McAleer Opens Playboy MX-5 Cup Weekend By Leading Friday Practice
Jul. 20, 2012 - BOWMANVILLE, Canada - SCCA Pro Racing Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup Championship leader Stevan McAleer, of Putnam Valley, N.Y., led Friday morning’s opening practice session at the Mobil 1 Grand Prix of Mosport at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
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| McAleer led Skeer in the opening practice on Friday (Lumley photo) |
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McAleer turned a lap of 1:35.815 (92.390 mph) around the 10-turn, 2.459-mile circuit. His best lap came late in the 30-minute session following a brief red flag when Nathanial Sparks’ No. 3 OOTSK Performance Mazda MX-5 hit the tire barrier in the final turn with 10 minutes remaining. Sparks walked away, and his car was towed to the paddock for repairs.
The point leader’s time in the No. 28 Blue Mercury Capital/Numerix/CJ Wilson Children’s Charities was 0.371-second ahead of his CJ Wilson Racing teammate, Elliott Skeer.
“I was here in 2008 for Skip Barber Nationals [in a formula car], and it’s quite different than I remember,” McAleer said. “We seem to be running well. I was having some problems in Turn 2 yesterday, I was quite a lot down on apex speed. So I was just about getting a little bit more commitment today, seeing if we could man up, if you want to call it that.”
“We’re looking good. We’ve got three cars that are all running pretty strong right now, so we should be ok for qualifying.”
Skeer’s No. 17 MAZDASPEED/Sparco MX-5 was second on the charts with a time of 1:36.186 (92.034 mph).
The Sick Sideways duo of John Dean and Christian Szymczak were third and fourth in the session, with Dean’s No. 16 Projections Research/Sick Sideways MX-5 leading the way in 1:36.260 (91.963 mph). Szymczak followed with a 1:36.326 (91.900 mph) in the No. 34 Projections Research/Sick Sideways MX-5.
Ara Malkhassian, second in the championship and coming off of a win at Road America, was fifth in the No. 11 ALARA Racing MX-5 with a 1:36.556 (91.681 mph).
Zachry Lee, the Skip Barber Racing School MAZDASPEED Pro Series class championship leader, was quickest of the drivers in that class with a lap of 1:39.908 (88.605 mph) in the No. 62 Skip Barber Racing MX-5.
The SCCA Pro Racing Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup Round 7 weekend continues on Friday afternoon with a second practice at 1:15 p.m. (EDT), with qualifying on Saturday and Round Seven on Sunday afternoon.
More information on the SCCA Pro Racing Playboy MX-5 Cup is available at www.mx-5cup.com.
Follow the MX-5 Cup on Twitter @MazdaMX5Cup.
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