April 4, 2005
Valiante's Brilliant Weekend
Finlay/Ten Motorpsorts finishes 7th after leading race and setting fastest lap at California Speedway.
The Finlay/Ten Motorsports team demonstrated this weekend that it will be a force to reckoned with this season by leading 22 of the 84 laps – and setting the fastest lap of the race – at Sunday’s Ferrari Maserati 400 at California Speedway.
In only the third race for the Finlay/Ten Motorsports team, Canadian hotshoe Michael Valiante – substituting for regular driver Memo Gidley who had racing commitments elsewhere -- qualified the #19 Air Force Reserve/Make-A-Wish Foundation/Commercial Defeasance Riley BMW 7th on the grid. This was the team’s best qualifying performance to date, and was only 6/10ths of a second off the pole position. Valiante started the race and moved from 7th to 2nd in just 12 laps. He took the lead on lap 42 with a daring pass and ran at the front until lap 64 when he pitted for fuel, tires and a driver change.
“We had the fastest car on the track, and should have won the race but we got caught out by strategy and yellow flags,” said Valiante. “This team has come so far in just three races that I think we’ve surprised everyone. The car is handling great, the performance and fuel economy of the Dinan BMW engine is impressive, and the drivers and crew all work together well. I think you’ll see this car in victory lane this season, and probably sooner than later.”
Finlay/Ten Motorsports team owner Rob Finlay was understandably disappointed by the weekend’s results, but remains determined to see his team become more competitive at each race.
“We obviously have the team, the car, the engine and the drivers to get the job done, but in this kind of racing strategy is just as important as all of those put together. We had that race won, and then lost it because of some dumb strategic decisions; there are always late-race yellow flags in this series, so basing our plan on the last quarter of the race being green all the way was not very smart in retrospect. We’ll have to re-think our decision-making process between now and Laguna Seca, and I’m confident we’ll give them a run for the money.”