Plainfield, IL (July 12, 2017) – Ed Jones and Esteban Gutierrez will be making their first appearance on the streets of Toronto this weekend aboard their Dale Coyne Racing Indy cars, as the Verizon IndyCar Series moves north for its only appearance in Canada.
The pair of rookies will have additional help on hand over the weekend with Sebastien Bourdais, who is still recovering from his injuries suffered at Indianapolis, attending this weekend’s race.
Jones and Gutierrez will be facing quite a challenge in Toronto as the track is one of the trickiest, bumpiest, technical tracks on the schedule. They’re hoping that the presence and helpful insight from two-time Toronto race-winner and multiple Toronto podium-finisher Bourdais will help ease the challenge.
Bourdais, who was given the green light last week to put weight on his injured leg, will be making his first appearance at a race track since he attended the Indy 500 last May, a week after his qualifying incident.
This weekend’s Honda Indy Toronto will mark the first trip for Gutierrez to the 1.786-mile, 11-turn street course, while Jones will be making his third appearance, having previously raced there the last two seasons in Indy Lights.
In 2015, the reigning Indy Lights Champion finished fifth in Race 1 of the weekend and went on to finish on the podium in third in Race 2. The following year, he placed sixth and fifth in the weekend doubleheader.
The Dale Coyne Racing drivers will get two 45-minute practices on Friday, July 14 with another 45-minute practice session on the morning of Saturday, July 15 prior to the afternoon’s qualifying session.
The 2:00pm ET qualifying session will be broadcast on tape-delay on NBCSN on Saturday, July 15 at 6:30pm ET. The Honda Indy Toronto, round 12 of the season, will be broadcast live on NBCSN starting at 3:00pm ET Sunday, July 16.
What they had to say:
Esteban Gutierrez – #18 Unifin Honda
“It’s been an incredible challenge so far to jump from a street course, to a road course to a short oval and now back to a street course. Three different types of racing in a very short period of time, but it’s been very fun. Now for Toronto, I don’t know a lot about the track as I’ve never been there before but I’ve been told that it’s very bumpy! It will be important to have a stable car over the bumps, so hopefully we can find a good set up. I think with the experience I’ve gained so far, knowing the car better, every race, every step I am getting more and more confident and gaining more knowledge in what the car is doing in every situation so I hope I can use that experience to move forward and as a team that we can bring a good package to be competitive.”
Ed Jones – #19 Boy Scouts of America Honda
“Toronto is one of my favorite races on the calendar even if I didn’t do that great there in Indy Lights. It’s a difficult track and very bumpy. It’s also very technical and tight in some sections so all that combined makes it very tricky but I can’t wait to get on track. It will be interesting to see how I get on after struggling at Detroit, but we were good at St. Petersburg and Long Beach. I’m hoping my foot will be better when we get there because there is much more braking than this last weekend in Iowa, but it should be alright. I’ll be resting it up this week.”
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