|
Fogarty
enjoys the spoils of his maiden voyage win
Photo
Credit: Toyota Atlantic |
MONTERREY, Mexico (March 9, 2002) – Jon Fogarty (Dorricott
Racing/Thomas Fogarty Winery & Vineyards Swift 014.a) earned
his first career CART Toyota Atlantic Championship victory on
a rain soaked track today in Monterrey, Mexico. Fogarty seized
the lead on the sixth lap from his teammate, Luis Diaz
(Dorricott Racing/Telmex Swift 014.a) of Mexico, and held off
a late charge from Scotland’s Ryan Dalziel (Michael Shank
Racing Swift 008.a) to win by 0.884 seconds.
It was the first Atlantic race for Fogarty and the 2001 CART
Dayton Indy Lights Championship team, Dorricott Racing.
Although both Fogarty and Diaz, along with Dorricott Racing
are new to the Atlantic Championship this year, they had
experience on the 2.1-mile Fundidora Park track which they
raced on last year while competing in the Indy Lights
Championship. They made use of the experience all weekend long
as Diaz won the $1000 Toyota Pole Award earlier in the day and
Fogarty cashed in this afternoon.
“I enjoyed the wetness,” said Dorricott’s Fogarty. “It’s kind
of an improvisational game in wet weather with looking for
grip and adapting to changing conditions. You have to get a
feel for what is going on. You have to be able to read if
you’re getting a good drive coming out of the corners. You’re
racing more by feel than anything else at times. The track was
constantly changing through the race. Early it was slippery
everywhere. Once it began to dry, certain portions were better
than others. Certain corners were good. Certain corners were
bad. You had to be careful with each lap to see where the
drive line was and avoid losing a quick pace. I don’t like the
big curves they installed. If you hit them, it’s bad news. In
passing Luis and getting to the front, it was fairly straight
forward. I was along side of him before we even hit the brake
zone. He didn’t give me any trouble so I was able to pass him
cleanly.”
“I don’t have much experience in the rain,” said pole sitter,
Luis Diaz. “I was trying to keep the car on a good line on the
track and avoid mistakes. I couldn’t fight Jon off. His moves
were good. Then I misread some moves and he was able to slip
past. Other drivers followed. I worked on keeping my position
and finish the race. It worked out that I was able to move up
and recapture a few more points. I am looking ahead to Long
Beach to make up more points.”
The start of the race was delayed for almost an hour due to
heavy rain showers that soaked the track shortly before the
scheduled 3:10 p.m. start time. After a wild first lap that
saw Ryan Hunter-Reay (Hylton Motorsports/Medlock Ames Winery
Swift 014.a) and Joey Hand (DSTP Motorsports/BG Products Swift
014.a) make contact that damaged Hunter-Reay enough to retire
from the event, the race settled down and stayed under the
green flag for remainder of the show.
Scotland’s Ryan Dalziel (Michael Shank Racing Swift 008.a),
who started the race from the tenth position, moved up through
the field taking over second place from Alex Gurney (Dorricott
Racing/Behr Castrol Swift 014.a) on the 15th lap in turn 6.
Dalziel was 7.397 seconds behind Fogarty but whittled away at
the lead and had closed it to 1.581 seconds by the time they
took the white flag. Dalziel caught Fogarty midway through the
final lap, but ran out of time to mount an attempt to take
over the lead from Fogarty.
“The rain didn’t bother me so much,” said Dalziel. “It rains
every day in Scotland, so maybe I had an advantage. Mike
(Shank) gave me a car that was very good.”
After spinning early in the race, Joey Hand also worked his
way up through the field before making hard contact with Alex
Gurney on lap 20. The damage to the rear wing of Gurney’s car
was severe enough to force him out of the race. Hand continued
on with damage to the front left wing, but continued to close
in on the top two throughout the remaining laps. Hand finished
the race in third followed by Michael Valiante (Lynx Racing
Swift 014.a) and Luis Diaz.
“DSTP gave me a great race car for the rain, just like in
Cleveland last year,” said Hand. “In fact, we had the fastest
car for most of the race. I had a run on Gurney out of the
turn three/four chicane. He moved outside and I couldn’t stop
and I hit him and went into the air. It bent the front wing
and slowed me down through the long fast turns. Otherwise the
car was still good.”
"I had touched the wall a little at the start of lap 20 coming
onto the front straight-away,” said Gurney on the events that
led up to the incident with Hand. “The car got a little bit
loose and touched the wall with my right rear, and then my
right front. I was slow through the next set of corners.
Coming up to the hairpin, I protected the inside line. When it
was time to hit the brakes I lined up on the right, set up for
the corner and Joey Hand hit me hard in the back. He knocked a
wing aside and that ended my race. I was hoping to hold on to
third place. Congratulations to Jon. He ran a great race. It
was a bad race for me so I’ll look to get something back at
Long Beach."
Alex Figge, who started and finished the race in eleventh
place, set the fastest race lap on his 21st tour of the wet
Fundidora Park track with a time 1:38.898 seconds (76.588
mph). “This was my first time in the rain. I went off in the
grass a couple times. For the first ten laps there was no
visibility. I’m just happy to be here.”
The CART Toyota Atlantic Championship will take a month break
before beginning Round 2 at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long
Beach on April 14, 2002.
|
|
NO
|
DRIVER
|
Status
|
|
1
|
32
|
Fogarty (R),Jon
|
0.000
|
|
2
|
28
|
Dalziel (R),Ryan
|
0.884
|
|
3
|
27
|
Hand,Joey
|
4.072
|
|
4
|
19
|
Valiante,Michael
|
25.842
|
|
5
|
33
|
Diaz (R),Luis
|
37.526
|
|
6
|
4
|
Moran Jr.,Rocky
|
39.196
|
|
7
|
11
|
Lavin,Rodolfo
|
42.070
|
|
8
|
31
|
Macri,Jonathan
|
42.614
|
|
9
|
22
|
Higgins
(R),Derek
|
43.079
|
|
10
|
88
|
Coronas (R),Waldemar
|
55.310
|
|
11
|
14
|
Figge
(R),Alex
|
61.951
|
|
12
|
23
|
Ryley,Grant
|
90.414
|
|
13
|
5
|
Koster (R),Sepp
|
93.192
|
|
14
|
7
|
Oliveras
(R),Hugo
|
1LAP
|
|
15
|
30
|
Martinez,David
|
1LAP
|
|
16
|
3
|
Wieringa (R),David
|
1LAP
|
|
17
|
81
|
Russo
(R),Carl
|
1LAP
|
|
18
|
6
|
Dancs,Frank
|
2LAPS
|
|
19
|
8
|
Garcia (R),Alex
|
2LAPS
|
|
20
|
26
|
Cutler,Dave
|
2LAPS
|
|
21
|
86
|
Figueroa (R),Eduardo
|
3LAPS
|
|
22
|
34
|
Gurney,Alex
|
12LAPS
|
|
23
|
1
|
Hunter-Reay (R),Ryan
|
32LAPS
|
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Martin Basso
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