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CART: Carpentier Earns Career-Best Road Course Finish

10 August 1998

LEXINGTON, Oh., - Switching to his backup car for the race, which hadnt seen the track all weekend, Patrick Carpentier drove a hard race to finish 7th at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Round 13 of 19 of the CART FedEx Championship Series.

Carpentiers primary car, in which he qualified 9th on the grid, was too damaged after an off-road excursion during Saturdays qualifying session to be readied for the race.

"I gave everything I had. I was just about ready to run out of steam because I was dehydrated. I didnt drink enough water before the race," said Carpentier. "The race was really challenging. Alex [Zanardi] came up to challenge me, but I wasnt going to give up my position. The Blue Crew was amazing in setting up the backup car like they did. This was a good race for me."

Greg Moore was running strong in 3rd position when an awesome pit stop by the Blue Crew advanced him into the lead. A mishap on exiting the small pit stop box abruptly brought Moores day to an end.

"I was waived out of the pits, and out of the corner of my eye I saw Andre [Ribeiro] coming into his pit, which was in front of mine. I tried to get around his right rear tire which was on the ground, but instead I hit it causing my left-rear suspension to break," said Moore. "Its really unfortunate."

Forsythe Racings Atlantic driver Lee Bentham, who started 2nd on the grid, benefited from teammate Alex Taglianis misfortune to earn his second victory of the season in Round 9 of 13 of the KOOL/Toyota Atlantic Championship. Pole sitter Tagliani retired early in the race with a broken gear box. Bentham leads the Atlantic drivers standings with 121 points, and Tagliani is in second with 99.

Next up for the Champs Cars will be the Texaco/Havoline 200 at Road America, Sunday, August 16th.