Rain and Handling Problems Cause Havoc for Lee In First Half of PIR Atlantic Doubleheader

PORTLAND, Ore., June 9 - Matt Lee of Syosset, N.Y. had his hands full Saturday in the first half of a Champ Car Atlantic doubleheader at Portland International Raceway due to pouring rain and an ill-handling race car.

The teen from Syosset, N.Y. qualified 12th and had a great start, avoiding some problems ahead of him to vault to ninth place before the first caution waved on the initial lap. He held his position on the restart on lap four, and moved into eighth on lap five.

Although each lap he ran was faster than the one before it, he slipped to ninth on lap seven and tenth on lap nine. A spin on lap 12 dropped him to 13th, and another a bit latter dropped him back to 18th. He ran his fastest lap of the race on lap 16, however, when he was timed in 1:26.831 for an average speed of 81.427 miles per hour for the 1.964-mile road course.

Although Lee did the best he could with the Conquest Racing/Integrated Structures No. 44, he slipped a couple more spots near the end to finish 19th when the race ended on lap 30.

"It was pouring, and the car was very hard to drive," Lee said afterwards. "The whole race was a struggle. I went off a few times. I'm really disappointed. Hopefully we'll do better tomorrow, but that will be hard too since we qualified 18th for Sunday's race. The weather forecast for tomorrow is for more rain too."

The Conquest Racing team will work hard overnight to try to improve the car for the second half of the doubleheader tomorrow.

Saturday's Atlantic race will be broadcast on ESPN2 at 5 p.m. ET on June 18, with the broadcast of Sunday's race following a half-hour later.

Following the Portland doubleheader the circuit travels to the Burke Lakefront Airport course in Cleveland, Ohio for a race on June 24.

For more information see mattleemotorsports.com and champcaratlantic.com

Source: Linda Mansfield, restartcommunications.com