Frankie Muniz and Tom Sutherland were back in action at a busy double-header race weekend at the Portland Grand Prix. Mother nature threw a curveball as rain fell for race #1 on Saturday, which contributed to a premature conclusion from both drivers. Frankie Muniz was having a good battle all race, which ended abruptly on the last lap with contact against the tires in the final turn. Tom Sutherland made contact with another car on the start, eventually ending his race on lap 15.
Frankie, driving the #13 Chandler Team Jensen race car, had a much better result in the Sunday race, finishing in 20th place overall. Frankie made an impressive pass on the last lap, and was consistently lapping within a second of the leaders. Another positive step forward for the actor turned professional race car driver in his rookie season in the Atlantic championship.
Meanwhile, Tom Sutherland recovered for a 17th place finish in the Sunday race. Sutherland had much higher expectations for the Portland race weekend, but unfortunately had a crash early in Saturday qualifying which led to a starting position at the back of the 27 car grid. Tom enjoyed a strong race passing many cars, but unfortunately Portland has few good passing zones so his weekend was already compromised by the accident in qualifying.
The Jensen MotorSport team looks to rebound in 2 weeks at the Cleveland Grand Prix on June 22nd – 24th on the ultra fast Burke Lakefront Airport circuit. The team enjoyed strong success at this race in 2006, with rookie driver Steve Ott clocking the fastest time in first qualifying, and scoring a podium finish in the race on Sunday. |