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Miller Lite 225 Milwaukee Mile
Follow up comments
Jonny Kane Racing Press Release, 6th June 2000: Team KOOL Green driver Jonny Kane had a lucky escape yesterday at Milwaukee when his Lola Buick crashed at over 150 mph causing extensive damage to the car and a trip to the medical center for Kane.
Jonny had been having problems during the race with under steer and was trying to stay low through turn 4 looking for grip when the right rear wheel failed on the Team KOOL Green Lola. Team KOOL Green's Indy Lights Chief Engineer confirmed that the cause of the accident was the failure of the right rear wheel due to metal fatigue.
Team KOOL Green frequently checks all components of these highly technical cars for metal fatigue using crack testing techniques. Jonny's car had been recently tested and there had been no problems with any of the wheels at that time.
TEAM KOOL GREENS INDY LIGHTS CHIEF ENGINEER, EDDIE JONES:
"This was a big accident and Jonny was lucky to have only minor injuries. We are meticulous at Team Green and very safety conscious and we will be looking into the matter in more detail when we return to Indianapolis."
Kane escaped with relatively minor injuries considering the sizable crash in which the car's safety tub did its job in protecting the driver. Jonny is now back in Indianapolis resting up a badly bruised and swollen ankle which was sustained in the crash. Jonny is attending CART medical doctor Terry Trammell to optimize recovery before the third round of the Dayton Indy Lights Championship at Detroit, June 18th.
TEAM KOOL GREEN DRIVER JONNY KANE:
"It is never nice to have an accident as big as that but it's good to know that it wasn't driver error and that it was caused by something totally out of my control. We have two good tracks coming up for us and hopefully we will be able to close on the leaders in the championship. I'm sure I will recover in time to go well at the up and coming road courses of Detroit and Portland."
Race
Jonny Kane Racing Press Release, 5th June 2000:
Kane crashes out at Milwaukee
Team KOOL Green's Jeff Simmons started and finished seventh in today's 100-lap race, while his teammate walked away from a hard crash after 77 laps. Kane, who started ninth, was running in 10th position when the right rear wheel failed going into Turn 4. When the yellow waved for Kane's incident, Simmons passed two cars and received a stop-and-go penalty.
Scott Dixon, meanwhile, earned the victory from the pole for the second time in his Indy Lights career. Dixon, the runner-up to Kane as last year's Rookie of the Year, crossed the finish line 8.048 seconds ahead of rookie Jason Bright with Mario Dominguez third.
"On the start, everything got bottled up and I wasn't able to make any places," Jonny said. "I was running behind Jeff for a while and I was able to get close to him but then the car would understeer. In traffic, I just couldn't get a proper run on anybody. I was just trying to hang on for a finish.
"I found that if I got lower down into the corners the car would pick up more grip. I thought I went went too low, putting my front left wheel on the curb and that upset the car enough to put me into the wall. My guys tell me though that it was a mechanical failure."
Team-mate Jeff Simmons said:
"When we started off the car had a really bad understeer. A few guys passed me early because I was struggling to keep control and they went around the outside. I turned the weight-jacker as far as I could to take out the understeer and it really didn't help until late in the race. When the fuel burned off the KOOL car was getting better, but everybody's car was getting better then.
"I had to make the stop-and-go because of Jonny's yellow. I didn't know where it was and I kept going until I heard it was in Turn 4. By that time, I was in the middle of Turn 3 and I passed a couple of guys on the outside. I let them back by, but the steward called me in anyway. That was pretty much the race."
Qualifying
Team
KOOL Green Press Release: WEST ALLIS, WIS., (3rd June 2000) - Team
KOOL Green's Jeff Simmons and Jonny Kane will start respectively from
the fourth and fifth rows in tomorrow's 100-lap Indy Lights race. Simmons
qualified for the seventh position on the grid with a time of 24.282 seconds
(153.002 mph), while Kane will start ninth after a lap of 24.550s (151.332
mph).
Scott Dixon, meanwhile, earned his second career Indy Lights pole with a time of 23.975 seconds around the mile-oval. Rookie driver Jason Bright will line up next to Dixon on the front row with a qualifying time of 24.058s (154.417 mph). Casey Mears will start third with a time of 24.085s (154.254 mph).
Tomorrow's race will begin at 12:30 p.m. Central Time following a warm-up at 9:45 a.m.
Jonny Kane Racing Press Release, 3rd June 2000: The Team KOOL Green cars had struggled with grip in earlier practice sessions and the #27 crew were forced to qualify with a car they knew was only capable of a top ten qualifying position.
Jonny's team-mate, American, Jeff Simmons had ventured a different route in the morning practice and found some extra time, hence Kane will try these changes in Sunday's pre-race warm up in the hope to find a competitive set up for the race. Jonny commented:
"We qualified pretty much where we thought we would. Ninth on the grid is where I expected to be so I'm not too disappointed. As far as tomorrow's race is concerned; Jeff had a better car this morning and I think we'll go to his settings for tomorrow's warm up. We couldn't try it for qualifying today with only 5 laps to run, but we have warm up in the morning and we probably have enough time to do 25 laps and hopefully get a chance to work with it."
"I think it will be hard to pass in the race as everyone is in high down force. The thing is to stay close enough to people in the corner so you can get a tow down the straight. I've been in traffic a little and the car tends to move around when air is taken off it, but we picked off a few people here last year so hopefully we can do the same tomorrow."
EDDIE JONES, Team KOOL Green Indy Lights Chief Engineer, added:
"Jeff worked on quite a different set up yesterday which proved quick and competitive this morning. We had to go back to our known set up for qualifying and it is about half a second away so we are going entirely to Jeff's set up for tomorrow. Hopefully we'll be able to tune it in the morning warm up so that it is a good racecar and we can pick off some spots during the race."
Friday Practice
Team KOOL Green Press Release: WEST ALLIS, WIS., (2nd June 2000) - Chris Meninga was fastest after two practice sessions in Indy Lights today, clocking a time of 24.033 seconds (154.587 mph) to edge out Scott Dixon by 0.020 seconds. Dixon's best lap was 24.053 seconds (154.459 mph), while Jason Bright was third with a time of 24.068 seconds (154.363 mph). Team KOOL Green's Jonny Kane and Jeff Simmons struggled with the setup of their cars. Simmons turned a lap of 24.708 seconds (150.364 mph) to rank eighth, while Kane was 10th with a time of 24.805 seconds (149.776 mph).
Jonny commented:
"There's something lacking mechanically in the car that doesn't allow us to push it as deep into the corners as we'd like. The guys running laps in the low 24s are flat all the way around and I just can't even attempt that at the moment.
"I'm a little lost as to what's left for us to try. We tried a completely different setup on the KOOL car that last practice session and it was a lot worse. Everybody has gone to a high-downforce setup, which nobody tested in a couple of weeks ago. We were one of the quicker teams in the test without the high downforce, but we just tried it and it didn't get us any closer to the top of the timesheets."
KOOL Kane Keeps Trying
Jonny Kane Racing Press Release, 2nd June 2000: Team KOOL Green driver Jonny Kane continues to fight off problems at Milwaukee in pre-race testing today. The morning session showed that the Team KOOL Green car was lacking some time over the front-runners. Kane was struggling with grip in the corners preventing him from carrying speed through.
Most teams switched to high down force during the session but Kane was to find that although this helped his times the mechanical grip mid corner was still lacking and other drivers continued to improve on their times as well.
For this afternoon's session the team made more changes but to no avail. Both Team KOOL Green drivers were still some seven tenths off the quickest times of the day. Chris Menninga headed the time sheet with a lap of 24.03 seconds followed by Scott Dixon (24.05s), Jason Bright (24.06s) and Felipe Giaffone (24.11s).
The Team KOOL Green engineers will have their thinking hats on overnight to solve their traction problems in order to give Kane confidence in his car to go after the quick times in tomorrow's qualifying session.
"We tried something different this afternoon but it was worse," Jonny said, "so we're going to have to go back to something that we know isn't really quick either. My car was bad in that session and I wasn't prepared to push it.
"Everyone has gone to high down force now but there is something lacking mechanically in the car that we need to find. People are doing low 24 seconds flat through the corners but there is no way I can attempt to do that at the moment."
British driver Jonny Kane will take to the Milwaukee mile tomorrow for qualifying.
Race previews
Team KOOL Green, 31st May: Jonny Kane and Jeff Simmons, Team KOOL Green's duo in Indy Lights, are eager to go racing this weekend at The Milwaukee Mile. They last raced on the streets of Long Beach, but after extensive testing the drivers return to oval racing at the oldest operating major speedway in America. The 100-lap race will run this Sunday at 12:30 p.m. Central Time.
Johnny commented:
"I'm just happy to get back to racing, especially after such a long time in between races. We've been testing, but I'm eager to get back into the KOOL car for a race again (Kane's last race was at Long Beach, April 16th). We had a decent test at The Mile last week. I like this track a lot because there should be some passing. I was able to get around guys last year, but I expect to be starting closer to the front this year. Ideally, I'll get the pole again like in Long Beach."
Jonny Kane Racing Press Release, 29th May: This weekend takes the Team KOOL Green Indy Lights team and their drivers Jonny Kane and Jeff Simmons to the Milwaukee Mile for the second round of the Dayton Indy Lights Championship. Kane will be the only British driver in this weekend's race at the one-mile oval. Sunday's event is the featured support race to the CART FedEx Championship Series in which fellow Brit's Dario Franchitti and Mark Blundell will compete.
Kane's opening race at Long Beach, California saw him dominate from the pole for 34 out of the 38 laps of the race. Unfortunately a restart forced Kane to defend aggressively into the first corner, which saw him drop to 7th place. Kane fought back in the remaining laps to finish 6th. Jonny left Long Beach a little disappointed but with his points for pole, most laps led and 6th he is placed 5th in the championship going into this weekend's second round.
"Jonny had a disappointing result at Long Beach," said Lou Schollum Team KOOL Green Indy Lights Team Manager, "but he certainly showed that the Team Green car had the speed and Jonny the ability to be a race winner throughout the season. Milwaukee is traditionally a difficult circuit for Team Green but we have made a lot of progress with Jonny in a test there last week. Hopefully things will come together for the race."
Team KOOL Green has in past years had a tough time at the Milwaukee circuit. Last year Jonny qualified 14th for the race but managed to pick off 5 cars to finish 9th. However pre race testing has proved more promising with the Team KOOL Green engineers working on the problems at hand. Kane said:
"Testing went quite well last week. We ended up much better than we were last year. Milwaukee was probably our worst circuit last season but we've worked hard and I think a top six finish would be a good result for this circuit, knowing that some of our better circuits are coming up soon in the series calendar."
Jonny is in a positive frame of mind about the race and hopes to break Team Green's duck at the Milwaukee Mile this weekend.
2000 Race News
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