.........at Grand Prix of Cleveland
A huge 40-car field assembled for the first of this past weekend’s twoFormula Ford Zetec Cooper Tires ChampionshipSeries races at the Burke Lakefront Airport inCleveland, Ohio resulting in Pickering racer, ChrisGuerrieri (#11/Cherry Beach Sound/NorthstarPromotions/Med Broadcast/Glycomax), finishing thirdon the podium.
Guerrieri, who turned 22 on theweekend, gave himself a birthday present he is notlikely to forget with this strong result while piloting hisAiken Racing / Van Diemen open wheel car to victorycircle. “ The car had good balance today and it wasbetter than it had been in qualifying and testing”Guerrieri said.
Guerrieri wasn’t able to get the most out of his carduring qualifying and lined up fifth on the grid afterfailing to get a clean run around the fast, 2.106-miletemporary circuit. The race, run under the oppressiveheat of the weekend, saw Guerrieri stay right behindthe leaders of the race waiting for his opportunity tostrike. This opportunity to improve on his fifth placegrid position came in the later stages of the race asGuerrieri kept up the pressure on the third and fourthplace cars forcing them to make mistakes whiledefending their positions.
Race one’s podium position is the first for Guerrierithis season that has seen him have four top fivefinishes in the last six races. During the second race ofthe weekend Guerrieri backed up his strongperformance with a fourth place finish. The secondrace was plagued with yellow caution periods and onlya few green flag laps. “ With most of the race beingrun under caution I had limited time to make my move. I would have gained third if I had more green flag racing laps” said Guerrieri.
Guerrieri had shown his speed to be superior to the thirdplace finisher, J.R. Hildebrand, but by virtue of the continuous yellow flag laps no opportunity to pass presented itself.
“Overall the weekend went well. The bad luck we experienced in the past two races looks to be over. The Aiken Racing team worked very hard setting up and tuning the car. I'm really lookingforward to Road America. My focus will now be on moving up in the championship point from fourth to third place” said Guerrieri.
The next installment of the Formula Ford Zetec Cooper Tire Championship Series will be at the Ferrari Maserati Racing Days at Road America on August 6th & 7th.
