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Early Street Exit Frustrates Hinchcliffe

08/17/2008

Trois-Rivieres, Quebec (August 17, 2008) A solitary point was all that the streets of Trois-Rivieres gifted Torontos James Hinchcliffe as an early race incident saw the title contender classified 20th after failing to finish his first race of the season in Round 8 of the 2008 Cooper Tires Presents The Atlantic Championship Powered by Mazda.

The Canadians championship hopes took a dent in the process as his American title rivals Jonathan Bomarito and Jonathan Summerton finished 1-2 at the 1.521-mile Quebec street circuit on Sunday and now sit 1-2 respectively in the Driver Standings with three rounds remaining. Hinchcliffe dropped a spot to third, eight points behind second-placed Summerton (163-155), marking the first time since the second round that the Forsythe Pettit Racing driver hasnt occupied first or second in the championship chase.

James weekend got off to a solid start as he steered the #3 INDECK/TireRack.com Swift Mazda-Cosworth to third on the time charts in Fridays qualifying session, Hinch posting a tour of 1m00.121s (91.076mph). With lap times significantly faster the following day, the fight for pole remained equally tight with title-leader Bomarito locking up his second-straight pole position with a 58.989s (92.824mph) charge. Chasing a set-up to try and be equally competitive, James recorded a 59.484s (92.052mph) lap which would ultimately leave him a disappointing seventh on the grid for Sundays race his second lowest starting slot after a tenth place effort in the opening round at Long Beach.

Looking to gain ground at the start of Sunday afternoons 44-lap street sprint, a good start saw Hinchcliffe briefly climb a spot to sixth only to lose it again by the end of the opening tour. As the field settled he then had a clear view of an early incident which involved Carl Skerlong and Markus Niemela which allowed him to gain a place before handling problems of his own would come into play the back end of his car now loose around the tight temporary street course.

A slide coming onto the start-finish straight at the end of lap six allowed fellow Canadian Kevin Lacroix a brief look at James for position as they gunned down to the first turn. While Hinchcliffe held his line through the corner Lacroix then attempted a lunge into Turn 2 which resulted in contact and instant retirement for both drivers. Jonathan Bomarito became the first Atlantic winner at Trois-Rivieres since the series last raced there in 2003 with Summerton second and Hollands Junior Strous placing third.

Its really unfortunate what happened, declared James post-race. I thought it was a very optimistic move by Lacroix and frustrating as he was clearly quicker than me, he should have seen I was struggling with the rear and therefore he must have known hed have been able to get by cleanly probably through the next two turns. I just thought it was an impatient thing to do and it ended up costing us both which is obviously pretty annoying.

It was a bummer of a weekend but we really didnt help ourselves. We put ourselves in danger of having something like this happen by qualifying as badly as we did. As a team we simply need to improve when we get to the next race to make sure we can avoid incidents like this and really put up a strong fight over the final three rounds.

Round 9 of the 2008 Cooper Tires Presents The Champ Car Atlantic Championship Powered by Mazda heads to the newest circuit on the schedule, New Jersey Motorsports Park, Friday 12th Sunday 14th September www.njmotorsportspark.com

Top-Five Atlantic Drivers R8/11: 1st Bomarito (USA) 191pts, 2nd Summerton (USA) 163pts, 3rd HINCHCLIFFE (CAN) 155pts, =3rd Niemela (FIN) 155pts, 5th Strous (NED) 145pts www.atlantic-championship.com

ENDS www.hinchtown.com