Condor Motorsports Prevails in Monterrey , Mexico
June 04, 2005

The dust settled after a hot, humid and exciting weekend in Monterrey , Mexico . For Condor Motorsports it was a weekend that validated the competitiveness of the team and the driver, especially after the Grand Prix of Long Beach events.

The event started in normal fashion, taking it slow and analyzing data after the first session. With a fairly well-balanced car from the beginning, Charles Zwolsman and team concentrated in making adjustments to improve overall grip. In the first qualifying, Zwolsman started the session and traded fast laps with several competitors. A red flag was displayed with about twelve minutes left on the session at which point Charles had the fastest time. Immediately, after the session resumed the team's hopes of capturing the pole vanished as the engine developed an electrical miss. Unfortunately, while the track got better and faster the car sat in the pits with the Condor Motorsports crew diagnosing the problem. The electrical miss was traced to a coil harness and after replacing the offending item the goal was to regain lost ground and concentrate on Saturday's qualifying.

With Zwolsman topping the charts in Saturday's practice session, the driver was back in true form and looking forward to the rest of the weekend. For the second and last qualifying session he repeated his results by posting the fastest lap and qualifying for pole position. He surprised everyone when this lap was actually registered while overtaking a slower car in a difficult place. The crew was looking at the time on the pit monitors and almost disregarded the lap as a "balked" one. There were many double takes to the lap time since it was nearly seven tenths faster than second place.

Remembering the events that followed the Long Beach post qualifying inspection, hereby mentioned for the last time, brought the understandable jitters to the team until the car was cleared from technical inspection. This seal of approval was very special since it now validates Zwolsman's speed and lifts any doubts over past performances.

For the race, Charles had a choice to start either on the left or right side of the track. The obvious decision was driver's right, but his main concern was that it actually was the dirty side of the track approaching turn one. After the fall of the green flag, Zwolsman arrived to turn one with a slight advantage over a very close Tonis Kasemets. Charles took the lead as they ran very close to each other until the half way point when Zwolsman appeared to have gained a second plus advantage over Kasemets. That gap evaporated a few laps later when Zwolsman was forced to back off the throttle due to a lapped car. Kasemets saw the opportunity and quickly got alongside Zwolsman on the inside of turn one. At this time Kasemets, the lapped car and Zwolsman were almost three abreast in the braking zone for turn one. Somehow, nearly touching wheels, Zwolsman drove on the outside of turn one was able to retain the lead.

The Condor Motorsports machine, guided by Charles Zwolsman, crossed the finish line a second-and-a-half ahead of Kasemets to win the Tecate/Telmex Grand Prix Presented by Roshfrans.

Points awarded by capturing the pole position, the fastest lap of the race, laps led and the race win placed Zwolsman in the Championship Points Lead.