NAPERVILLE, Ill. – TJ Speed Motorsports driver Christian Weir battled hard to score valuable championship points last weekend when the USF Pro 2000 Presented by Cooper Tires ventured north of the border to the 1.786 mile, 11-turn street circuit in Toronto, Ont., Canada.
Weir was able to improve his results as the weekend progressed, finishing the lone practice session on Friday morning in 14th and then finding more speed later in the afternoon during qualifying for race one to clock the 12th quickest lap of the session and a starting spot on the outside of row six.
He made more progress when he returned to the track Saturday morning for the second qualifying session that set the grid for race two of the weekend by clocking the eighth fastest lap.
“We had very few laps in practice and qualifying due to all the red flags for incidents,” explained Weir. “With 12 laps total before we took to the grid for qualifying, it was not ideal as I was still looking to get into a rhythm.
“It was good to improve in the first three sessions of the weekend but now we need to shift the focus to racing. The goal remains the same from the beginning of the weekend: to finish every lap, stay out of trouble and move forward.”
Taking the first green flag of wheel-to-wheel racing Saturday afternoon, Weir rolled off the grid P12 as he looked to move his way forward. In a race that featured a short red flag for drivers to switch to wet weather Cooper Tires late in the race, Weir fell one position and crossed the line in 13th.
“It was an OK race but obviously not the result we wanted," said Weir. "I had to spend much of the race playing catch up, but we survived. We start in the top 10 tomorrow and aim to rebound from today’s result.”
Unfortunately, Weir's luck was no better on Sunday as his race ended on the opening lap following contact with the barriers.
“The Streets of Toronto did their best to be as challenging as they could be,” concluded Weir. “There were red flags during our one and only practice and during both of our qualifying sessions. The extremely bumpy track was different every time we went out, but I did improve with each session. The rain in race one was just one more curveball. I went into race two feeling very confident and comfortable, but unfortunately was hit in the opening lap and was not able to continue.
"I may not leave Toronto with the results I wanted, but I gained valuable experience in what I consider the most difficult circuit in our calendar. I still don’t know if I will be able to continue the season, but our long break gives us some extra time to work on finding the budget for the last five rounds.”