Wheldon Toronto race notes

England's Dan Wheldon was on course for another 'podium' finish in yesterday's seventh round of the 2001 CART Dayton Indy Lights Championship -- until an engine misfire put paid to his chances.

Yesterday morning's 43-lap curtain-raiser to the Toronto round of the CART FedEx World Series was held on the 1.755-mile street circuit just outside the Canadian city's centre. Dan Wheldon had qualified his Gemstar Communications PacWest Racing Lola-Buick in a strong third position, only 0.176 of a second behind pole position. The 23-year old Briton was running well in third place until lap 15 when a 'full course yellow' flew as a result of Cory Witherill hitting the wall exiting Turn 1. When the track went 'green' a couple of laps later, Wheldon was still third . . . then, on lap 24, Dan lost four places as his car apparently experienced a misfire. He was unable to regain his position, and finished seventh.

After the race, Dan Wheldon said: "My race was working out as planned, and my car was running well for the first half of the race. At the beginning, I put pressure on my team-mate (Mario Dominguez) as long as I could, but then something happened to my car and I lost some power. I'm pretty sure we had a misfire because the engine was making popping noises at high speeds. It seemed to be OK when I got off the gas a little, but something definitely went wrong. We did manage to score a few points for seventh place, but I would have liked to have finished higher."

The next round of the CART Dayton Indy Lights Championship takes place on the 2.258-mile Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, USA on Sunday 12th August.

-CSS