Jonathan Summerton just eclipsed his teammate at Newman Wachs Racing,
John Edwards, in the battle for pole position for tomorrow's Atlantic
Championship race at Mid-Ohio. Summerton secures his third pole of the
season and fourth of his career, his first this season for NWR after
rejoining the team.
"I'd just like to thank the team, definitely, for everything they've
done," Summerton said. "A lot of hard work went into the car for the
session today. We've got two birthdays we're celebrating today, my
engineer (Don Hallliday) and also (crew member) David (Marquez) from the
team, and it's just great to put 1-2 for Newman Wachs and both of them
for their birthdays. I'd just like to say 'Thanks again' to (team owner)
Eddie (Wachs) for giving me the opportunity that I have.
In the series' first visit to the circuit since 2003, Summerton blew
the old track record out of the water. The prospective USF1 hopeful
demolished the mark set by A.J. Allmendinger, with today's time of
1:12.970 nearly three seconds up on Allmendinger's old time of 1:15.668.
Summerton and Edwards lock out the front row for NWR as they did two
weeks ago at the Autobahn Country Club, but in reverse order. An intense
intra-squad battle ended when Summerton stopped the clocks as the first
and only driver under a 1:13 lap time.
"The lap that we did, I was calm and everything went out way and then
I came through our timing beacon on our dash and it was a really good
lap," Summerton said. "I tried holding it together and I made a little
mistake in the last corner, but we were able to hold P1 with that, so
I'm very happy with everything that went on. To come out on top and be
leading the race tomorrow at the start, I think, there's a good chance
of us winning."
In the second half of the 45-minute session, Summerton and Edwards
traded fastest laps. Despite the battle to be number one within the team
hierarchy, their main goal is to focus on the championship.
Edwards enters this race down five points to Simona de Silvestro
(119-114), with Summerton third on 92 points. This is the eighth round
of the 12-round championship, so the home stretch is nearing as NWR
looks to wrest the title away from de Silvestro.
"Once again, it's a really great day for Newman Wachs Racing locking out
the front row for tomorrow's race," said Edwards. "Obviously, I'd like
the roles to be reversed, but the important thing for me is I'm ahead of
Simona."
De Silvestro was one-tenth adrift of Edwards, her best time of 1:13.243
just short of Edwards' 1:13.150. She goes into tomorrow's race seeking
her seventh straight podium finish and not wanting to lose too much
ground in the standings.
"We went a little bit in the wrong way with some changes," de Silvestro
said. "I think we should have kept the car like it was, but we gave it a
shot. It could have been much better, but I'm happy with P3. I think we
have a good racecar for the race tomorrow."
Borja Garcia has been top rookie all weekend, the Spaniard driving for
Condor Motorsports pacing the two morning practice sessions and slotting
in fourth on the grid. At one point during the session, Garcia led the
quartet of top qualifiers by all of .033 of a second, combined!
Markus Niemela completed the top five for Jensen Motorsport, with the
balance of the top ten Frederic Vervisch, Frankie Muniz, Tonis Kasemets,
James Winslow and Max Lefevre.
In C2, track veteran but Atlantic series debutante Hans Peter led the
three entries, 11th overall and only 1.7 seconds off the slowest Swift
016.a chassis in an older Swift 014.a for Team Phenix/Swan Racing.
Michael Mallinen returns after a two-race hiatus with team owner Mirl
Swan sitting out today's sessions.
