LONG BEACH, Calif. (April 18, 2004) - In a dominating performance, polesitter Ryan Dalziel (#28 Pro-Works) led every lap en route to the third victory of his Toyota Atlantic career, beating rookie teammate Andrew Ranger (#27 Tide/Charmin/Mr. Clean/Snugabye) to the stripe by 2.009 seconds in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach (SPEED Channel, April 25, 12:00 Noon ET).
It was the first victory for the 2003 Toyota Atlantic runner-up since his triumph at Portland last year, and in all three of Dalziel’s wins, he started from the pole position and led every lap. The Scot earned bonus points for taking the pole position, leading a lap, and turning the fastest lap in the race, and he holds the lead in the Toyota Atlantic Championship standings for the first time in his career.
The race was slowed four times for 14 laps due to full-course caution flags, the first of which came on Lap 13 to retrieve the car of outside polesitter, Jon Fogarty (#96 Turbodyne/Wine Country Motorsports), who suffered a mechanical failure while running in second position. The DNF for Fogarty was just the third time in 15 career starts in which he didn’t finish inside the top-five, and snapped a streak of consecutive top-four finishes at seven races.
Ranger benefited the most from Fogarty’s misfortune as he battled from fifth on the starting grid to third place on the opening lap, and managed to move up to second when Fogarty exited the race. The caution allowed Ranger to close up on Dalziel’s gearbox, but the Scottish veteran got the better of his rookie teammate on the ensuing restart, pulling out to a huge advantage.
But the yellow would come out quickly, as Fogarty’s teammate, Alex Figge (#69 Turbodyne/Wine Country Motorsports) suffered a similar fate and stopped on the circuit in Turn 1 and rookie Tonis Kasemets (#6 Flexovit Abrasives/MK Ind./TMI/Red Line Oil) damaged his front wing and came to a stop on the back side of the circuit in a separate incident on Lap 16.
The green flag flew once again four laps later, and Dalziel again pulled away, but the full-course caution came out again just seconds later when rookie Tony Loniewski (#34 Margay) made contact with the Turn 1 tire barrier, and the day’s final caution came out on the ensuing restart when Dan Selznick (#49 The Room Store) hit the Turn 1 tire barrier on Lap 24. Neither driver was injured. At that time, race control determined that it would be a "timed race" and would end after 50 minutes rather than completing the full, 32-lap distance.
The race was restarted for the final time on Lap 26, and Dalziel pulled out to a comfortable margin ahead of Ranger once again, and would not be challenged, and the race ended one lap early, at the conclusion of Lap 31. Ranger, the 17-year-old rookie earned the best result for a rookie driver in his first race in Toyota Atlantic since Fogarty won his first Toyota Atlantic race in Monterrey, Mexico in 2002.
It was the first 1-2 finish in the history of Sierra Sierra Enterprises, and the first 1-2 for teammates since A.J. Allmendinger and Aaron Justus took the top two spots in Toronto last year. It was the second straight sweep of the top-two positions for teammates in Long Beach, as Allmendinger won and Justus claimed second one year ago.
Also getting off to a good start in his first full Toyota Atlantic season was Bryan Sellers (#19 Lynx Racing), who came home with his first Toyota Atlantic podium with a third place run. Sellers eclipsed his previous best result of sixth at Mid-Ohio, and has now established career best results in each of his five career starts in the series.
Danish rookie Ronnie Bremer (#12 Port-A-Cool) capped a fine weekend with a fourth place showing for Brooks Associates Racing. With Ranger in second and Bremer in fourth, it was the best performance for two rookies in their first series start since Fogarty won and Dalziel finished second at Monterrey in 2002.
Danica Patrick (#24 Argent Mortgage Company) rounded out the top five with a fifth-place performance for her third consecutive top-five result dating to a fifth place result at Denver in 2003. Rookie Jonathan Bomarito (#8 Dixien/Omnisource) improved from 11th at the start to finish sixth, while Rocky Moran Jr. (#4 Healthcare Privileges/PaySystems/King Taco) finished seventh in his return to the series after a one-year absence.
Finishing eighth was Bomarito’s Transnet Racing teammate, Alex Garcia (#9 Dixien/Omnisource), with Aussie rookie Josh Hunt (#15 Wright Patton Shakespeare/Atkinson Gore Group) in ninth, and another rookie David Sterckx (#7 Penn Capital) filled out the top-10. Sterckx received the bonus for the greatest improvement between starting and finishing position going from 18th on the grid to 10th at the finish in his first single-seater race since 1999.
Rookie Justin Sofio (#65 Bare Elegance/Valley Ball) took the victory in the C2 category and finished 13th overall ahead of fellow C2 competitors Tom Nastasi (#23 USG Sheetrock/Mactank) and Loniewski, and rookie Al Unser (#5 200+ Marketing & Management/Pacific Marketing) was the first driver out of the race when he and Nastasi tangled in Turn 6 on the opening lap, leaving the fourth-generation racer with terminal damage to his race car.
Television coverage of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach will be provided by SPEED Channel on Sunday, April 25 at 12:00 Noon ET, and the next event on the 2004 Toyota Atlantic Championship Presented by Yokohama schedule is the Tecate/Telmex Monterrey Grand Prix on May 23.
Quotes From The Day’s Top Three Finishers
RYAN DALZIEL (#28 Pro-Works): "It’s been an absolutely mega weekend for us. Last year was an awesome year, but we were just missing a couple of key items in the championship. We worked hard over the winter, and we basically wanted to find the best teammate possible to challenge for race weekends, and I think Andrew proved this weekend that he’s going to be contender this year. That’s going to make Sierra Sierra (Enterprises) so much stronger than they already are. The race for me was really good. We had an awesome car. We’ve had an awesome car all weekend, and we just fine-tuned it for the race. Things went our way. The restarts were the key to our race at the end. We had an awesome car on cold tires, and I think the only difficulty I had was I had so many restarts that I kept running out of ideas on what to do for the next one. That was probably the hardest part of the race for me. The car was easy to drive. It’s an awesome result for Sierra Sierra and the Kottke family (which owns the Sierra Sierra team)."
ANDREW RANGER (#27 Tide/Charmin/Mr. Clean/Snugabye): "I had a great start. I drafted from a guy in front of me, and as soon as I went through Turn 1, I took third place. I pushed the whole way. I was impressed. I didn’t think there would be that many yellows in the race, but I kept my focus during the yellows. I didn’t have as much traction as Ryan (Dalziel) on the restarts, which is why I couldn’t catch him. I want to thank my team. I’m very nervous, but I’m happy to come in second. I’m very proud of myself."
BRYAN SELLERS (#19 Lynx Racing): "I think it feels great to be here, especially in Long Beach. I’m glad to have my first podium here. The race went really well, I’d have to say. The beginning of the race when it went green, I was able to hang with Andrew (Ranger), and unfortunately we kind of lost sight of Ryan (Dalziel). The race, up until the yellows, was going really well. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to keep going and see where we could have ended up. I have to thank everyone at Lynx and everyone here at Long Beach."
