Canadian and USA teams show well in Taupo

Robert Wickens successfully carried his front-running form from Friday's practice sessions into Saturday qualifying as the 18-year-old Toronto-native posted A1 Team Canada's best qualifying slot of the 2007-08 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport season courtesy of fourth on the grid for Round 5's Feature race, hosted at Taupo Motorsports Park in New Zealand tomorrow, Sunday 20th January.

Wickens earlier captured eighth on the grid for Sunday morning's shorter Sprint race, the Canadian charger now with four top-ten starts to his credit in just six races representing his country in the winter-based, nation versus nation open-wheel racing series. With Canada currently sitting 13th in the A1GP Nations Standings, the team is seeking a strong double points score tomorrow to improve its standing amongst the 22 competing nations with this weekend's Kiwi outing the half-way stage in the title fight.

Jonathan Summerton qualified A1 TEAM USA in a season-best sixth position for the Sprint and 10th for the Feature on Saturday at the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport at Taupo, New Zealand. "We continue to make inroads in a very competitive series where every team has the same equipment," Summerton said. "We wanted to be higher on the grid for both races, but this is our best overall performance in qualifying this year with two top-10s and we're pleased about that. We had a good run in Sprint qualifying. The 'We the People' car was great in Feature qualifying, but Pakistan car went off in front of us and put dirt on the track. It cost us a few tenths (of a second) easily and those would have moved us up the grid. The car was capable of a top-three."