World Speed Motorsports driver Grant Ryley finished 11th in today’s CART Toyota Atlantic race at Nazareth Speedway following contact with the Turn 2 wall. Ryley was uninjured in the incident, however, was unable to finish the 65-lap event. Teammate Tom Wood also contacted the Turn 2 wall while trying to avoid Ryley’s car.
Ryley, driving the #14 Northwest Speedwerx/ Cupertino Electric/Velocity Ventures/Del Monaco Specialty Foods Swift, was pitched sideways over the Turn 2 bumps and made hard contact with the wall at the exit of the turn on lap 20. Wood, behind the wheel of the #15 World Speed Motorsports/Super 8 Motels Swift, lost control and hit the wall in the very same spot.
“It was definitely one of the hardest hits I’ve had in a race car,” said Ryley, of Saratoga, California. “It’s really a shame because I think we had a car capable of going the distance. We’ll take a look at the data and see if we can pinpoint what happened. The guys worked hard all weekend and I hate for it to end this way. But, we’ll be back.”
Today’s race was won by Tony Ave, followed by Hoover Orsi and Rodolfo Lavin. Round three of the 12-race CART Toyota Atlantic Championship series continues on June 2 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as part of the Miller Lite 225 CART FedEx Championship weekend. Today’s Atlantic race will be televised via espn2 on Sunday, May 13 at 10:30 pm Eastern, with an encore presentation on Wednesday, May 16 at 4:30 am Eastern.
Further information is available on the team’s web site at www.worldspeed.com as well as the official Atlantic series site at www.toyotaatlantic.com