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AIM Autosport - Road America race |
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Tuesday, 14 August 2007 |
AIM Autosport started the Star Mazda Championship weekend at Road America with two strong qualifying efforts, then had to overcome a string of issues to finish sixth and seventh in the 45-minute race on Saturday.
Natacha Gachnang of St-Gingolph, Switzerland, qualified the No. 35 Pro Formula Mazda third on the 27-car grid with a fast lap of two minutes 6.848 seconds on the 4.048-mile road course in Elkhart Lake, Wis. Her teammate, Devin Cunningham of St-Bruno, Qué., qualified next to her with a time of 2:07.002 in the No. 33 Discovery Channel Canada Mazda.
The race challenged both drivers. Gachnang was bumped off track early
in the race and dropped to the back of the field. She worked back up to
11th, then was collected by a car spinning in front of her, zapping her
to the back again. Despite a bent front wing and damaged nose on the
car, she charged again to finish seventh.
"I qualified third, so that was pretty good," she said. "The car was
fast – I was [less than] two-tenths slower than the pole and I could
have done the pole time because my lap was not really perfect. I made a
little mistake, but the car was really good.
"In the race, two times I was last and once I came back to 11th, then
crashed again, then seventh, so with all the bad stuff, I'm pretty
happy. I think I overtook 30 cars! It's a little sad because I could
have fought with the guys in front, the top three guys. I was one-tenth
faster than [James] Davison, who won the race. He was [later]
disqualified, but he won the race. The car was pretty good."
Cunningham had a strong car all weekend, but started to lose power due
to an electrical problem after the first caution period of the race. He
was in the wrong place twice, as he crested a hill and hit another
car's crash box, then encountered a two-car crash in front of him.
Despite a damaged front wing and loss of downforce, he was able to
recover from 13th to finish sixth.
"I'm really happy with the Discovery Channel AIM Autosport car," he
said. "We had some bad luck during the race – I hit a crash box and
there was a bad crash in front of me. I completely lost the downforce
on the front wing. Overall, so much went wrong, but we still got sixth.
The team did a fantastic job!
"I keep getting harder and harder on myself, with first in Portland and
second in Toronto, I think I've got to be on the podium every race. The
next four races are pretty close together, so we've just got to keep
pushing and stay focused, learn from each race and get some good
finishes."
AIM is third in Star Mazda team standings, with four races remaining this season.
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