Atlantic Long Beach Report - April 18-20

April 20, 2008 - Daniel would have a good start this afternoon moving to P6 from ninth on the grid but he could have used a couple of cautions to help him get further up the field. The Long Beach circuit is not the best for passing and any banzai moves could result in disaster so daniel settled into sixth and kept watch for any opportunity to move up. But with the top sixteen cars qualifying in just under one second, it would be tough to make any moves. A late-race full course caution did bunch up the field but at the green, with just eight laps to go, telemetry showed the cars pretty much strung out nose to tail to the checkers. Daniel would bring the Metro Directories #70 Eurointernational Swift 016.a across the line P6 for a good start to the season and valuable championship points. We will have some comments from Daniel a bit later. Qualifying report April 19, 2008 - After a shaky start to the weekend with gear shift problems, Daniel would go out for the first qualifying session to test changes made in the setup. There would be some improvement and Daniel felt they were going in the right direction for Saturday's second round of qualifying. "The car was a lot better going into qualifying but we pretty much had to use the session as another practice" Daniel noted. "In the end, we feel we have a car to work with on Saturday." Saturday morning warmup showed a bit more speed for Daniel and he would end the session P8 taking a full second off his Friday qualifying time. He would pick up more time in the Q2 session ending the day P9 to start on the inside of row five Sunday afternoon. Daniel commented after qualifying: “The session was alright at the beginning, on the old tires, when everyone else was on old tires, then when we went and switched to new tires our balance when off a little bit, and I got in a bit of lapped traffic, so It kind of threw off the rhythm. I just overall I think it was just bad luck. I was only 4/10ths off the pole so, it’s extremely tight up the front, and I’m 9th, so I’m going to have a difficult race tomorrow but I’m really looking forward to it.” The race begins at 1:30 ET Sunday. We will have a report following the event. Daniel Morad all set for his first Atlantic race Season opener at Long Beach this weekend April 17, 2008 - It has been a busy few weeks for Daniel Morad between testing his new Eurointernational Atlantic Swift 016.a and attending A1GP events in South Africa, Mexico and China as A1 Team Canada's designated rookie. Daniel arrived in California straight from China this week, to prepare for the first round of the Cooper Tire presents the Atlantic Championship powered by Mazda this weekend in Long Beach. Daniel, who celebrates his eighteenth birthday next week, is looking forward to his first race in over four months. "I'm very excited for the season opener in Long Beach" commented Daniel. "I haven't raced since the Formula BMW World Final at the end of November so this will really nice to get back to some racing. Testing has gone very well and after only 5 days of driving the Atlantic car, we feel very confident that we can bring home a top result." Daniel will compete with Eurointernational this season, continuing his association with the team that began in 2007 running the Formula BMW USA series. Together they would win the championship and go on to have a great run at the Formula BMW World Final winning two of three heat races. He would also attend the BMW-Sauber Pit Lane Park exhibit in Las Vegas performing demonstration runs in the Formula BMW FB02. Daniel, a graduate of the Sunoco Ron Fellows Karting Championship, will also continue as a Red Bull-supported athlete in 2008. Daniel is also pleased to welcome back Metro Directories as a sponsor in his Champ car Atlantic Championship bid. "Metro Directories has been a strong supporter through my two years in Formula BMW" noted Daniel. "We are happy to have them back this year and I hope we can reward their support of my racing career." The Cooper Tire Presents The Atlantic Championship Powered by Mazda gets underway on the streets of Long Beach on Friday (18th) with practice and the first round of qualifying. A second round of qualifying goes on Saturday afternoon with the 60-minute race taking place on Sunday at 10:30 PST (13:30 ET).

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