The start of the Champ Car Atlantic race was given in very bad weather conditions, when a large downpour came to soak the Toronto track. Starting from 14th on the grid, the Québec driver made a good start, avoiding contact and gaining a position in the meantime. However, numerous incidents during the first lap forced the officials to momentarily stop the race.

After a 10-minute break, the drivers were back on track behind the safety car, for the restart of the race. From the first lap of the restart, Kevin Lacroix started climbing positions furiously and found himself in the Top 10. Within the following two laps, Kevin gained two spots per lap, he’s now 6th. “The car was going well, but we couldn’t see anything on track,” said Kevin. “I had to shadow the walls to know where I was at. This way, I had certain reference marks, I was breaking later than the others and that allowed me to gain positions. In these conditions, I was even as fast as the leader who could see the track.”

Another incident brought the pace car back on track. The pace car driver was driving slowly on the straight in order to bunch everyone up. “In rain conditions, the pace car tries usually to bunch up the field in corners since our speed is slower than on the straight and it is less dangerous too,” explains Kevin. “But this time, he tried to group everyone on the straight. The first two didn’t have any problems since they could well see the car, but the 3rd, 4th and 5th cars almost hit the first ones. I was coming in fast when I saw the stopped cars in the straight, I tried to slow down but it was impossible to stop before the impact. I hit two cars and that was it for my race today. The driver following me hit the wall to avoid us.”

“It really is too bad because I could have gone for the win or at least an easy podium,” concludes Kevin.

The Brooks Associates Racing Team had problems finding the right setups on Kevin’s car. “Since we only have one car on track, my engineer asked tips from other teams, who were fast coming in Friday,” explains Kevin. “We brought modifications to the car for Saturday’s practice, but it was even slower than on Friday. We then thought that we don’t have anything to lose, we tried our own setups and it worked.”

“When I showed up for the qualifying session, it was just like if it were practice,” continues Kevin, “since I hadn’t driven with this setup and I quickly realized that the car was faster. I progressed until mid-session, but by the end of the session, I was ready to clock my fast laps but I was constantly blocked and had to be satisfied with 14th place. However, when we analyze the data, sector by sector, I was amidst the fastest on track, except that I wasn’t able to make these times in one lap. With the equipment we have, we can virtually place the finish line elsewhere on the track and calculate the lap time, in this case, I would have made the fourth time. I then knew that I had a good car for the race.”