Denver: Forsythe Racing Friday notes

Richard Philippe Leads Forsythe Atlantic Squad in First Round of Denver Qualifying

DENVER, Colorado - Friday, August 11, 2006 - 16-year old Richard Philippe showed his teammates and much of the Champ Car Atlantic field the quick way around the 1.657-mile temporary street course in downtown Denver today as he claimed fifth fastest time in the first round of Qualifying for Sunday's Grand Prix of Denver Atlantic Race. Despite traffic issues and two Red Flag interruptions of the session, the teenager from Valance, France (who now resides in Miami) remained consistently in the top five throughout the 30-minute round.

Teammate Andreas Wirth jumped to seventh in the order as the checkered flag fell, while James Hinchcliffe suffered the indignity of a broken throttle cable midway through the session leaving him 15th-quick on the day. Leonardo Maia, coming off a fifth-place finish in San Jose two weeks ago, struggled with a major handling imbalance and ended the session in 16th spot.

Richard Philippe

"The car was good, but both of the red flag came out just as I had found some space on the track and was on a strong lap. I'm happy overall though because the car was good and I'm looking forward to the Final Qualifying round tomorrow (Saturday). All I need is some luck with the red flags!'

Andreas Wirth

"I was fast everywhere on the track except the last two corners. We had a major snap oversteer issue in that long right-hander so I just couldn't carry any speed through there. I think I was losing about two-tenths of a second right there every lap. But we have some ideas about why that's happening and hopefully we can fix it for tomorrow."

James Hinchcliffe

"The Emexis car was good early in the session, but then as I came back out after the first red flag I pressed on the gas pedal coming out of the pits and nothing happened. The throttle cable broke. It was a brand-new cable and just had some sort of manufacturing defect or something because that never happens with these cars. But the good news is we have spares and I'm confident we'll be strong tomorrow."

Leonardo Maia

"Right from the early part of the session I had understeer in, oversteer out. We tweaked the car several times trying to correct it but nothing made any difference. I'm hopeful the guys will find something out of whack when they do their inspections this afternoon and tomorrow should be better."

-credit: forsythe racing