Canadian driver J.F. Veilleux, newcomer to World Speed Motorsports, and teammate Akihiro Asai will start side-by-side for Sunday’s race, round seven of the CART Toyota Atlantic Championship series in Toronto, Ontario, July 14 – July 16, part of the Molson Indy Toronto, CART FedEx Championship weekend, after qualifying today.
Veilleux, of Boucherville, Quebec turned a fast time of 1:08.473 positioning him 11th on the starting grid for tomorrow. “It would have been nice to start further up on the grid, but I feel like I’m a session behind right now because my track time in practice this morning was cut short,” said Veilleux, who was hit from behind in practice causing damage to his gearbox cover. He was only able to complete five laps. “Warm-up tomorrow will be crucial for me. I have a great car, so I am ready to go racing. I just hope I stay out of trouble.” Yesterday, Veilleux, driver of the #14 World Speed – SpeedWerx/Walker Racing swift, attained his best ever provisional qualifying position finishing 6th.
Asai, driver of the #15 World Speed – Pro Staff/Gaikokuya swift, qualified 12th this afternoon with a fast time of 1:08.743. Asai, who yesterday did not make the first qualifying session due to an incident that occurred early in practice, had some catching up to do today. “We are running faster than we did yesterday during practice, but we still need to make some adjustments. I was making some mistakes too, I missed the downshift a couple of times,” said Asai. “This track is very narrow, so I just hope tomorrow I stay on track and keep up with the pace.”
Race day, Sunday, July 16, begins with a 15 – minute warm-up session at 8:00 a.m., before the start of the 35-lap Atlantic race at noon.The Toronto race will be televised on CTV Sportsnet Monday, July 24 at 7:00 p.m. Eastern and RDS, Saturday July 29 at 8:30 a.m. Eastern. ESPN2 and ESPN International will also televise the race, Sunday, July 23 at 10:00 a.m.