Team GreenKOOL: Nazareth Race Report

BUDDY RICE WINS KOOL/TOYOTA ATLANTIC RACE AT NAZARETH Team Green Academy Grad Sielsky Takes Third

NAZARETH, Pa. (April 25, 1998) - Buddy Rice of Phoenix, Ariz., cruised to a 12.37-second victory over Canadian Andew Bordin in round two of the 1998 KOOL/Toyota Atlantic Championship at Nazareth Speedway. Third place went to Team Green Academy Class of '96/'97 standout Matt Sielsky of Northbrook, Ill.

The top three finishers were all rookies in the series, thus race winner Rice also claimed the $1,000 KOOL Rookie Challenge award for being the highest finishing rookie. Matt Sielsky's run to third place also earned him an extra $1,000 for winning the KO OL Move of the Race award.

Sielsky graduated to the KOOL/Toyota Atlantic Championship this season after winning the road course championship and finishing second overall in the 1997 Formula 2000 National Championship.

Matt Sielsky, #16 D&L Racing Ralt RT-41:

"About 10 laps into the race I lost brakes on one side of the car, so until I got used to that it was a bit of a handful. I normally use the brakes for turn three and to negotiate traffic. But the car was fantastic. We've got a new engineer and everyon e worked really hard to get a consistent car.

"When I knew about half way through the race that I didn't have a shot at winning, I thought right away about the championship. Since we didn't finish at Long Beach, I knew we had to finish this race. So I just tried to be consistent and not fight it to o much trying to overtake traffic."