Sebring: Conquest Racing qualifying report

Second Row Start for Conquest Racing's Schlegelmilch at Sebring

Sebring, Fla (March 19, 2009) - Conquest Racing may have been away from the Cooper Tires Presents the Atlantic Championship Powered by Mazda scene for one year, but it's not showing. The team will be starting fourth with rookie Harald Schlegelmilch in Sebring, in their Atlantic ‘come back'.

Both Schlegelmilch and teammate James Winslow were hoping to improve their positions heading into the final round of qualifying at the 3.7-mile Sebring International Raceway road course today. However, much slower track conditions came into play and no one in the Atlantic field was able to move up the starting lineup. Therefore, the Conquest drivers will start the race in the positions they obtained yesterday with Schlegelmilch fourth and Winslow 13th on the grid.

Conquest Driver Notes and Quotes:

4th - #21 Harald Schlegelmilch (R), Conquest Racing Mazda-Cosworth/Swift 016.a/Cooper

- Schlegelmilch's fast lap of 1:53.810 was registered in what was an impressive performance by the young Latvian driver during yesterday's qualifying session.

- Tomorrow's race at Sebring will be the rookie's first Atlantic Championship start.

- Harald competed last season in the GP2 Asia Series and Formula Masters International Series.

What Harald had to say:
"I think we could have done a bit better today, with the track being slower the goal was to finish on top of this session but overall I'm still happy to be starting fourth in my first Atlantic race. I'm looking forward to the race tomorrow. It will be very exciting with a lot of passing. The first lap will probably be a little crazy and being the first race of the season, everyone will be going for it."

13th - #12 James Winslow (R), Conquest Racing Mazda-Cosworth/Swift 016.a/Cooper

- Although Winslow, like the other Atlantic drivers, was unable to improve his lap time from yesterday when the track was much quicker, the Brit showed the biggest improvement in terms of reducing the gap to the front-runners.

- Will be making his first Atlantic Championship start in tomorrow's race.

- James is the current Australian Formula 3 Champion.

What James had to say:
"It's too bad that the track conditions were slower today. I was looking forward to moving up, but it's the same for everybody out there. Despite not being faster than yesterday I think we made some good progress and I can't wait to start the race yesterday."

What Team Owner Eric Bachelart had to say:
"We took a sabbatical year from Atlantic racing last season and to come back here and to be competitive with a young driver like Harald is very encouraging. We've been successful in this series in the past and we look to continue that. Harald has shown a lot of potential and has done really well so far. As for James, he has not had that much time in the car compared to others but I think he has progressed well since Tuesday. He's reduced the gap between him and the top guys and he's much more comfortable in the car than he was two days ago. It's looking good for the race tomorrow."

-credit: cr

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