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GRAND AMERICAN ROAD RACING ASSOCIATION |
02/07/2004 |
Stewart Qualifies Sixth |
Duno’s Car Develops Engine Trouble |
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Stewart Qualifies Sixth, Duno’s Car Develops Engine Trouble
CITGO Racing’s two-car effort for the Paul Revere 250 at Daytona International Speedway June 30-July 1, 2004 will start the race in 6th and 18th overall on the starting grid - the No.2 CITGO-branded Pontiac Crawford Daytona Prototype driven by Milka Duno and Jan Lammers will start 18th, and the No.20 CITGO-branded Pontiac Crawford Daytona Prototype driven by Andy Wallace and Tony Stewart will start 6th.
Milka and Jan will start 18th because the team needed to replace the engine after qualifying. The engine was not performing at top capacity and wisely needed to be changed out for the sprint race.
Grand American rules state that if an engine change occurs after qualifying, the car will be placed on the grid at the back of the car’s category. As there are a total of 18 Daytona Prototypes entered for the Paul Revere 250 the No.2 CITGO-branded Pontiac Crawford Daytona Prototype will now start the race in the 18th position.
The No.2 CITGO-branded Pontiac Crawford Daytona Prototype, Milka and Jan’s car, showed excellent times in the first practice session, but toward the end of the session developed an engine problem causing the car to lose 8-10mph from the top speed.
“Without this handicap Milka would most certainly have placed the car in the top-ten on the grid,” said team owner Rick Howard.
The first of two days of race activity contained the only three practice sessions leading to the race, as well as the qualifying session. Unlike other races on the schedule, there is no other race activity on race day except the race.
In Wednesday’s first practice session both Milka and Jan had turns behind the wheel and together they generated very respectable lap times, placing them 4th overall with a fast-lap time of 1:50.542 with a top speed of 116.938 mph. The second practice session was run in-total with the handicap and therefore took the car from 4th to 9th overall.
Andy and Tony in the No.20 CITGO-branded Pontiac Crawford Daytona Prototype recorded the fastest lap overall in the first practice session, held steady at 5th overall in the second session and brought it back up to 2nd overall in the final practice at night. Tony was given qualifying duties and placed the car 6th overall for the start of Thursday night’s race.
“While I’m disappointed with our starting place on the grid, I’m very happy that we were able to complete all three practice sessions and score valuable track time,” said Milka. “This team is top-notch and they will be able to change out the engine tomorrow morning with no problems. We were still able to work on our set-up which isn’t affected at all by the engine change. So with the new engine tomorrow, combined with our track time for set-up today, I think we’ll start the race in good order.”
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