Post-Road America penalties announced

Stewards levy post Road America penalties, points remain the same.

MONTREAL, Qc., (August 24, 2002) -- For the third time this season, CART Toyota Atlantic Championship Stewards, led by Chief Steward, K.C. Van Niman, levied post-race penalties following last weeks Round 10 race at the Motorola 220 at Road America.

Road America race winner, Luis Diaz (Dorricott Racing/Telmex Swift 014.a) was fined $1,000 for the late race restart infraction that allowed him to get a large jump on the field on the Lap 16 green flag. The race leader is not allowed to accelerate until he passes the restart cone.

"The acceleration cone was positioned at Turn 13A," said K.C. Van Niman. "The driver of the 33 car started to accelerate way before that point somewhere in the area of Turn 11."

Also, Rodolfo Lavin (Michael Shank Racing/Corona Modelo Swift 014.a) was placed on probation for the remaining two races for his contact incident in Turn 12 with Waldemar Coronas (Scuadra Fortia/Aviacsa/Royse/Maizoro/Millenio Swift 014.a).

The CART Toyota Atlantic Championship is one of the world's premier open-wheel development series and the top rung on CART's "ladder system", as well as having $100,000 race purses and a one million dollar points fund. It is also noted for its long history of graduating its stars into CART competition. Among the drivers who have graduated from the Atlantic Series are CART Champ Car stars Michael Andretti, Jimmy Vasser, Patrick Carpentier, Alex Tagliani as well as former series champions Bobby Rahal, Danny Sullivan and Jacques Villeneuve.

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