Dalziel unlucky in Friday qualifying Friday the 13th may be unlucky for some but today proved to be a day of mixed fortunes for Toyota Atlantic front-runner Ryan Dalziel. The 22-year-old Scot arrived in Denver for the 10th round of the 2004 ...
Dalziel unlucky in Friday qualifying
Friday the 13th may be unlucky for some but today proved to be a day of mixed fortunes for Toyota Atlantic front-runner Ryan Dalziel. The 22-year-old Scot arrived in Denver for the 10th round of the 2004 Toyota Atlantic Championship trailing series-leader Jon Fogarty by just six points (239-233) having closed the gap to the American courtesy of three wins from the last four starts.
The day started well for the Sierra Sierra Enterprises team with Ryan rocketing to the top of the timesheets in this morning's 30-minute free practice session. The only driver to dip below the 1m09s barrier, Ryan's hot lap was 1m08.911s, two tenths of a second faster round the 1.657-mile temporary street circuit than his Sierra Sierra team-mate Andrew Ranger in second.
This afternoon's qualifying session, the first of two to determine the grid for Sunday's 37-lap race, was not to be so fruitful for Dalziel. The five-time pole winner hit the track with 15 minutes remaining but as he started his first flying lap he was caught up in an on-track incident at Turn 8.
Entering the corner he collected Denmark's Ronnie Bremer who in turn had collected the spinning car of America's Chris Festa. While all drivers thankfully emerged unscathed Dalziel's #28 ProWorks car was too badly damaged to continue the session and as a result the Scottish charger has just one opportunity tomorrow afternoon to gun for a sixth pole of the season and maintain his title aspirations.
Dalziel remained optimistic despite the disappointment of an early exit from today's proceedings in Denver:
"Well we were on it this morning and I'm confident we could have carried our pace into this afternoon's session. Andrew's consistency in both sessions is testament to this so despite being down on track time today I'm happy we can hit the ground running tomorrow and work our way back into a strong grid position for Sunday."
Jon Fogarty holds the provisional pole heading into tomorrow's final qualifying session, the former champion edging his narrow advantage over Dalziel by a solitary point thanks to his performance today. Live timing and the starting line-up will be available online tomorrow afternoon at www.toyotaatlantic.com