BRNO, Czech Republic—A1 TEAM USA’s Buddy Rice will start from 14th position Sunday in the Sprint race of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport at Brno.
“We made the ‘We The People’ car better for the Sprint qualifying, but were prevented from starting closer to the front when I was held up in traffic by slower cars on my timed lap,” Rice said. “It’s very unfortunate, but at least we know we’ve made gains in performance for both races.”
In Saturday’s qualifying, Rice, of Phoenix, Ariz., had a fast lap of 1:46.780 in Sprint and ran 1:47.38 for 20th on the grid for the Feature. A1GP’s qualifying procedure allows only one timed lap in each of two 15-minute sessions for both races, with Feature qualifying held prior to the Sprint.
Rice, the 2004 Indianapolis 500 winner, says Brno is a track where the opportunity exists to move up with a faster car.
“It has a lot of passing zones,” Rice said. “Brno is a long (3.36 miles), wide track with hairpins and sweeping turns. It’s like a combination of Sonoma (Infineon) and Road America and if you have a faster car, you have room to pass.”
The Sprint is 20-minutes long and the Feature 70-minutes.
“Starts are a key in this series and I hope Buddy nails both of them and advances rapidly,” A1 TEAM USA owner Rick Weidinger said. “Buddy will need to show his mettle and race hard to the front. We’re still not performing as expected, well off the leader pace, but we showed progress today, going quicker from practice to Feature qualifying to Sprint qualifying. That’s encouraging.”