Promising Weekend ends in a Splash at Toronto

07.08.2007

After qualifying seventh, J.R. hit a patch of standing water in the monsoon-ish early restart in Toronto, ending his race after contact with the wall.

The weekend started out well enough, with J.R. running sixth in the first practice. The first round of qualifying was later that afternoon, and the team felt well prepared to move up the charts a bit as the weekend progressed.

But that wasn't to be, as a late session change to the setup turned out to be the wrong way to go, and they ended the first qualifying session in 13th, matching their worst qualifying session to date. "We made a change that, based on previous experience, seemed like the right direction to go. It just turned out that it didn't work with the particular challenges of the Toronto circuit."

Going into Saturday, the team and J.R. were behind the eight ball, needing to make a significant move in the afternoon qualifying to preserve the weekend - and that they did! After working out a few kinks in the morning, J.R. ran in the top five for the entire session, just getting pipped for fifth in the closing seconds. Still, the team was feeling better given the sixth fastest time in the session, finding themselves just two tenths out of third spot. He would start seventh, as one driver ran a faster time on Saturday. Things were definitely looking up!

As the cars gridded for the race, a light rain began to fall, but the darkening sky seemed to threaten more was to come. As the start lights went out, J.R. got a mega start, but was unable to improve his position as he was blocked by a slower car in front ,and a lack of room otherwise.

The slick conditions caused immediate carnage, as cars at the back of the field began impacting the walls and each other. Running under yellow in what had now turned into a downpour, the leader slid off track and suffered suspension damage. Soon after the race was red flagged due to the terrible conditions and the field was brought to pit row to change to rain tires. This seemed like a great break for J.R., as he has consistently been the first or second fastest in such conditions.

"On the restart, I was just trying to get some grip and improve my vision by staying on the outside of turn 11 as we approached the front straightaway. As I accelerated I hit a standing puddle of water and hydroplaned into the wall." The damage to the NWR Swift Mazda was worse than it looked, and NWR was forced to retire from the race.

"It was a real shame" said J.R. "The team had done a great job giving me the right car for the job, and a chance to make a big move up in the standings was gone in a splash! I'm confident we'll recover strongly at Edmonton."