very good start from 10th. I was already behind A.J. I don't know which position, but maybe eighth or seventh. Someone hit me on the exit of turn one and I spun. Then Andrew Ranger hit me big time when I was spun, and hit me sideways. I was lucky it didn't damage much of the car. A little bit of the under wing at the side pod, between the side pods was damaged. I started from last and I was passing guys and I think I went up to eighth. I think I passed seven or eight guys on the track, not using the 'push to pass', trying to save it. I decide to give a different strategy on the second stop, to stop really early. I said from here we can finish fifth, but to have such a great car, let's gamble a little bit. Even so, we stopped earlier than anybody. I knew I couldn't get clear track and run fast so we did that. Luckily the yellow came out, put me in the lead; I couldn't believe it. Then when I took the lead, my car was so good. I said 'Great, I think it's my day, my lucky day.' I opened a gap on the three restarts on Nelson. They were very good gaps of five or six seconds ahead. I was not pushing as much; the car was just perfect. Then there was a guy, I think Nelson Philippe, that lost a wheel. Then they called me in earlier because they thought a yellow was going to come out. When I came out of the Canada corner, going to the bridge, I see Nelson in the middle of the track trying to survive. Then I had to slow down, brake, put it in second gear. Maybe I lost four, five seconds on that and that was the in-lap.
• "Because of that, I lost a lot of time. For sure that gave the opportunity to A.J. to pass me in the pits and do one extra lap. Then I knew that I had more 'push to pass', but my car started to have so much understeer, I don't know if it's something on the undertray that broke because the car was good before but it became really bad after the last stop. I think something broke big time there because it was bad, especially on the high-speed corners. I just tried the 'push to pass' on A.J. but I wasn't close enough to pass him so I finished second. I'm quite happy with the result, especially after what happened in Turn 1 on the first lap. But after leading, at one moment I thought I was going to win again at Road America, but it didn't happen. Anyway, it was a great day today. I'm very happy that Katherine didn't get hurt because when I looked, the car was pretty nasty. That's a very fast corner, so I'm pretty happy with that. I'm pretty happy that Cristiano had a chance a couple of days ago to go back to Miami. That's the most important thing. And I'm very, very happy that after not racing here in 2005, to race here in Road America again. It's my favorite track. I love to race here, so I'm very happy with that.
• "I think I had like six or seven races I was taken out in the first lap. That's more than my whole time here in racing. Seriously, I'm usually a guy that gets through no problem. I don't know what's happening. In the warm-up, my car was so good. I was very confident. I said the only guy that can match my speed is Sebastien. We were like a second and a half clear of the field. At least a second. I said I can get through the field today and I can get a great result. Even when I went last after the stop, I said to myself, I'm going to pass people, I'm going to get through the field. For sure it is really hard because I had the run on everybody, and everybody was using the 'push to pass'. I didn't want to burn it passing the slower guys too early in the race. So I had to pass people like bonsai moves. I had so much nice passes on people early on. But I think the big thing was to take a big gamble in the second stop, stopping early, getting lucky. I think in the end I need to get lucky a little bit, you know. I mean, not unlucky. But A.J. got even more lucky in the end."
• - McDonald's driver Sebastien Bourdais led a race-high 28 laps, set the fastest race lap and held leads of 15 and 12 seconds over second place in the 51-lap Champ Car Grand Prix of Road America but was limited to a third place finish which postponed the outcome of the Championship fight to the next race in Australia as A.J. Allmendinger earned his fifth win of the season and staved off the outcome. Wet conditions Friday limited Bourdais' qualifying effort to fifth place on Friday despite being fastest by a sizeable gap in the dry session on Friday and again on Saturday. Rain fell again during final qualifying but Bourdais was able to run a quick lap before the rain picked up and the time stood as the fastest of the session which guaranteed him a front row start of second place. Under clear skies on race day Bruno Junqueira and Bourdais were quickest, respectively, in the pre-race warm up and were optimistic for the race. At the start Bourdais fell back to third behind rookie Charles Zwolsman took over the lead when the green flag waved on Lap Four after a caution for Will Power who made contact with Junqueira. He first passed polesitter Dan Clarke who was in second then race leader Zwolsman. Once in front, Bourdais built a 15-second lead even after the first cycle of green-flag pit stops. That lead was erased on Lap 18 when Power went off course again in Turn One, enabling Allmendinger to close on Bourdais. Once the race restarted, Bourdais built a five-second lead in the next two laps and extending it to 12 seconds in five more. That lead evaporated when first time Champ Car starter Juan Caceres brought out the caution flag when he landed in the gravel trap on Lap 27. Bourdais made his second stop and took on a full load of fuel and was beat back on track by Wilson and Allmendinger who most likely short filled. He was in fifth place behind the two title contenders while Junqueira lead Nelson Philippe through two restarts. Once Philippe pitted, Bourdais moved into fourth place but Philippe was in jeopardy of losing one of his wheels that was not properly attached and the front runners jumped into the pits anticipating a caution and Bourdais reclaimed the lead. The final lap before pitting is always a crucial one as a driver can set a quick lap time with a low fuel load and hot tires but Bourdais lost valuable ground while being held up behind the lapped car of Caceres. The situation was already tight for Bourdais to make his stop and get back on track in front of Allmendinger, which he was able to do so but was passed in the Turn 4 due to being on cold tires compared to Allmendinger's who had three laps on them. Junqueira was also able to pass Bourdais, and dropped him to third place. On Lap 46 a caution flag came out for a frightening accident by Katherine Legge, whose rear wing failed and was fortunately only bruised. The series threw the red flag so that the large debris area could be cleared and a two lap shootout could be held. Engines were restarted 42 minutes later and the field took one warm-up lap before the green flag was thrown. Bourdais trailed second place Junqueira and neither were able to challenge Allmendinger who won the event. Bourdais earned 25 points for third place, one for leading and one for setting the fastest lap of the race for a season total of 338 with two races left in the championship.
• Following are his post race comments: "It was just about the most frustrating day for the McDonald's team," said Bourdais. "When you have that dominant a car, it just seems unreal that you can actually lose it. It just shows how uncertain these races are when the yellows come at the wrong time, you catch a (backmarker) at the wrong time. That's that. I was really upset because losing three full seconds on the in-lap to a guy that's running around five seconds off the pace is not acceptable at that level of racing. It still happens. That lost us the race. I am just very unhappy with the situation. In the meantime, you know, we were looking forward to go racing and show everything we had. We did that the whole time. Just a wrong timing prevented us to win that race. Right now we're not really thinking about the championship because from there on, as long as we take the start of the race, even if it goes bad, it's still pretty much wrapped up. We'll have to delay a little bit the happiness.
• "Right now I guess I'm going to have help people understand why I'm not smiling, I guess. We lost the race on the inlap, period. When I exited the pits, A.J. was coming right there, and Bruno wasn't very far off. On cold tires, cold day like that, there's just no chance. You exit the pits, you don't stand the chance if you don't have three seconds' advantage over the guy by turn five, you're done. That's pretty much what happened."

RACE REPORT - RUSPORT   (TOP OF PAGE)

• Justin Wilson Takes Fifth at Road America
• RuSPORT driver battles a competitive field on an incident-filled day in Elkhart Lake
• ELKHART LAKE, Wisc., Sept. 24, 2006 -- An afternoon filled with yellow flags, spins and crashes saw Justin Wilson (#9 CDW / RuSPORT Ford-Cosworth / Lola / Bridgestone) take fifth place in the Champ Car Grand Prix of Road America. The result earned Wilson his ninth finish in the top five of the 2006 Champ Car season, and leaves Justin in third place in the Champ Car Driver's Championship.
• The race was temporarily halted on lap 46 because a serious crash in Turn 10 involving Katherine Legge of PKV Racing. The red flag flew for approximately 40 minutes while the Champ Car Safety Team worked to ensure Legge's wellbeing and to clean debris from the course. Legge was eventually released from the Champ Car Medical Unit and the race was restarted.
• "Today was disappointing, because the CDW team worked so hard throughout the weekend," said Wilson. "The crew did a great job with all of our pit stops, particularly the first one, where we wound up exiting the pits ahead of Sebastien and A.J. The car was good during the first half of the race, but not quite as good in the second half. This is a very fast and very competitive track, and if things aren't perfect, it can turn into a long day. I'm very happy that Katherine turned out to be all right after her crash, which was a scary moment on an eventful day. As for the race result, we're disappointed, but we'll get back to work as soon as possible to get ready for the race in Australia."
• "First and foremost, everyone at RuSPORT is very pleased to see Katherine walk away from the devastating accident she had today," said Jeremy Dale, president of RuSPORT. "I think it's a testament to the safety of these Champ Cars and the safety regulations that Champ Car has created. It was an interesting day for us...there were times today when we had a competitive car, and there were other times today when we had a less competitive car. My hat goes off to the entire CDW crew today. Their first pit stop was just incredible, and we were able to jump right over Sebastien and A.J. The crew did a great job. Fifth place is definitely a disappointment for us today, and I think it might be a result of losing a day of testing here at Road America in August...not for lack of effort by Justin or the team. But, off we go to Australia, where we'll try for a better result."

DAN CLARKE RACE REPORT

• DAN CLARKE STARTS FROM POLE AND EARNS SIXTH PLACE FINISH AT ROAD AMERICA CHAMP CARS RACE
• 24 September 2006…/British Champ Car driver, Dan Clarke, took sixth place in the Champ Car World Series race at Road America, Wisconsin today, starting from pole position for the 11th round of the championship. The young driver narrowed the gap in the Rookie of the Year standings and now lies only eight points behind the leader in the chase for this title. He also moved up to ninth in the overall drivers championship.
• Clarke said at the end of the race, “Grabbing pole was a high point this weekend and it definitely helps to start at the front of the pack, but the way that the race played out, it was one of strategies and yellows. We were able to be fairly speedy, and could stay with the Series front-runners, but the way that the yellows played out didn’t really help us. I think our result today just demonstrates the sheer competitiveness of Champ Cars, there’s so many elements to it: pitstops, fuel strategies, tyre choice, power to pass button, and timings of the yellows, all of which contribute to your race. We always race to win and we didn’t get that today, but we did have a strong race and we’ll take the confidence of this performance level on to Oz.”
• Clarke returned to the track at Road America after a three week break, displaying the level of form that he has been showing throughout the season. In the first practice session he was fifth fastest, and then translated this into a provisional qualifying top of the charts performance. In changing weather conditions, the young Brit was one of only two drivers opting to run on slick tyres on a damp track and this brave decision turned out to be the right one. Clarke’s provisional pole winning lap time was over four-tenths of a second quicker than the second placed driver.
• It was a nail biting final qualifying session for Clarke yesterday, with rain dominating the day. At the start of qualifying light rain fell and many of the field opted to try and improve on their Friday times. Clarke played a waiting game, watching the lap times to check that they weren’t near his, but ready to jump into his CTE HVM Racing Champ Car if the heat came on him. An increasingly wet track gave Clarke the luxury of not having to defend his pole time and at the end of final qualifying he was able to celebrate his first Champ Car career pole.
• Leading the field off pitlane in dry, sunny weather, in contrast to the gloomy conditions earlier in the weekend, Clarke led the pace laps until the green flag for the start of the race. He defended his pole position into the first corner and maintained this through the lap, until the safety car was deployed for an incident further down the field. In the second restart championship leader, Sebastian Bourdais, had the jump on Clarke, but with over 50 laps ahead and the prospect of further yellow periods, the British driver showed his maturity in handling running in the lead pack.
• The long race was one of strategy with some teams opting to use caution periods for refuelling, others short filling at fuel stops, and others keeping to planned pit windows. With these variants, by the closing stages of the race Clarke was lying in sixth place, a position he maintained at the chequered flag.
• The penultimate round of the Champ Car World Series takes place in four weeks time ‘down under’ when the teams travel to the southern hemisphere for the Indy 300 at Surfers Paradise, Gold Coast, Australia.

QUALIFYING

QUALIFYING REPORT - NEWMAN-HAAS RACING    (TOP OF PAGE)

• McDONALD'S DRIVER BOURDAIS GAINED POINT FOR SETTING FASTEST TIME IN WET FINAL QUALIFYING FOR THE CHAMP CAR GRAND PRIX OF ROAD AMERICA AND WILL START SECOND; HOLE IN THE WALL CAMPS DRIVER JUNQUEIRA 10TH
• OVERALL: Although the lap times were much slower today due to intermittent sprinkles that alternated with light rain during final qualifying, Bourdais jumped from his fifth place rank from Friday's session to a second place start because he set the fastest time in today's session and thus earned a guaranteed front row start. Based on weather data, the team expected the conditions to improve but instead the rain began to increase. Bourdais went out early in the session to gauge the conditions and set the lap time that would stand as the fastest of the day while Junqueira and company waited for the expected improvement that, unfortunately, never materialized enough to lessen the water on the track.
• Sebastien Bourdais, No. 1 McDonald's Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone: "It is a shame the weather was the way it was because the McDonald's car was awesome in the dry but these conditions were really nerve-wracking. The whole team was just monitoring radar and everything to see when it was going to be optimal to run. It was extremely unclear. We elected to go right off with the used tires that we had yesterday. We could only afford to use one set of new tires, rain tires, otherwise if tomorrow it's raining we're going to run out. It was a little complicated. We just happened to be on the track at the right time. It was a pretty quick lap, which ended up being good enough. That was quite a hell of a session. I'm just glad it turned out this way because yesterday was pretty frustrating. We had probably the fastest car in the morning session (yesterday). It was wet. We were fairly happy. We parked it. Then it dried all the way. Just hats off to these guys (Clarke and Charles Zwolsman on Friday). They decided it was going to be good enough on dries. I didn't really think it was going to be. On the last lap they got us.
• "We don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. It surely feels good to start from the first row. The (championship) point is also very important. We'll see how it shakes out tomorrow. The truth is we're really going to try and win the race, see where our opponents are going to end up. If we get our job done, we'll need a little bit of help from whatever happens, wherever the other guys are finishing. We're going to need to be a little lucky tomorrow. We start in a better starting position than they do. Hopefully it plays well for us."
• Bruno Junqueira, No. 2 Hole in the Wall Camps Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone: "We felt the track was much wetter than yesterday so we didn't run. It's a shame because Sebastien and I were P1 and two this morning. Maybe we could have fought to set the fastest time in the session and guarantee a front row but Sebastien set his time early when the track was dryer. We watched the forecast and waited a little bit for it to get dryer but it never did. It will be tough to start in tenth place but we will try to make the most of every situation and get to the front."

QUALIFYING REPORT - FORSYTHE RACING    (TOP OF PAGE)

• No Improvement for Forsythe Team During Final Qualifying
• Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, September 23, 2006 For the second day in a row, qualifying for the Champ Car Grand Prix of Road America took place under damp conditions at the historic American road course. A.J. Allmendinger and Paul Tracy tried to improve their lap times from provisional qualifying on Friday but the track was too wet and the Forsythe Duo did not manage to move up on the charts and will start fifth and eleventh. It was an unusual qualifying result for the Forsythe Team; this will be Allmendinger's first start outside the Top 4 and Tracy's first start outside the top 10 for the 2006 Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford.
• A.J. Allmendinger "Obviously we wanted to be higher up on the grid for tomorrow's race, but we've just gotten caught out by the conditions all weekend. This morning during practice it was dry and we managed to do a pretty decent time, we were still pretty far from Sebastien but it wasn't bad. But for wet conditions we still have a lot of work to do as a team, the car is just sliding all over the place, once it starts sliding it doesn't stop and it just throws you off line. Hopefully tomorrow it will be dry; the Forsythe Team always gives me great race cars so I'm confident that we can fight for another win."
• Paul Tracy "Well, we tried to go faster than yesterday but it was just too wet. We made a mistake yesterday during qualifying and we are paying dearly for it now. I'm starting pretty far back but I know my car is better than that so I'll just have to fight my way through the field. It's a long race and this track is great for passing; you can overtake if you are faster than the guy in front of you so we should be ok."

QUALIFYING REPORT - JUSTIN WILSON    (TOP OF PAGE)

• Justin qualifies 6th for Grand Prix of Road America
• After a dry practice session on Saturday morning the rain returned to Road America, affecting qualifying for the second day in a row. However, unlike first qualifying, the track never dried out and lap times were about ten seconds off Friday's pace.
• Justin was 2nd fastest in the session with a lap of 2.06.994s, but Sebastien Bourdais' quicker lap of 2.06.460s guaranteed him a front row slot for Sunday alongside polesitter Dan Clarke (CTE-HVM). With the rest of the grid determined by Friday's faster qualifying times, Justin will start from 6th alongside Forsythe driver and former team-mate A.J. Allmendinger. The two are currently tied on points for 2nd in the driver championship.
• "The track was tricky today", commented Justin. "During the first stint we had a little bit of oversteer. We fixed it for the second stint, but unfortunately by then the track was a lot slower. That's how it is in wet conditions - it's a bit of a lottery. But if the track is dry for the race, I like our chances. The car is pretty good and it's fairly well balanced. The CDW team and I are looking forward to a good race tomorrow."

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