Weekend of Disappointment for Arciero-Wells Racing

Arciero-Wells Racing came to the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach hoping for modest success and high fives in what is essentially a hometown race for the Santa Margarita-based Toyota team. But through Saturday, the weekend had been a colossal disappointment.

“We just don’t have the [RV8B] engine developed to the point that we can be competitive,” team owner Cal Wells said. “It’s not to the point where we run consistently. We’re really using this as a test session.

“We’re struggling. . . . I expected to be in the teens.”

Newport Beach’s Max Papis qualified 26th (54.336 seconds on the 1.586-mile course, 105.080 mph) in the MCI Toyota and San Clemente’s Hiro Matsushita qualified 28th (56.167 seconds, 101.654 mph) in the Panasonic Duskin Toyota for today’s 28-car grid.

Papis’ 26th is the worst qualifying position in the two-year history of Arciero-Wells’ premier car.

Wells said he thinks Papis can salvage the weekend.

“We’ve had five developmental issues that required us to change the motor,” Wells said. “Now we’ll go to our real race motor for the race.”

Both Arciero-Wells/MCI Racing cars in the KOOL/Toyota Atlantic Championship series had their troubles, first in qualifying when both had gearbox problems, and then in the race.

Redondo Beach’s Leo Parente, after having the 20th-best practice time Friday, qualified 38th for the 36-car field. Teammate Jeret Schroeder, who had the 13th-best practice time on Friday, qualified 18th (1:01.753, 92.691 mph).

Schroeder, after climbing as high as ninth, was 14th when he was involved in an unavoidable crash in Turn 8 on Lap 11; he was in the third car in a chain reaction when Bertrand Godin spun and tried to straighten himself against the flow of traffic. He finished 32nd.

“Tough weekend,” crew chief Nick Harvey said. “He was definitely headed for a top-10 finish.

“It’s home turf for a lot of us, and Toyota and MCI had a big presence here. This is about as bad as it can get.”

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Santa Ana-based All-American Racers teammates Juan Manuel Fangio II (Miami) and P.J. Jones (Rolling Hills) start on Row 12. Fangio qualified 23rd (53.458 seconds, 106.805 mph) in the Castrol-Jockey Toyota. Jones qualified 24th (53.477, 106.767 mph) for the third time in three races.

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Irvine’s Dan Vosloo started 31st but finished 19th in the Toyota Atlantic race (88.416 mph). Fountain Valley’s Marcelo Gaffoglio (28th) crashed on Lap 13, and Orange’s Rick Ferguson (33rd) crashed on Lap 11.

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Laguna Niguel’s Shigeaki Hattori qualified 11th for today’s PPG Firestone Indy Lites Championship at 10:30 a.m.