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Freightliner/GI Joe's 200
Race
Disappointment for Kane
Jonny
Kane Racing, 25th June, Portland, Or: Ulsterman Jonny Kane had a disappointing
day in the Indy Lights race at the Portland Grand Prix. Jonny's race was
cut short when the combined problems of an engine misfire and an incident
at the start caused him to retire early.
Australian Jason Bright took the win ahead of his teammate Townsend Bell. Jonny's teammate, Jeff Simmons finished third for Team KOOL Green. Jonny started third for the race but fell back to fifth when the inside line backed up at the first corner and championship leader Scott Dixon punted him from behind.
Jonny sustained minor front wing damage but was still able to continue when the misfire problem, which appeared to have cleared itself from the warm up laps, reappeared. Jonny was forced to pit and rejoined 2 laps down but it became obvious on his out lap that his day was over.
JONNY KANE, #27 Team KOOL Green (Retired with engine problems)
"Everyone seemed to bottle up into the first corner. I think Scott Dixon maybe ran into the back of me as we all slowed up and that knocked me into my teammate Jeff and I damaged the front wing but that didn't really seem too much of a problem.
"I could still run with the wing like that and still do competitive times but what ultimately put us out of the race was a misfire, which I had on the warm up laps. It seemed to clear itself but came back again after a couple of laps and the engine wouldn't pull at all. I was only just getting into top gear on the either of the straights so there was no way I was going to hang on for any points. It turns out that we had a broken spark plug lead so a bit of a disappointing weekend considering how fast we were."
EDDIE JONES, TEAM KOOL GREEN INDY LIGHTS CHIEF ENGINEER:
"Having watched the race play out I was really sure Jonny could have had a great attempt at passing Bright and Bell. Jeff in our second car was able to challenge them strongly at the end of the race and I am sure if everything had of gone OK Jonny may well have won the race.
"However we had some misfortune and picked up front wing damage down at the first turn anyway when all of the traffic backed up and he couldn't avoid the car ahead; that problem was then compounded by a misfire so in many ways we were effectively out of the race. One good thing is the point's situation, as we haven't lost many points to the leader. We are looking forward to a strong season and the championship is still wide open."
Final Qualifying
Jonny Kane Racing, 24th June, Portland, Or: Team KOOL Green driver Kane was pipped to the pole today by Townsend Bell and Jason Bright. Jonny featured at the head of the timesheets all weekend, holding the overnight provisional pole and new track record. However today saw a number of drivers switch from low to high down force and Kane fell off the top of the times to qualify third.
American Townsend Bell took the pole with a time of 1:05.275 seconds. Jason Bright will line up alongside him for Sunday's race on a time of 1:05.342 seconds. Kane lines up third (1:05.429 seconds) with Tony Renna completing the second row (1:05.527 seconds).
Overnight several drivers made the change over to high down force, including six out of the top eight. Team KOOL Green had opted to remain with their low down force settings and were forced to make the switch with only minutes left of the qualifying session. Kane was unable to get a good run with the new settings as his tyres had seen their best. Kane and his engineer, Eddie Jones, will now be forced to make a decision on settings for the race.
JONNY KANE, #27 Team KOOL Green:
"Everyone started to change to high down force before and during the session. We have been quickest all weekend until that session and that probably threw us a little bit. I knew I needed to do a really good lap in low down force to get pole, but now high down force seems to be the quicker of the two.
"I wasn't far off my best lap at the end even though the tyres had already gone past their best and I'd only had three laps to figure out how the car would react to the high down force settings. I certainly think that if we had started in high down force with new tyres we could've been on pole but we'll have to wait and see for tomorrow's warm up to see what people are going to do with wing settings."
EDDIE JONES, Team KOOL Green Indy Lights Chief Engineer:
"Having led yesterday's session we really thought we were in with a good shout for pole but we underestimated the performance of the high down force configuration. Sure enough it proved to be quicker and we were pipped by a couple of tenths. It is a shame but we went to high down force at the end of the session a little too late and Jonny certainly couldn't get the best from it. Now we know we are committing fully to high down force for morning warm up tomorrow and we will ensure that we have a really good race car and at this point I feel that the race is still wide open."
Team KOOL Green, 24th June: Team KOOL Green's Jonny Kane fought an exciting qualifying battle at Portland International Raceway with rookies Townsend Bell and Jason Bright. Kane qualified third, as Bell earned the first Indy Lights pole of his career with a time of 1:05.275 seconds (108.593 mph), 0.065 seconds better than Bright's lap of 1:05.341s (108.482 mph).
Kane's best was 1:05.429s (108.337 mph). Kane, who earned the provisional pole yesterday, had held the top time until Bell unseated him with 12 minutes to go in the 30-minute session. Bell, Bright and Kane exchanged top spot over the next 10 minutes.
Kane pitted with seven minutes remaining, opting for a high downforce setup similar to Bell and Bright. In entering the pit, Kane exceeded the 50 mph speed limit and was assessed a drive-thru penalty on the next lap. He returned to the track, but ran out of time before he could benefit from the change in setup.
Jeff Simmons, meanwhile, battled illness to qualify sixth on the grid. Simmons climbed to as high as third in posting lap-times, pushing his #26 KOOL Lola as hard as he could. Ultimately, he will start from the third row with a time of 1:05.720 seconds (107.858 mph).
Tomorrow's 38-lap Indy Lights race will begin at 11:30 a.m. Pacific Time, while the race broadcast will be shown on ESPN2 next Sunday (July 1st) at 5:30 p.m. ET.
JONNY KANE, #27 Team KOOL Green Lola T97/20 (3rd with a lap-time of 1:05.429 seconds at 108.337 mph):
"I'm disappointed. I knew that I really needed to do a good lap on the low downforce setup to get pole for Team KOOL Green. It took me a while to put in my quick lap. Ultimately thought, it looks like high downforce is the best. Everyone around us was running the high downforce from the beginning of the session.
"I did a 5.7 on my last lap, having only got five minutes on the high downforce. The tires were past their best at that stage. I probably should have started on the high downforce, but we committed to low for today. We'll have to see what tomorrow's warm-up brings. If everybody has gone back to low downforce because of the length of the straights, then we should be in good shape."
JEFF SIMMONS, #26 Team KOOL Green Lola T97/20 (6th with a lap-time of 1:05.720 seconds at 107.858 mph):
"I'm sick and I was feeling a bit tired out there. I was really light-headed at the end. It's too bad because the KOOL car was good. We put the tires on early because I felt that I would be fresher. I thought that we did some decent times on low downforce, but it looks like high downforce is the way to go.
"Near the end I was trying to put some laps together, but as soon as the tires lost that little bit of extra grip they had there was no way I was going to better my time. It wasn't bad for the way I'm feeling.
"All of sudden last night, I started to get a sore throat. It went away and I went to bed around 10 o'clock. I woke up an hour later in a full sweat, throwing up four times and only getting a couple hours of sleep. I went for an I-V at CART medical, which helped. I think I'll be hurting again a little later."
Friday Qualifying
Team KOOL Green, 23rd June: Team KOOL Green's Jonny Kane earned the provisional pole in today's qualifying at Portland International Raceway. Kane established a new track record in winning the pole last week in Detroit and did so again this afternoon with a time of 1:05.647 seconds (107.978 mph).
Team-mate Jeff Simmons was fifth fastest on the 1.969-mile, 12-turn road course with a time of 1:05.966 seconds (107.455 mph). Rookie Jason Bright was second quick in the 30-minute session, turning a time of 1:05.966 seconds (107.455 mph). Felipe Giaffone, runner-up to Kane last week, was third fastest on a lap of 1:06.103 seconds (107.233 mph). Casey Mears was fourth, just ahead of Simmons.
JONNY KANE, #27 Team KOOL Green Lola T97/20: (1st with a lap-time of 1:05.647 seconds at 107.978 mph):
"Team KOOL Green keeps giving me a great car, so it's fun to push it hard. Early in the session, I think some guys got one extra lap before the first yellow. So we were quickest and then some guys went quicker. My first flying lap after that put me P-1 on the old tires. I had a lot of time left in the session after that, but we went for new tires anyway.
"Each time after being in the pit my first flying lap was my best, which is a bit unusual. We should have found some more speed in my second or third laps. Five or six laps later on the new tires, I knew that I could not better that time. The fact that I did a 5.6 (1:05.647 seconds) on my first lap shows that I'm quite comfortable with the car and ready to push straightaway."
JEFF SIMMONS, #26 Team KOOL Green Lola T97/20: (5th with a lap-time of 1:06.180 seconds at 107.108 mph):
"Early on in the session, I really had no grip basically all the way around the track. It started to get better, but we also had some oversteer in the KOOL car. We made a change on that, which seemed to go too far. We came in again for another change. The car is good for the most part, but we're lacking grip for the entry-phase of each corner. We pick up some grip in the middle and lose it again right at the exit. If not for some traffic at the end, I think we could have improved to a six-flat (1:06.00)."
Jonny Kane Racing, 23rd June: Team KOOL Green driver Jonny Kane took provisional pole today for Sunday's Dayton Indy Lights Championship round at Portland. Kane cruised to the head of the time sheets by over three tenths breaking the track record en route, Kane's second track record in less than a week.
Kane gained provisional pole with a time of 1.05:647 seconds ahead of Australia's Jason Bright on a time of 1.05:966 seconds. Felipe Giaffone was third (1.06.103 seconds) and Casey Mears (1.06:151 seconds) fourth.
JONNY KANE, #27 Team KOOL Green (Provisional pole with a lap-time of 1:05.647 seconds):
"The session went pretty well. We put a good lap time in on the old tyres, we went quickest on them after ten minutes doing a 1:06.14 which was a pretty good time at that stage as we qualified on a 6.2 last year. The track is obviously fast today although it feels a little bit slippery so I am a little bit surprised by how quick we're going at the moment.
"We put on our second set of tyres and our very first lap was our quickest which is a bit strange as normally I would go quicker on my second or third lap. My best lap wasn't perfect so there is a little more time in the car and myself. Tomorrow depending on the temperature and weather conditions it will probably be a faster day. We're going well at the minute but we need to keep working at it to keep pole tomorrow for Team KOOL Green."
LOU SCHOLLUM, Team KOOL Green Indy Lights Team Manager:
"Jonny is carrying on where he left off in Detroit. He is showing us that he is consistently fast on the road courses and continuing his dominance at the top of the timesheets. The team is giving him a very good car and he is making use of it to the max."
Race previews
Team KOOL Green, 21st June: JONNY KANE, #27 Team KOOL Green Lola T97/20: (Started 2nd / Finished 6th at Portland in 1999; Currently 3rd in the standings with 32 points)
"Things are going quite well at Team KOOL Green. Obviously we had a good weekend in Detroit (pole sitter and winner) and we're looking to keep it going in Portland. We've got a lot of ground to make up in the standings, but another win will go a long ways towards closing the gap."
Jonny Kane Racing, 19th June: Ulsterman Jonny Kane will travel to Portland, Oregon this weekend for the fourth round of the Dayton Indy Lights Championship. Jonny will be the only driver representing Great Britain and Ireland in this weekend's race and will hope to keep up his winning streak after last weekend's dominant win from the pole at Detroit in his Team KOOL Green Lola-Buick.
Texaco presents The Freightliner/GI Joe's 200 Grand Prix at the Portland International Raceway in Oregon this weekend. The Dayton Indy Lights Championship series will be the official support race to this event. The track is a 1.969-mile permanent road course and should offer some exciting racing.
Without the confines of concrete walls as at street courses and ovals drivers may drive a little more aggressively. However this will not be the case at the chicane complex just after the start-finish. The "Festival of Curves" as it is know is a tight series of turns where drivers are forced to go single file after leaving the wide front straight. This leads to a bottleneck and exciting battles for position.
Kane qualified 2nd at Portland last year with Team KOOL Green but had a disappointing race when confusion arose calling the green flag to start the race. This saw Kane drop to eighth but he managed to pull up two places to finish 6th in the race behind last year's race winner Philipp Peter. Jonny will be hoping for a better race this year.
Last weekend's race at Detroit saw the Championship points close up with Kane leaping from 9th to his current 3rd equal position with Jason Bright on 32 points. Scott Dixon leads with 54 points followed by Casey Mears on 34, Kane/Bright on 32 and Felipe Giaffone in fifth with 31 points.
Kane is confident that another good finish at Portland will see him creep closer to leader Scott Dixon:
"We're on a high after Detroit and we go to Portland with basically the same car. I was confident last year that we would do well there and I qualified second. Unfortunately the start was messed up and I dropped back in the race, so hopefully we'll have a good weekend this time around. The car feels better than last year so I think a podium at least should be in order for Team KOOL Green."
EDDIE JONES, Team KOOL Green Indy Lights Chief Engineer:
"We hope to keep the momentum running from our win at Detroit last weekend. We had a good car when we tested at Portland recently and it will be essentially the same car from Detroit. Jonny is on a high and really I'm fairly optimistic that we could have the same result as Detroit."
Team KOOL Green leave for Portland on Wednesday having spent two days prepping the car after Detroit. Jonny is in a confident frame of mind and hopes he will be able to close up the championship gap this weekend.
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