01/05/2008
NEWS STORY
A1 Team USA's late-season surge has vaulted it into contention to finish in the top-10 in the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport going into this weekend's (May 2-4) 10th and final round at Brands Hatch.
Jonathan Summerton's victory in the previous round in the Feature race at Shanghai, China, elevated A1 Team USA to 12th in the standings with 44 points. Portugal is 10th with 50, China 11th with 46, Brazil 13th with 44 and India 14th with 40. In A1GP, the top-10 finishers in the Sprint and Feature races score points.
A1 Team USA, with Summerton driving the "We the People" car, has scored 31 in the last two rounds. He was third in the Feature and fifth in the Sprint at Mexico City.
"We've had a win, a third, and a fifth for a total of 31 points in the last two rounds," A1 Team USA Holdings owner Rick Weidinger said. "We've developed into one of the best teams in A1GP this season. Our primary goal is to finish in the top-10 for the second straight season. If we go to Brands Hatch and run the way we expect, we should be able to do that and come away with two more solid results, perhaps another podium or win, and carry momentum into next season."
Summerton, a 20-year-old from Kissimmee, Fla., was sixth in the Feature at Brands Hatch's 2.6-mile Grand Prix circuit last season. He qualified in 11th position and was ninth in the Sprint.
"I really like the Brands Hatch track," Summerton said. "It is tons of fun out on the back section. We need to qualify well. On that circuit, it is very, very hard to overtake. Leon Gutfreund, our race engineer, has developed very good setups for both qualifying and the races this season and there's no reason we shouldn't be able to adapt it to Brands Hatch.
"I think we can probably add another win and another podium. I know we will have the speed. It's just a matter of keeping clean, having a little luck and not getting run into and having good pit stops."
A1 Team USA qualified second for the Feature and sixth for the Sprint at Shanghai and third for the Sprint and seventh for the Feature at Mexico City.
"We're on a roll," Weidinger said. "It doesn't happen by accident in motor racing, particularly at the international level like A1GP. We've come a long way this season under the leadership of Leon and team manager Marc Lawrence and Jonathan has made large strides as a driver. It takes the whole package to get to where we are. We're proud of what we've done, but we still have a mission to complete, to get into the top-10 in the World Cup of Motorsport."