AAR Cleveland report

Alex Gurney and All American Racers made it clear to the Atlantic competition at the Marconi Grand Prix of Cleveland that they will be a force to be reckoned with for the second half of the Toyota Atlantic Championship. In Saturday Qualifying, Alex claimed pole position with a lap of 1:08.484 at 110.706 MPH, beating Buddy Rice's track record from Friday by 3 tenths of a second. It was the first pole of Alex's Atlantic career and it came in just the 6th race in the series for All American Racers.

Alex would not enjoy the same luck on race day. He got a good jump on the field on the first start but it was waved off. On the second start Buddy Rice was able to get inside Gurney at turn 1. Alex then battled with Martin Basso for 2nd position the first few laps before pulling clear and giving chase to Rice. Mid-race, Gurney and Rice swapped fastest laps but the gap would stay constant. After a late race restart, the #48 car pulled slowly to a halt with an engine problem. It was an unfortunate end to what was AAR's most competitive outing thus far in Atlantic. The series heads next to Toronto, Ontario Canada for Round 7 of the Toyota Atlantic Championship on July 16th. Visit the allamericanracers.com website for more information and check out 'Alex's Race Notes' for Alex's race by race summary.

Alex Gurney:
"This was the breakthrough weekend that we were looking for. It's just unfortunate that we couldn't cap it off with a good finish. To get a pole with AAR meant so much to me. We were very competitive in the race as well, setting the second fastest race lap. This is such a great team and now we've got serious momentum for the second half of the season."