MID-OHIO PRE-RACE REPORT
August 6, 2004 - CITGO Racing's Milka Duno qualified the #2 CITGO Pontiac
Crawford Daytona Prototype 12th on the starting grid in a very competitive
field for the Mid-Ohio Road Racing Classic. The 7th race of the Rolex
Sports Car Series at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course will occur this
Saturday, August 7th, 2004.
Milka's teammate and co-driver Andy Wallace is splitting duties this
weekend by competing in two sports car races - the one here at Mid-Ohio
and another sports car race at Mosport International Speedway in Bowmanville,
Ontario, Canada. Andy will return to the Mid-Ohio circuit tonight and
be ready to go for Saturday's race.
Milka and Andy both tested the #2 CITGO Pontiac Crawford Daytona Prototype
during an official Promoter Test Day on Thursday, August 5. After the
session Andy flew off to Canada giving Milka the entirety of the sessions
today - Friday.
In today's 1st practice session was 90 minutes in length and in this
session Milka was 12th overall with a fast lap of 1:23.663. In the 2nd
practice session of 30 minutes Milka maintained her position while continuing
to work on the set-up for the afternoon's qualifying session.
The 15-minute qualifying session began at 4:55pm EST and Milka improved
her fastest time in practice by over half a second - 0.667 to be exact
- and placed the car 12th overall on the grid for the start of the race
on Saturday. The starting order for the race finds all Daytona Prototype
cars very close in qualifying times, which makes Milka's qualifying
time even more impressive.
"With Andy being away today I really got a lot of valuable time
in the car," said Milka. "I've raced here before but it was
in quite a different car. The time today was used very wisely and I
had the time behind the wheel to get used to this car on this track.
We were able to do some good set-up work and I feel that we're very
prepared for the race."
Andy and Milka will have one more session on the track - a 40-minute
final practice session on Saturday morning before the race.
The Mid-Ohio Road Racing Classic will be a 250-mile/111-lap/2-hour,
45-minute time limit event. While the race will begin live at 5:30pm
EST, SPEED Channel will broadcast the race tape-delayed at 8:00pm EST.
Milka is currently 4th in the Driver Point Standings. The team is 3rd
in the Team Point Standings, 1st in Manufacturer Point Standings and
2nd in total Team Laps Led with 355.
CITGO, based in Tulsa, Okla., is a refiner, transporter and marketer
of transportation fuels, lubricants, petrochemicals, refined waxes,
asphalt and other industrial products. The company is owned by PDV America,
Inc., an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Petróleos de Venezuela,
S.A., the national oil company of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
For more information on CITGO visit www.citgo.com.
Additional information on drivers Milka Duno and Andy Wallace is available
at www.milkaduno.com and www.andywallace.com, respectively. For more
information on the Grand American Sports Car Series please visit www.grandamerican.com.
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