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Target Grand Prix of Chicago
Qualifying
No race for Kane after big accident in qualifying
Jonny Kane Racing, 29th July, Chicago, IL: Team KOOL Green driver Jonny Kane walked away from an accident in qualifying today at the Chicago Motor Speedway. Unfortunately the damage to the car is so great that he will be unable to race in tomorrow's Target Grand Prix at the one-mile oval.
Kane hit the wall in turn four after acquiring some major over steer, which may have been caused by wind or track conditions. Jonny was taken to the medical centre for a routine check up. Mario Dominguez, who was next up to qualify, had an action replay of Kane's accident from his own cockpit, when he hit the wall at the same corner.
Chris Menninga qualified on pole with a time of 25.980 seconds followed by Casey Mears in second (26.066 seconds). Scott Dixon will line up third (26.102 seconds) with Team KOOL Green driver Jeff Simmons alongside in fourth (26.198 seconds). Championship leader, Jason Bright, will also miss tomorrow's race after an accident on Thursday at turn 4 in which he sustained some back injuries caused him to spend the night in hospital.
Kane is frustrated that he will be unable to race tomorrow and may also miss Wednesday's official test at Gateway, St. Louis for the race there in September. He said:
"The first timed lap I did wasn't particularly fast and the car felt fine. Having looked at the computer when I came back I was actually half a second quicker on the second lap and hadn't really carried that much more speed into turn four than the previous lap. If I had been able to finish that lap we could have been fourth or fifth on the grid, which would have been a good result for us.
"Other people seemed to have problems with over steer during qualifying. Jeff [Simmons] changed his car because of how mine handled and he still had over steer, otherwise he would have had a lot more and may not have qualified as well as he did.
"I am disappointed as the car had been reacting well up until then and it just came out of the blue. It is a bit surprising that the very next car out had exactly the same accident at exactly the same place so you would wonder if there might have been something on the track.
"Hopefully our run of bad luck is over for the season now and we can get on to some street courses and road courses where we know we are one of the quickest."
Team KOOL Green, 29th July, Chicago, IL: Team KOOL Green's Jeff Simmons will start from the second row after qualifying fourth today at Chicago Motor Speedway. Simmons held the provisional pole very briefly with a quick lap of 26.198 seconds and an average speed of 141.400 mph.
Simmons' teammate Jonny Kane was less fortunate hitting the wall in Turn 4 on his second qualifying lap. Kane walked away from the incident, but his car is beyond repair. With a spare car unavailable, he will not run tomorrow.
Chris Menninga earned the pole position for the 97-lap race with a time of 25.980 seconds (142.587 mph). Menninga will share the front row with Casey Mears, who he edged by 0.122 seconds. Mears' qualifying lap was 26.066 seconds (142.116 mph), while Scott Dixon will start third on the grid with a time of 26.102 seconds (141.920 mph).
Indy Lights warm-up begins at 9:45 a.m. Central Time, while the green flag for the race will fall at 12:15 p.m. CT. The broadcast will be on ESPN2 this Sunday (July 30th) at 6:00 p.m. ET.
JEFF SIMMONS, #26 Team KOOL Green Lola T97/20:
"The KOOL car felt really good at first. We thought we had the car to be on the pole, but then I started to pick up an understeer in Turns 1 & 2. I made an adjustment in the car and then I went to oversteer in Turns 3 & 4, so I went back on that change. I think we can blame the understeer on the wind because it became gusty right before we went out. With the crashes that happened, I didn't want to push it too hard and risk losing it. I got pretty sideways early in my run. I'm optimistic though that we should be able to race from the second row. Hopefully, we can make up a couple of spots on the start."
JONNY KANE, #27 Team KOOL Green Lola T97/20:
"We're not having a good run of luck at the moment. I'm not really sure what happened. We won't really know until we look at the computer data. I didn't think I was pushing it too hard. I saw the time on the first lap - not particularly good. I knew I had to go quicker than that, and I probably would have. But the rear end just stepped out on me. I corrected it some and thought I'd caught it. Obviously not enough as it came round again.
Friday free practice
Jonny Kane Racing, 28th July, Chicago, IL: Brit Jonny Kane is trying to play catch up at the Chicago Motor Speedway today, having missed the official test there earlier this season. He finished up 11th with a time of 26.939 seconds in today's free practice sessions, which were cut short by threatening thunderstorms and a long yellow after Jason Bright hit the wall in turn four.
Kane missed the official test with Team KOOL Green after an accident sustained at Milwaukee due to a wheel failure. During the test the teams switched from low down force, which was run last year to a high down force configuration. This means that Kane basically has to relearn the run of the track. Jonny will have another chance to run tomorrow morning in a 40-minute session before qualifying for Sunday's 100-mile race.
Scott Dixon headed the time sheets for today with a time of 26.184 seconds with Jonny's teammate, Jeff Simmons second with a time of 26.279 seconds. Tony Renna was third quickest on a 26.353 second lap and Chris Menninga was fourth (26.380 seconds).
JONNY KANE #27, TEAM KOOL GREEN (11TH Friday Free Practice):
"It would have been nice to have the test day here instead of sitting on the couch at home after Milwaukee. We had an hour's running today and we didn't even get all that. It is pretty difficult to pick up on a full test day in that short time, especially when the teams made such a big change. Jeff's running well, he feels comfortable with the car that he developed on the test day. It is totally new to me so I'm just trying to get used to it, but obviously we don't have that much time. We have forty minutes in the morning to change a few things and try to get the best out of it for qualifying tomorrow afternoon."
JEFF SIMMONS, #26 Team KOOL Green Lola T97/20: (2nd with a lap-time of 26.279 seconds at 141.476 mph)
"The KOOL car felt better balanced than this morning. We've been fighting understeer much of the time, but we were able to get most of that out. Early in that session we weren't going any quicker, but the car felt better. Eventually, we went four-tenths quicker than this morning. We're still a tenth behind (Scott) Dixon though, which is what we were in the first practice session this morning. If Dixon went to new tires though, I think we're looking pretty good because new tires are probably worth a couple of tenths."
Race preview
Jonny Kane Racing, 24th July: Indianapolis (July 24th, 2000) Team KOOL Green driver Jonny Kane will travel to Chicago, Illinois for this weekend's Indy Lights race at the Chicago Motor Speedway. This is a one-mile oval, which will see only its second season of racing.
The sixth round of the Dayton Indy Lights Championship will take place on Sunday as the featured support race to the CART FedEx Target Grand Prix presented by Energizer. The Target Grand Prix comes soon after last weekend's race at the Michigan Super Speedway. Kane had a disappointing day when after qualifying seventh due to fluctuating fuel pressure; he failed to finish the race after an incident with Chris Menninga.
One-mile ovals have proved somewhat elusive to the Team KOOL Green Indy Lights engineering crew as they strive to find the winning package. An official test at Chicago earlier this season with teammate Jeff Simmons proved very productive. Jonny was unable to test due to injuries sustained after the previous weekend's accident at Milwaukee caused by a wheel failure.
Kane qualified 8th for last year's race and finished 9th, but is confident that this year will be more successful for the KOOL Green team. Last year saw Kane turn round his misfortunate after the race at Michigan when he went on to become 1999 Rookie of the Year, so perhaps this could be the turning point again. The run for the Championship starts now.
JONNY KANE, #27 TEAM KOOL GREEN "Having had three non finishes so far this season our aim this weekend will be to score points. Last year one mile ovals were not our strong point but the crew are positive that they have found some things from the test, which should help us this year. I am looking forward to the race and will be as ever giving 100% towards the championship bid. It is by no means over."
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