Testing SpeedwayMedia.com

Tag: Firestone Indy Lights

  • Pole to Victory Lane: Sebastian Saavedra wins Grand Prix of America

    Pole to Victory Lane: Sebastian Saavedra wins Grand Prix of America

    [media-credit name=”IndyCar.com” align=”alignleft” width=”333″][/media-credit]After starting on pole, Sebastian Saavedra remained strong throughout the day to win the 40-lap Grand Prix of America at Barber Motorsports Park. It marks his fourth victory in the series, his first on the season.

    “I think we did an incredible job,” Saavedra says. “The car was great in the beginning, we were able to manage a very good gap on Tristan (Vautier), and at some point we started saving tires. It didn’t work very well. I think when I needed the tires to help me out when Tristan was getting close to me, they were not there. Fortunately it was only five laps to go. They threw me a curve ball over there with that restart but I think we kept a very cool head, very calm, and we did it perfectly.”

    Last week’s race winner Trisan Vautier finished second to keep the points lead, eight points over Saavedra.

    “I’m quite satisfied about the race,” he says. “Second is very good, of course, you love to win, but the Andretti guys were very strong in the open testing, we knew they were the ones to beat and we got very close at the end of the race. I tried at the start, when I saw Sebastian pulling away, to save my tires and try to do a move at the end and catch him at the end and it almost worked. Then we got the yellow flag, which cost us a few laps and it was quite close between us three on the restart, but then another yellow flag. So it was just you know, I have to thank the Sam Schmidt guys, it was a consistent car today.”

    Vautier’s teammate Esteban Guerrieri rounded out the podium as he finished third. Gustavo Yacaman and Victor Carbone rounded out the top five.

    The next Firestone Indy Lights race is the Grand Prix of Long Beach on April 15. The race will be televised by NBC Sports Network at 5 p.m. on April 19. NBC Sports Network covereage of the Grand Prix of Alabama will be televised at 5 p.m. on April 5.

  • Indy Lights: Sebastian Saavedra wins Pole for Grand Prix of Alabama

    Indy Lights: Sebastian Saavedra wins Pole for Grand Prix of Alabama

    [media-credit name=”IndyCar.com” align=”alignleft” width=”300″][/media-credit]With a lap of one minute and 16 seconds, Sebastian Saavedra won the Sonoco Pole Award for the 45-lap Grand Prix of Alabama on April 1st on the 17-turn Barber Motorsports Park road course.

    “It was a very tough qualifying session,” he says. “Very wet in a couple of places and you don’t want it to be wet. A very big thanks to the No. 27 guys. They did an amazing job. This car was unbelievably fast all through the weekend. It was also very fast last week in St. Pete. It feels very good to have our first pole of the season and we will move forward from here.”

    Tristan Vautier will start in second, beside Saavedra, for his second consecutive front row start. He made his Firestone Indy Lights debut last week from the pole at St. Petersburg.

    “I’m happy and frustrated at the same time,” Vautier says. “I’m happy because I feel like we made a big step from practice, and we improved the car a lot. The team and my engineer made the right calls for the car. I’m happy because I feel we could have had this pole, but I’m frustrated because with the red flag we didn’t get to use our last set of tires, we just put it on and then it was red, we just did a warmup lap. But you know, we took a risk in waiting longer and it didn’t work out, so great job from these guys at Andretti/AFS, they made the right call in qualifying and were strong from the start of practice here. So well deserved, and we’ll do our best to do it in the race.”

    Carlos Munoz will start third for his career best start while Esteban Guerrieri starts fourth for his 16th consecutive top-five start, which is a series record.

    There was one incident on the session involving Oliver Webb.

    The Grand Prix of Alabama is set to take place on April 1st with the green flag dropped at 5pm EST. The race will be shown live on the NBC Sports Network.

  • Andretti Autosports Signs Carlos Muñoz to Drive in Indy Lights

    Andretti Autosports Signs Carlos Muñoz to Drive in Indy Lights

    [media-credit name=”Andretti Autosport” align=”alignleft” width=”178″][/media-credit]Andretti Autosport announced it has signed Carlos Muñoz for the 2012 Firestone Indy Lights season.

    “We compete in the Mazda Road to Indy ladder to help develop young and talented people, and Carlos is the latest member of this development team,” Michael Andretti, Andretti Autosport owner says.

    He will be paired AFS Racing/Andetti Autosport’s Sebastian Saavedra. Muñoz will be the third Columbian competing in the Indy Lights.

    “Having two entries in Firestone Indy Lights allows us to be a stronger contender for the championship and we are looking forward to having Carlos join our effort,” Andretti continues.

    Muñoz will drive the No. 26 Dialy-Ser Firestone Indy Lights Car.

    “I am really happy to be joining a team with such great history and to be working with the Andretti family,” Muñoz says. “I think we can do a really good job and be successful this year. I know that Sebastian (Saavedra) and I will work well together as teammates. I am looking forward to joining everyone and excited to go to St. Pete to start the season.”

    Muñoz began racing in karting in 2002 and has competed in European single-seaters since the age of 15. Most recently, he has competed in the Formula 3 Euro Series the last two seasons and competed at the famed Macau Grand Prix and Masters of F3.

    The Firestone Indy Lights season begins this weekend with St. Petersburg this Saturday at 5pm EST. The race will be shown live on NBC.

  • Oliver Webb To Drive For Sam Schmidt Motorsports in Firestone Indy Lights

    Sam Schmidt Motorsports (SSM) announced that Oliver Webb will run the entire Indy Lights schedule in 2012 for the team.

    “The decision to move to the U.S. for Indy Lights was a tough one to make,” Webb said. “However, the efforts of Sam Schmidt and the team made it much easier. We have been in contact with Sam for a couple of years now, and after securing a podium in my Indy Lights debut, I was keen to have a full test program with Sam and the guys. I completed a two-day test and very quickly decided it was the right move for my career toward the top end of motorsport. I look forward to challenging for the 2012 title with SSM.”

    The twenty-year-old comes from Knutsford, England after competing in the World Series by Renault in 2011 for Pons Racing. He made four Firestone Indy Lights starts in 2011 with Jensen MotorSport, scoring his first podium in Edmonton when he finished third.

    SSM had a successful 2011 season as they won the championship with Josef Newgarden. For 2012, Newgarden will be competing in the IZOD IndyCar Series for Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing. The championship last season with Newgarden marked their fourth driver’s championship in six seasons.

    “I have been waiting for this day for quite some time,” Schmidt said. “I invited Oli and his father to the Toronto race in 2009 and have been trying to get him into the series ever since. He is extremely dedicated, focused and has raced in some very competitive European series. He proved he can drive an Indy Lights car when he finished third in his first outing this past season. With his four Indy Lights starts in 2011, we look for him to be at the front of the grid in St. Pete and a championship contender all season.”

    Webb will join the multi-car lineup that has 2011 Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear champion Tristan Vautier behind the wheel.

  • Gustavo Yacaman Leads First Practice For New Hampshire 100

    In practice at New Hampshire Motor Speedway for the Firestone Indy Lights New Hampshire 100, Gustavo Yacaman topped the charts with a lap of 25.0034 seconds.

    “The car felt good today and the track is a lot of fun and it reminds me of Milwaukee,” he said. “I really hope that qualifying doesn’t look like it did in Milwaukee after I topped both practice sessions, I qualified fourth. I hope that this weekend we have the speed to keep our pace up during qualifying and the race. Hopefully we can get a pole and maybe a win. I wouldn’t mind having a perfect weekend. It isn’t easy to pass at this track. It really depends on when you come up on a car that is slower than you, you lose all of your front grip. This is why I feel that qualifying will be so crucial. Whoever is on the pole, unless their car is really off, they will keep the lead. We can still make our car better and go faster so we will see what happens Saturday when everyone puts their little tricks on.”

    Sam Schmidt Motorsports trio Josef Newgarden (25.0242), Bryan Clauson (25.3175) and Esteban Guerrieri (25.4634) followed while Anders Krohn was fifth.

    “It was OK,” Newgarden said. “Obviously it was our first day here and it’s new for everybody like a couple of places on the calendar this year. I think we had a good day. It was definitely productive for what we needed to get done and tested on the car for qualifying and race day. I think we’re looking good here for Saturday and hopefully  we qualify well here because I think that it’s going to be very difficult to pass here with the track configuration and the areo push you pick up here. It’s almost worse than Milwaukee. Qualifying could be crucial for the race and hopefully we can put it together for that session.”

    “It’s (NHMS) a lot of fun,” Clauson said. “It’s a tricky little one mile with a lot of grip and a lot of speed. With the progressive banking, you can use multiple lanes to help your car in several different ways. The Sam Schmidt Motorsports guys gave me a great Mazda Road to Indy/NOS Energy Drink No. 77. It’s been a good day of practice here, and I feel really good about the car we have going into this weekend’s race. When you’re fast right off the trailer, it gives you a lot of confidence. It allows you to start working on the little details that are probably going to win you the race. These guys unloaded a great race car for me today, and we’ve just been fine-tuning it all day long.”

    “I think it was a good learning process coming back to the ovals,” Guerrieri said. “The track is a bit tricky, so my approach was to gradually be more aggressive. I think it was a good day. We found the pace and worked on the car. We have good information to analyze Friday. Overall it was good and I’m confident.”

  • Esteban Guerrieri Scores Third Consecutive Sonoco Pole Award in Toronto

    On July 9th, the Firestone Indy Lights hit to the 11-turn temporary street course at Exhibition Place in Toronto, which saw Esteban Guerrieri score his third consecutive Sonoco Pole award with a lap of 1 minute, 2.986 seconds. With the pole, Guerreri gave team owner Sam Schmidt his 42nd pole award.

    “Since the beginning, everything worked quite well,” he said. “We were quick yesterday and we didn’t put any tires, we saved the tires for qualifying this morning, and I was feeling good straight away. I love the circuit, I love the city, the atmosphere, everything, so I had a lot of fun. The reward for the guys is the best I can give them, so I’m very grateful to them and to my sponsors.”

    Stefan Wilson will join him on the front row (1:03:45) after losing his quickest lap (1:02:8714), and what would’ve been his first pole start, due to a local caution on the course.

    “I felt like I got the best out of my car and pushed it to the limit,” he said. “Unfortunately I still had my last lap taken away with the yellow flag, so I’m pretty upset about that. It felt amazing; the car felt good. We made some really good changes this weekend and I was definitely a contender for the pole. It’s just heartbreaking to get that taken away. It just gives us more motivation to go for the win tomorrow.”

    Wilson’s teammate Peter Dempsy qualified third, followed by Anders Korhn and Josef Newgarden.

    Gustvao Yacaman got sixth, followed by Duarte Ferreira and Bruno Andrade. The race in Toronto on the 1.755-mile course will mark Andrade’s Firestone Indy Lights debut.

  • Stefan Wilson Leads Firestone Indy Lights Practice For Toronto 100

    Stefan Wilson Leads Firestone Indy Lights Practice For Toronto 100

    At the end of the only practice for the Firestone Indy Lights, it was Andretti Autosport driver Stefan Wilson at the top with a speed of 96.254 mph.

    “We just went out there to see how the car was reacting, and the car was good straight out of the box,” Wilson said. “The track can change from year to year, so you never know how it’s going to be for the first practice. We had a few things nailed down that we wanted to try; some worked, some didn’t. I think we found some things that will help us move forward in a good direction for the rest of the weekend here in Toronto.”

    Rookies Estban Guerrieri (95.863) and Josef Newgarden (95.428) were second and third, respectively.

    “For myself, it’s very important to find the right way in the track because there are plenty of bumps, but yes it was fun,” Guerrieri commented.

    Daniel Herrington and Peter Dempsey rounded out the top five. Dempsey’s deal with Andretti Autosport just came together in the middle of the week has a lot of people watching him to see how he’ll do.

    “My first practice went as well as we had expected,” he said. “It’s great Stefan was quickest out there because it gives us some good stuff to work off of. I felt pretty comfortable with the car. Adapting to a new car, especially on a street course that’s a little bumpy, is always a bit difficult. Overall we were pretty happy with practice. We aimed for a top five and that’s where we finished.”

    David Ostella was sixth, followed by Gustao Yacaman, Victor Carbone, Anders Krohn and Bruno Andrade. The practice saw no issues for any of the drivers.

    Indy Lights qualifying will take place on Saturday at 11:45am EST with the race on Sunday at 12:15pm.

  • IndyCar Suspends O2 Racing Technology and Team Owner Mark Olson

    IndyCar, the governing body of the Firestone Indy Lights, announced yesterday that they have suspended the entrant license/membership of O2 Racing Technology and the individual membership of team owner Mark Olson until December 31, 2012, for actions during The Milwaukee Mile event June 18-19.

    Officials said that Olson attempted to effect the conduct of the David Hobbs 100 as he encouraged others to breach their contracts with officials and withdraw from the event. The only entries to withdraw from the event were the O2 Racing Technology No. 36 and No. 63 entries.

    “The mere act of attempting to impede the conduct of the event is something we will not tolerate,” Roger Bailey, Executive Director of Firestone Indy Lights, said. “We believe we have a great championship with Firestone Indy Lights that will help develop drivers and teams to prepare to move to the top level of open-wheel racing in North America, and we must maintain the integrity of our series.”

    The actions were in violation of multiple rules as listed in the Firestone Indy Lights rulebook:
    · Rule 1.1:  Actions threatening the integrity of INDYCAR, Firestone Indy Lights and/or orderly conduct of an event.
    · Rule 2.11 (C):  Conduct creating adverse notoriety with respect to INDYCAR, Firestone Indy Lights or an event.
    · Rule 9.3 (A): Attempting to or engaging in unsportsmanlike conduct or conduct detrimental to racing, INDYCAR and/or Firestone Indy Lights.
    · Section 14 of the Event Entry Form: Engaging in tactics which would disrupt or delay the events.

    The penalized parties may protest/appeal as prescribed in the Firestone Indy Lights rulebook. A protest/appeal may result in an increase, decrease or no change to the penalty.

  • Team Moore Racing Happy With Pair of Top Fives at Iowa Speedway

    Team Moore Racing Happy With Pair of Top Fives at Iowa Speedway

    While the focus has been on Andretti Autosport and the win in the IZOD IndyCar Series, the Team Moore Racing teammates are also happy about their results at the Sukup 100 at Iowa Speedway last Saturday night in the Firestone Indy Lights division.

    Gustavo Yacaman scored his best career finish of second after starting on the front row.

    “This was the hardest frigging race I’ve ever driven, so close on so many occasions,” Yacaman said. “Between Bryan (Clauson) and I, a fly couldn’t be able to be there. We were running so close.

    The second place finish marks his first Podium finish since Toronto last year where he finished third. The race wasn’t easy, though, for Yacaman after having to survive an early race incident with pole sitter Esteban Guerrieri, which almost sent him into the turn three wall.

    “I was either going to go for the lead or go for the wall,” Yacaman said. “I told everyone on the team I wasn’t going to lift. You know, I didn’t lift. That’s what happened. I’m sure next time he’ll give me a little bit more space, maybe a foot or two instead of just chopping me right off. He knows I’m not afraid of taking both of us out. It’s how it works. You know, you’ve got to earn your respect. That’s what I did.

    “Yeah, it was a lot of risk, but hey, it paid off. I’m pretty sure not even just on ovals but also on road courses he’s going to know I’m there and I’m not going to lift, and we’re not here to make friends, we’re not here to be careful. This is racing, and like they say, rubbing is racing, right?”

    Guerrieri wasn’t as luck as he had to retire with damage several laps later.

    For Yacaman, he says the thanks goes to his crew, and also team owner Mark Moore, who is working as the team’s engineer/strategist also.

    “It was a pretty tight finish, and I really want to thank Mark (Moore),” Yacaman said. “We worked so hard. We’ve had a strong car so many times, but it’s really good to capitalize on that equipment he’s given me. We’ve just had so much bad luck at Indy, Barber. Long Beach was all right, but we want more, we want podiums, we want race wins. I’m working really hard with the team, and here we are, first podium, and I’m going to keep working just as hard to keep them coming.”

    Meanwhile, Victor Garcia finished fourth in the race, despite starting at the back of the pack due to a fuel pump issue. The finish for Garcia also allowed him to move back up to third in the championship standings.

    “We knew we had a car capable of being at the top but (in qualifying) we had a fuel pump problem,” Garcia said. “My team was telling me to relax and go faster and faster each lap. At the end I was catching people and overtaking.”

    “I’m really happy for the team after they worked so late (June 24),” he added. “I have to thank everyone for all the hard work they did. I’m really happy because we are third in the championship now.”

  • Josef Newgarden Scores Third Firestone Indy Lights Win of The Season at Iowa

    Josef Newgarden Scores Third Firestone Indy Lights Win of The Season at Iowa

    For the third time this year, it was Josef Newgarden going to victory lane as he took the victory in the Sukup 100 at Iowa Speedway.

    “We put a really good, strong car together for that race,” Newgarden, drove of the No. 11 Copart/Score Big/Robo-Pong/SSM car, said. “It felt so good I could go anywhere on the track, and that’s just a tribute to the team. I was so disappointed that we didn’t qualify a little bit better. At least we didn’t put ourselves too far back. We just came in with a conservative approach but still aggressive enough to get in the lead early on and just hold it all the way through.  Great job by the Sam Schmidt Motorsports guys and everyone else that supports us.”

    Newgarden was able to take the lead on lap 26 and never looked back as he scored the win, 5.4724 seconds over Gustavo Yacaman. The second place finish marks his best finish in his career.

    “For the (Lap 6) restart, I just didn’t have the pace to keep up with Esteban and Newgarden was attacking me so he was able to get by,” Yacaman said. “I stuck with Newgarden when he overtook Esteban, and he pulled me through. Then it basically was a battle for second with Bryan.

    “We’ve worked so hard and we’ve had a good car so many times, so it’s good to capitalize on the equipment Mark Moore has given me.”

    Meanwhile, it was Bryan Clauson finishing third for his best finish of the three starts that he’s made this year.

    “We didn’t give each other an inch and it was just good, hard racing,” Clauson said of racing with Yacaman.  “We just didn’t have quite a good enough car to slip underneath (Yacaman).  We were a little bit tight.  We just didn’t have enough to finish the corner on the outside.

    “It was a lot of fun. I threw everything I had at him, and I just didn’t have quite enough.  I spent the last 40 laps trying to get a run and doing something.  I tried high, I tried low, I tried diving under.  I tried throwing everything I could at him, but just never got quite the run I needed to beat him off the corner and take the spot.”

    With the victory, Newgarden expands his points lead from 13 to 46 over Esteban Guerrieri. Guerrieri finished in 12th place after having mechanical issues.

    Victor Garcia and Duarte Ferreira rounded out the top 10.

    “The team won this race last year (with Sebastian Saavedra), and I knew in coming here that we would have a good car,” Ferreira said. “The start was a little crazy but I was able to make up the positions that I lost. I want to thank everyone at BHA for the great job and my sponsors for supporting me.”