LONG BEACH, California - Friday 13 April 2007 - Following a stellar debut last weekend in Las Vegas that saw 18 year-old Robert Wickens finish a close second and 16 year-old teammate John Edwards fall out of the race while running a strong seventh, the Red Bull Team Forsythe transporter rolled into Long Beach this week primed for the 33rd edition of the granddaddy of North American street races. A huge crowd turned out on a perfect Friday in Southern California as Cooper Tires Presents the Champ Car Atlantic Championship Powered by Mazda, Round Two.

Following a problematic morning session that saw Wickens tag the unforgiving concrete and Edwards gradually come up to speed in his first visit to the iconic event, this afternoon's first round of Qualifying proved to be more fruitful as Wickens posted the fourth quickest time with Edwards just behind in sixth. With final qualifying coming up on Saturday, the Red Bull cars are poised for another strong result.

Robert Wickens

#3 Red Bull / INDECK

Mazda-Cosworth/Cooper/Swift

Qualified Fourth

1m17/131s / 91.854mph / 147.821kph

"The car is very quick here and even though our result was pretty good, I don't think it really reflects our potential. I was quickest midway through the session on old tires but when we went to new tires we immediately had a red flag that lasted a long time. When it finally went back to green with just a few minutes left we didn't really have time to get the tires up to full temperature so we definitely left quite a few tenths out there. It's not totally surprising on a street circuit; you should expect lots of reds, but up to that point we'd had like twenty minutes of green! We may have waited a bit too late to go to fresh Coopers but if it had stayed green it probably would have been about perfect."

John Edwards

#7 Red Bull / INDECK

Mazda-Cosworth/Cooper/Swift

Qualified Sixth

1m 17.438s / 91.490mph / 147.235kph

"I pretty much had the same issue as Robert. The car was good and I was getting more and more comfortable as I learned the track, but that last red flag was timed just about as badly as it could be. We both had just gone to fresh sets of Cooper slicks and I thought the timing was going to be just right but... not! But our team debrief was pretty upbeat. We know we have the speed and now all we need is just a bit of luck to move up. Tomorrow is another day and our outlook is very positive so I'll sleep well tonight!"

Final Qualifying gets underway Saturday at 12:40pm local/PT (3:40 ET, 19:40 UTC). Get more information and follow live timing at the official website of Atlantic - www.ChampCarAtlantic.com.