Walker Racing Continues Learning Curve in Trois-Rivieres

Walker Racing’s pilots, Englishmen Greg and Leo Mansell, and Canadian Kevin Lacroix, continued their learning curve today. The trio battled the competitive Atlantic field in final qualifying for tomorrow’s Grand Prix de Trois-Rivieres.

Hometown boy, Lacroix (#25 Uni-Select/Deans Knight Capital Management Ltd./Wasteco), topped the time charts again for the Walker Racing team. The Saint-Eustache, Quebec, Canada native had another good run, logging a number of laps in this morning’s practice and final qualifying.

Lacroix was consistently in third position throughout the second session, but unfortunately, wasn’t able to get a clean lap in, due to traffic. It resulted in a ninth place spot for the young Canadian in tomorrow’s race, making this his seventh top-ten start of the season. The 19 year old recorded a time of 59.543 seconds.

It was mission accomplished today for Greg Mansell (No.5 Sunseeker), with a better outcome for final qualifying after issues he had with his engine yesterday. The 20 year old had good sessions in both stints. Unfortunately, like his teammate, Greg was unable to get a clean lap in and posted a time of 59.891, putting him 12th on the grid.

Today proved to be a little tougher for Leo Mansell (No. 15 Sunseeker), who is still collecting laps and time in the cockpit. The 23 year old recorded the 20th fastest time of 1:01.509. Tomorrow will mark the rookie’s eighth Atlantic Championship start and his first time to compete on the Trois-Rivieres circuit.

Walker Racing will be back on track tomorrow morning at 7:50 a.m. EST and then again at 1:30 p.m. EST for the Grand Prix de Trois-Rivieres. Please visit www.walkerracing.com for more updates on the team.

Greg Mansell (#5 Sunseeker) : "I think Kevin and I got the best out of the cars that we could. It was very difficult to put a lap together with the traffic. We have a really good direction with what we need to do to make the cars better to get that extra time and, hopefully, we can have a good pace in the race."

Leo Mansell (#15 Sunseeker): "Obviously, it was a tough day. We need to find a fair amount of time, which is our main goal for the race tomorrow. We need to just keep trying, keep our heads down, and keep moving forward."

Kevin Lacroix (#25 Uni-Select/Deans Knight Capital Management Ltd./Wasteco): "Our session was not too bad. We were P3 pretty much the whole time. It was pretty tight and I could have been third, but with that little difference of time, I ended with P8. I think the whole field is very close and we have a good car, so we will need to drive a consistent race tomorrow and not crash."

Derrick Walker, Walker Racing Owner: "I don’t think we have the car yet. The conditions are a little bit different from this afternoon than they were this morning and yesterday. We have improved the car, but not well enough for all of our drivers. All three are needing a little bit more than what we are giving them, which is unfortunate, because qualifying is everything around this circuit to be able to gain track position. We will go back and see what we can find."

UPDATE regarding Greg Mansell’s engine: "On further inspection with the Mazda/Cosworth engine in Greg Mansell’s #5 Sunseeker entry, it proved not to be a piston failure as previously stated. The team was still concerned about the engine so we decided to go ahead and change it anyway," stated Derrick Walker.

: Elizabeth Cannon