CTE Racing HVM drivers Nelson Philippe and Dan Clarke qualified seventh and eighth during the first round of qualifying at the Portland International Raceway this afternoon. source: champcarworldseries.com Nelson Philippe (#4 CTE Racing-HVM/Ford-Cosworth/Lola) qualified seventh as the sun took over the clouds this afternoon, by posting a fastest lap time of 59.354 at the 1.9-mile road course under dry conditions. During the last lap of qualifying, which proved to be his quickest, a Rocketsports car that entered the crowded field seconds before the checkered flag blocked Philippe. "We had a good car from when we left the test after Long Beach but both Dan and I weren't able to fully showcase our speed today. Dan caused a red flag and lost his fastest lap and the Rocketsports car on a very quick lap blocked me so I was not able to finish to my potential. It is unfortunate because we could have been third and fourth. It's going to be interesting to see what everybody does tomorrow but overall it's looking positive for us. " Rookie Dan Clarke (#14 CTE Racing-HVM/Ford-Cosworth/Lola), who posted a fastest lap time of 59.151, ended his session early as he spun, and stalled the #14 machine on turn 11 causing a red flag which resulted in him losing his fastest lap leaving him on his second-best time of 59.416. Clarke ran 10 laps of his possible 15 placing him eighth from his possible fourth during qualifying this afternoon at Portland. "Overall I'm quite pleased with our performance today. I've been able to run comfortably within the top ten all afternoon, but I think we'll be able to improve the car; I'm sure there's more speed to come. We've saved our softer red tyres for tomorrow as well, so this should also help us to stay competitive. It's good to have been fourth quickest and top rookie on lap times, but I had a small problem on the final turn towards the end of qualifying. I just ran onto the grass, but unfortunately stalled, so we had to forfeit our best lap and drop from fourth to eighth. But we know we have a good car and we should be able to bounce back tomorrow." CTE-HVM team co-owner Keith Wiggins comments: "We had a reasonable day but it's a shame that Dan lost his fastest lap because we would have been fifth. However, the positive of that is that he has shown he is capable of doing it again tomorrow. Nelson has also proved that we are very close so we're in a good situation for tomorrow."
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