Road America: Josh Hunt Friday notes

Queensland driver Josh Hunt continued his climb towards the front of the Toyota Atlantic pack in his Wright Patton Shakespeare supported entry at Road America in Elkhart Lake, USA when opening practice and qualifying for Round Nine began today.

Following on from a successful test on Wednesday Hunt dialed into the circuit, the longest in the Championship, with significant ease.

Throughout the opening practice the 19-year-old was impressive setting the fifth fastest time mid way through the session on another circuit that Hunt was making his debut on against some very experienced rivals.

When the chequered flag fell on the session Hunt was placed seventh fastest.

"The track itself is fantastic, it has just about everything you need in a circuit, several long fast straights, slow corners, elevation changes, fast corners, it has it all," said Hunt.

"Right now the car is lacking straight line speed which is costing me a fair bit of time but the guys are working away on this to pick up some time."

Despite still being down on straight line speed Hunt remained well inside the top ten during qualifying later in the day setting the eighth fastest time in the session.

"At this stage we are still working away on getting some more straight line speed which is where we can make up a lot of time," said Hunt.

"With so many long straights you can't afford to be down on any power at all and hopefully during tomorrow's final qualifying I can get a good draft which is imperative on such long straights.

"We know that the car can do a good fast time as we were over a second faster here in testing on Wednesday, it is just a case of adapting to the conditions to set a good time tomorrow."

Final practice and qualifying will be held at 10:15am and 4:00pm respectively tomorrow followed by the the 17-lap (or 45-minute) race around the 4.048 mile (6.515km) circuit beginning at 11am on Sunday.

The time at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin is 15 hours behind Australian Eastern Standard time.

Hunt is the first Australian to compete in the Toyota Atlantic Series since fellow Queenslander David Besnard in 1999 and has received major support from Wright Patton Shakespeare Financial Group, which is owned by Gold Coast businessman Craig Gore and Champ Car World Series Co-Owner and Aussie Kevin Kalkhoven.

-jhr-