Milwaukee: Ryan Dalziel Thursday report

Dalziel happy heading to qualifying

Ryan Dalziel returned to The Milwaukee Mile today to start the defense of his Toyota Atlantic triumph from last season's visit to the world's oldest operating motor speedway. Arriving in Wisconsin with the his lead intact at the top of the Toyota Atlantic points standings, the 22-year-old Scot was keen to get back behind the wheel of the #28 ProWorks Swift in today's two practice sessions.

The 1.032-mile track, the sole oval circuit on the schedule, was the scene of Dalziel's first career Toyota Atlantic win in 2003 and the first for the Nevada-based Sierra Sierra Enterprises team.

With qualifying for Saturday's race taking place tomorrow, today's timed sessions allowed the field to fine-tune their oval set-ups in preparation for the 70-lap race. Ryan ended the day second fastest overall with a lap of 24.899s, just two tenths shy of Jon Fogarty's lead time.

Speaking at the end of the day Ryan reflected:

"I'm happy with our time on track today and I'm confident we'll be in good shape when qualifying comes round tomorrow evening. We've been doing our own thing as far as set-up of the car is concerned, making some small changes along the way gradually pushing more from the car. We'll review things tonight having kept the car safe today and hopefully we'll be bang on tomorrow!"

Having started from pole in Long Beach and Monterrey, Dalziel will be gunning for the triple in tomorrow's hour-long qualifying session with a valuable championship point available to the fastest qualifier.

Saturday's race, Round 3 of the 12-race Toyota Atlantic Championship Presented by Yokohama, starts at 5:15pm Central Time. Further details and results can be found on: www.toyotaatlantic.com

-rdr-