Bittersweet Result For Walker Racing in Trois-Rivieres

The eighth round of the Cooper Tires Presents the Atlantic Championship Powered By Mazda, held in Trois-Rivieres, Canada this weekend, proved to be a bittersweet result for all three Walker Racing drivers, Canadian Kevin Lacroix and Brits Greg and Leo Mansell.

Experience started to pay off for Lacroix, a Saint-Eustache, Quebec, Canada native, who started today’s Grand Prix de Trois-Rivieres event from ninth position. The 19 year old competed here in 2006 in Star Mazda and finished fourth. Lacroix had a good start gaining one position on the first lap.

As he continued to tear through the field, the young Canadian decided to take advantage of James Hinchcliffe’s mistake in turn one. Driving side by side for half the corner, the two competitors made contact and, as a result, Lacroix was squeezed into the wall, cutting his day short after just seven laps.

It was a better story for the Mansell duo. Greg Mansell had a good strong start and continued to pick up positions throughout the race. The 20 year old started in twelfth position and finished with his second top-ten result of the season in ninth place.

Today was exactly what Leo Mansell was looking for as well. After a string of bad luck, the rookie maintained pace throughout the race and continued to soldier up the grid. Leo started in 20th position, passed Eric Jensen on lap five and ended the event with a 13th place result.

Walker Racing will head back to their Indianapolis based headquarters where they will regroup before they head out to New Jersey for the Mazda Formula Zoom Zoom on September 14th. Please visit www.walkerracing.com for more updates.

Greg Mansell (#5 Sunseeker): "It was really tough. We had a good car at the start of the race. We tried to look after it and manage the tires, but I think we had some brake issues and it was overheating the brakes a bit towards the end. We are going to look into it. I’m happy with the result, we are improving and that’s the main thing."

Leo Mansell (#15 Sunseeker): "It was an incident packed race. I got a good start off of the line but, unfortunately, a guy on the inside lost it, and I had to run wide to miss him. A part from that, we learned a lot throughout the race and picked up quite a bit of pace relative to qualifying. We are moving forward and that’s all we can ask for."

Kevin Lacroix (#25 Uni-Select/Deans Knight Capital Management Ltd./Wasteco): "I had a very good car and was able to follow the people ahead very closely. I tried to take advantage of that. I saw Hinchcliffe make a big mistake in turn one, so I had the door wide open for turn two. We ran half the corner side by side and then he squeezed me into the wall and I had nowhere to go. It’s a shame because I had a great car to move through the field. Thank you to Walker Racing, my engineer Nick Snyder, my mechanics and my sponsors, Uni-Select, Deans Knight Capital Management Ltd. and Wasteco."

Derrick Walker, Walker Racing Owner: "It was a fairly trying weekend. We searched quite a bit for the setup. I think we had reasonable cars. Certainly, Kevin had a very competitive car for the race and, unfortunately, he didn’t get there.

For Greg and Leo, it’s part of that steep learning curve for Atlantic. This was the first time here for them and it’s another one of those tight street courses, which coming from the UK, they don’t have a great deal of. It’s just a matter of racking one up to experience. They did a good job to finish with the kind of racing that it was, and we move on to the next one."

- Elizabeth Cannon -