E.j. Viso Leads Kv Racing Technology Qualifying Saturday At Honda Indy

[Mark H]

TORONTO (July 17, 2010) —  E.J. Viso, a podium finisher recently at Iowa, led the KV Racing Technology four-driver lineup in Saturday qualifications for Sunday’s Honda Indy Toronto in the 1.74-mile, 11-turn street circuit at Exhibition Place.

 

Viso, driver of the No. 8 PDVSA — KV Racing Technology Honda/Dallara/Firestone entry, looked to be in a strong position for the Firestone Fast Six shootout Saturday after a sensational second place practice run in the morning session.  The Venezuela driver was on a blistering pace throughout the one-hour morning runs.  However, changing track conditions seemed to affect Viso’s mount in the opening round of afternoon qualifications.

 

Viso moved to fourth early in the qualifying round but finished out of the top-six transfer spot and will start 13th in the 26-driver lineup for the 85-lap feature. Viso’s best speed was 102.884 miles per hour.  Justin Wilson won the pole position at 104.827 m.p.h.  Sunday’s race will be televised live on ABC-TV beginning at 12:30 p.m. EDT.

 

Rookie Takuma Sato also showed speed in the first round of qualifying Saturday in the No. 5 Lotus — KV Racing Technology Honda/Dallara/Firestone car. The F-1 veteran posted a solid time that would have him advance to the second round, but a mechanical problem caused him to stop on the track.  Due to the stoppage, Sato was penalized, losing his two fastest qualifying laps and will start 18th on Sunday after a 102.212 m.p.h. lap.

 

Mario Moraes, coming off a strong fifth place at Watkins Glen in the No. 32 KV Racing Technology Honda/Dallara/Firestone car, had difficulty with the slippery track in recording a top speed of 101.747 m.p.h.  Moraes will start in the 20th spot Sunday.

        

Two-time Honda Indy Toronto champion Paul Tracy, a Toronto native, suffered through a tough day in his hometown.  Tracy, driving the No. 15 Honda Canada — Make A Wish—KV Racing Technology Honda/Dallara/Firestone entry, experienced an ill-handling car in qualifying and must start 24th in Sunday’ main event.  Tracy, who came from 15th starting spot last year to challenge for the lead, expects to be charging Sunday at the drop of the green flag in front of his fans.

 

DRIVER QUOTES:  

E.J. VISO -- #8 PDVSA – KV RACING TECHNOLOGY HONDA/DALLARA/FIRESTONE: “Everyone with the No. 8 car felt like we would have a good car after the morning practice when we were P2.  When we put the other tires for qualifying on, we had huge understeer and we couldn’t keep up the pace with the other drivers.  I thought we had the speed to be in the top-three in the first qualifying session since we had done it earlier.  It is difficult to understand because the car was so good before qualifying.  Now, we’ll have to get the race car prepared for warm-up on Sunday and find the speed once again.”

 

TAKUMA SATO -- #5 LOTUS – KV RACING TECHNOLOGY HONDA/DALLARA/FIRESTONE:  "Its a very disappointing day for us. Toronto is a tough venue, but we made steady progress in the practice sessions.  However, in qualifying, it looked like I was fast enough to move into the Q2 session but a mechanical failure caused me to stop on track. This resulted in a penalty and  I lost my two fastest laps.  Nevertheless, we'll work on the car in the morning warm-up and be ready for the race Sunday."

 

MARIO MORAES -- #32 KV RACING TECHNOLOGY HONDA/DALLARA/FIRESTONE: “I was surprised how slippery the track was today.  I just couldn’t get the grip that I needed to put in a good lap.  I love the Toronto track and I was expecting a good run after our top-five race at Watkins Glen.  So I am disappointed with the qualifying run.  We’ll work hard overnight to improve the car for the race.  Starting at the back of the field is difficult, but Paul (Tracy) showed last year that you can come from the back and race at the front.  That will be our goal.”

 

PAUL TRACY — #15 HONDA CANADA — MAKE A WISH — KV RACING TECHNOLOGY HONDA/DALLARA/FIRESTONE: “I really don’t know what happened in qualifying.  The car wasn’t handling right.  There was something drastically wrong with it.  Now, that we are back at the truck, we found something wrong with the car’s setup.  It is very disappointing.  It’s too bad it happened during qualifying.   The car just didn’t do what we wanted.  It was strange because I couldn’t figure out why the car was feeling so weird.  It didn’t perform like that on Friday and earlier on Saturday.  So, now we’ll have to start from the back and drive our way up the field.” HONDA/DALLARA/FIRESTONE: “We started out pretty well this morning.  But we had a little issue with the car in the afternoon.  We really only got about five laps of running.  We got the car back out to the pits with about two minutes to go.  But we weren’t going to get the tires up to temperature in that amount of time.  So we didn’t run.  Right now, we’ll baseline off of E.J.’s car in the morning.  Our cars were pretty similar to begin with and he ended up in the Top Seven today.  He thinks the changes they made were quite good.  That puts us up an extra set of tires on the rest of the field for Saturday.  We’ll be ready to go in the morning.”

 

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