St. Petersburg, Fla. (March 10, 2017) – John Cummiskey Racing driver Kris Wright had never raced on a temporary street course before this weekend at St. Pete, so his goals are simple: log laps and run incident-free.
For several of the drivers in the Team Cooper Tire USF2000 Championship Presented by Mazda series, the latter has been difficult, as several cars limped back to the pits in both Thursday’s practice and Friday’s two rounds of qualifying. Wright took a bit of a conservative approach in the No. 34 MasterTech/PPG/Wright Automotive Group car, and while that leaves the 22-year-old starting Saturday’s races in the 18th and 17th positions, respectively, he is OK with the result.
“Running a street course is something that takes some adjustment,” Wright said. “The car bounces around a lot on the bumps, and the walls come up pretty quickly. I believe I could’ve been quicker, but I saw what was happening with some of the other drivers and just wanted to make sure I took care of the car.”
Wright turned 13 laps around the 14-turn, 1.8-mile Grand Prix of St. Pete circuit in the first session, with a best lap of 1 minute, 18.4297 seconds. In 10 laps of work in the second session, Wright logged a time of 1:17.7140.
Colin Kaminsky, whose No. 27 SlickLocks car is being supported by JCR this weekend, will start 19th and 15th on Saturday.
“It’s tough for young drivers to start the season at a street circuit, given how difficult they are to learn to drive,” JCR owner John Cummiskey said. “Kris did a good job taking care of the car, and we are really looking forward to Saturday’s races.”
Race 1 on Saturday will begin at 8:40 a.m. EST and Race 2 will start at 2 p.m. Both races will be 30-minuted timed events.
