Atlantic

Milwaukee: Dorricott Racing race notes

Krisiloff fractions away from winning at Milwaukee; blown motor spoils Luis Diaz's race. WEST ALLIS, Wis. (May 31, 2003) - Kyle Krisiloff, of Indianapolis, scored an Atlantic career best finish of second place in Saturday's third round of the ...

Edited: Jun 2, 2003, 3:57 AM

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Krisiloff fractions away from winning at Milwaukee; blown motor spoils Luis Diaz's race.

WEST ALLIS, Wis. (May 31, 2003) - Kyle Krisiloff, of Indianapolis, scored an Atlantic career best finish of second place in Saturday's third round of the 12-race Toyota Atlantic Championship at The Milwaukee Mile.

Meanwhile, teammate Luis Diaz, of Mexico City, fell victim of circumstances for a third consecutive race but this time to a "blown motor." Diaz suffered poor finishes in the first two events of the year when other drivers literally "took him out" of those races. The saddest part of Diaz's premature ending to his Milwaukee race was he was running the third fastest lap times of any car on the track.

Krisiloff, who started fourth, improved to second place within four laps of the 70-lap race start but fell short of victory by a mere 0.399-seconds to second-year driver Ryan Dalziel, of Scotland.

Dalziel started from the pole based on best overall practice times due to Friday's qualifying session being rained out. Dalziel made the most of his "point" spot but never led enough to keep Krisiloff out of his wing mirrors at any time.

A nightmare struck Canadian Michael Valiante on the first lap when he attempted to pass rookie Aaron Justus on the inside of Turn 1. Sour handling resulted in his losing traction before engaging in a full 360-degree spin. Valiante avoided contact with the wall and other cars but his pirouette brought a yellow flag. Krisiloff, on the other hand, successfully passed A.J. Allmendinger for third place.

Dalziel's re-start on lap four was flawless but he couldn't shake Krisiloff. The 17-year-old Dorricott driver got a strong run off of Turn 4 and passed Jonathan Macri around the outside for second place. Afterwards, it was mostly a "catch me if you can" type of race between Dalziel and Krisiloff around the 1.032-mile oval albeit Krisiloff was "nose-to-gearbox" most of the contest.

"On the re-start, Ryan had a technique of weaving and changing speeds so I didn't get a good read of when he was going to go," said Krisiloff. "When he took off, I got a decent jump but I hit my rev limiter and lost a little ground. I made a few poor judgments on where to go or when to hit the power but the car's set-up was outstanding so I was able to make up the lost time."

If not for solid maneuvering to thwart Krisiloff's passing attempts, Dalziel could have easily lost the race as Krisiloff's U.S. Grand Prix Formula One Swift 014.a was clearly faster. In fact, Krisiloff turned the fastest lap of the race on three different occasions before flying to a one lap record for Toyota Atlantic cars at The Milwaukee Mile on Lap 54 at 150.749 mph (24.645 sec.). This eclipsed Ryan Hunter-Reay's previous record of 150.036 mph (24.762 sec.) established during 2002 qualifying.

It was Krisiloff's career-best Atlantic finish and significantly higher than his previous Atlantic best of ninth at Long Beach in April. The podium was made sweeter in that it was Krisiloff's debut with 2002 Toyota Atlantic Champion Dorricott Racing

"When I joined Dorricott Racing a couple of weeks ago, we tested right away at Portland," said Krisiloff. "It went really well so we believed things would get even better at Milwaukee. However, we never thought we'd score a podium finish. We expected to run among the top-10 and maybe even break into the top five. We most wanted a good car for the race. The entire team worked hard to put together the best car it could. We evaluated and re-evaluated how the car was running and what might make it faster both in traffic and solo. We came right off the truck with a good car but we still fine tuned it. It didn't run as well in traffic as we would have liked so I couldn't close in on Dalziel at times. When alone this car was fast. Had I been able to qualify we may have had a different and better result. This was the best we had today."

Diaz was arguably the most disappointed of any driver particularly because a blown motor ended his race with less than a third of the race remaining. The Telmex Swift 014.a was the third fastest car on the track at any given time. Diaz's ninth place start was deceiving because he was "on the pole" when rain thrashed The Mile midway through Friday's qualifying thereby deleting any official qualifying results. Diaz was poised to move into the top-five when a valve lifter gave out.

"We started the weekend with motor problems," said Diaz. "Unfortunately, we ended up with motor problems during the race when it blew. There were problems with my oil temperature and some other things. I couldn't finish the race which was a shame because the Telmex Swift was fast. I lost ground on the championship but I feel good going back to Laguna Seca and Portland because Dorricott Racing has consistently done really well at both tracks. I expect to put together a string of good races and get back into the hunt. I just need more help from the engines."

Allmendinger moved into first place in the driver standings with 44 points. Krisiloff scooted into eighth place with 23 points. Diaz is ninth with 20 points.

Speed Channel will provide a one-day delayed telecast of the Toyota Atlantic Championship at The Milwaukee Mile beginning at 6:00 p.m. ET (3:00 p.m. PT), Sunday, June 1. An encore telecast is scheduled for Monday, June 2, at 1:00 p.m. ET (10:00 a.m. PT).

The CART Toyota Atlantic Championship next races at the picturesque road course of Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on Saturday, June 14.

Detailed race results, team, and sponsor information are available on Dorricott Racing's official web site, www.dorricottracing.com.

-dr-

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