Wilson Faces Uphill Struggle

A promising morning practice session came to naught when the Englishman made a rare mistake in the early stages of the 35-minute timed session, damaging his car badly enough to prevent him playing any further part in the on-track activity.

"The car just got loose into Turn Four and I went off and hit a bump wrong," explained Wilson. "The car submarined a bit and it bent the front wishbone and damaged the front wing."

The RuSPORT mechanics laboured in vain to repair Wilson's car for a last-minute foray; they were just putting the finishing touches to the #9 machine when the sister car of AJ Allmendinger thumped the tyre barrier at Turn Eight, bringing out the red and chequered flags.

"The thing to do now is to really focus on getting a good race car so that we can make some progress through the field tomorrow," Wilson added.

"Fortunately Cleveland lends itself to a few more passing opportunities than most other places we race at."