Mee hopes for a successful trip north of the border - Speedway Digest

The Cooper Tires Prototype Lites Powered By Mazda field will start its engines July 12-13 at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (CTMP) for Rounds 7 and 8 in the series championship. The only Canadian race on the 2014 schedule for the International Motor Sports Association(IMSA) Development Series will mark Alta Velocita Racing (AVR) driver/team owner Jerome Mee’s first time on the historic 10-turn, 2.459-mile permanent road course.

“This will be my first time here, but the track looks like it’s similar to Watkins Glen as far as being smooth, fast and very high speed,” Mee said. “I’ve looked at the track, have my drivers’ notes, and it looks like a lot of fun.”

Mee is fresh off his first 2014 Lites 2 victory June 28 at Watkins Glen. He is focused on continuing to make improvements in the No. 95 AVR machine at CTMP, commonly known as Mosport.

“I tend to take things one step at a time,” Mee said. “It was great to win, but frankly it’s a new track, new day, new conditions and new everything. We’re going to take the same exact approach, and that is to go into practice and diagnose the track, look at data and get the car set up the right way.”

The Cooper Tires Prototype Lites field will hit the pavement Wednesday, July 9 for a Promoter Test Day, which will give Mee more time to learn the circuit.

“It’s signifigant that we have extra time,” Mee said. “We have three 40-minute sessions, which is more than double the amount of time we had before qualifying at Watkins Glen. There are challenges with not having a lot of time, but when you have a lot of time it makes your expectations higher, and you want to be quicker when it gets to qualifying time.”

Qualifications for Rounds 7 and 8 begin at 3:40 p.m. (ET) Friday, July 11. The green flag will drop for Race One’s 30-minute sprint at 6:45 p.m. Saturday, July 12. Race Two’s 45-minute event starts at 9:50 a.m. Sunday, July 13.

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Adam Sinclair

NHRA, IHRA, Motocross and other forms of motorsports Staff writer
About Me: Adam has been a race fan since the first time he went through the tunnel under the Daytona International Speedway almost 30 years ago. He has had the privilege of travelling to races all across the state of Florida (as well as one race in Ohio), watching nearly everything with a motor compete for fame and glory, as well as participating in various racing schools to get the feel of what racecar drivers go through every week. Adam has spent the last three years covering motorsports for Examiner.com., where he had the opportunity to see the racing world from behind the scenes as well as the grandstands. He invites everyone to follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus, and looks forward to sharing his enthusiasm for all things racing with the readers of SpeedwayDigest.com.Be sure to tune in for his weekly sports talk program, Thursday Night Thunder, where he discusses the latest in motorsports news with drivers, crew members, and fans. The show takes place every Thursday at 8:00 pm EST on the Speedway Digest Radio Network.