Firestone Indy Lights: Sukup 100 |
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Topics: Sukup 100
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Victor Carbone
Esteban Guerrieri
Gustavo Yacaman
June 23, 2012
NEWTON, IOWA
THE MODERATOR: We are pleased to be joined by two of our podium finishers from tonight's Indy Lights race, Gustavo Yacaman of Team Moore Racing, this is his second consecutive second place finish here at Iowa. Also Victor Carbone of Sam Schmidt Motorsports, best finish of the season for Victor.
Gustavo, you were the big mover in today's race, starting 8‑ to makeup six positions to finish second. Talk about tonight's race.
GUSTAVO YACAMAN: Yeah, it was a hard race. My car was pretty good all throughout the race. I made some pretty big moves at the beginning, making a three‑wide in the start. Learned a thing or two from TK.
And then after that, Victor passed me halfway into the race. I think I got checked up by traffic, and then I was able to get him back. And then towards the end, I was closing up on Esteban pretty quick. And if that yellow had not come out, I think I had the momentum to maybe try and go for the lead.
But, you know, the yellow came out and by the time the restart came, my adrenaline had gone down, and I was a little bit sleepy I guess. I'm way past my curfew.
You know, he just got going and I was like still dreaming about something, I don't know what, even if I was daydreaming. He just got away, and too bad I wasn't anywhere close to challenge him for the lead.
So, you know, that's racing. We made up some good points to Esteban‑‑ not Esteban; to Tristan and Sebastian, so maybe that puts us in a good position for the championship. So, we'll see.
THE MODERATOR: Victor, if you can, best finish of the season, walk us through tonight's race. Obviously you had a great battle going there with Gustavo.
VICTOR CARBONE: Yeah, I didn't get off to a good start, fell back a few spots. I noticed I didn't have as good of a pace as the front guys, so I just took my team really. I saw the guys in front of me struggling with their cars.
So I just take my tires and started to pick them up one by one and like I said, when we went through traffic, I was able to make a run and make a pass but I just wasn't able to keep him behind me.
I think it's a really good result from what we got and maximizing points, and hopefully from here to the end of the season, just to keep improving and getting better.
Q. For both of you looked like traffic was more of a factor than it had been in the past; is that accurate?
GUSTAVO YACAMAN: Yeah, this year, the right side tires are a lot harder, so there's less overall grip. Last few years, the tires were really, really good. They were still sticky; not saying they are not now, they are really great tires, but they are just a little bit compound to make it harder on us.
Yeah, it's a lot more challenging in traffic with this harder compound, especially because you're running by yourself, and the cars are very unpredictable once you get into dirty air.
Some cars, and even during the race, just depending on how you position your car, you know you can get like a massive wash, I call it the death wash, because it just washes towards the wall and you're like ooohh, am I going to stick it, am I going to stick it; either that, or a big oversteer. You don't really know what to expect. So you get in that dirty air, a little bit cautious, figure out your car, and then get going again.
Especially, you know, I didn't want to risk anything. I didn't have much pressure from behind at some points, so I was being a little cautious with the traffic. And you know, sometimes you go underneath some people and they just come down on you or you go high and they just come up.
So you've got to really be careful with lap traffic, and it's not worth taking yourself out of a race or losing, you know, half a second or a second, or even a position against Victor when you can make it up.
VICTOR CARBONE: This year more than last year, I don't remember last year there being near as much traffic as this year and I was able to make a run on him, and I just went and make the pass.
So, yeah, this year much more and for sure it's because of the tires. And there was some slower‑‑ I don't know what happened, but there was some cars that we constantly kept lapping, and it really depends where you get those cars. If it's in the middle of the turn, it makes it for you much harder. If it's on the straightaway, then you can make the run much easier. So it really depends where you get them.
THE MODERATOR: Congratulations on another podium finish and we'll see you guys in Toronto.
We are pleased to be joined by our race winner, Esteban Guerrieri. This is the third win of the season for Esteban, he also won at Long Beach and Indianapolis. He has finished outside the top three only once this season in seven starts. Pretty impressive stat there. Esteban, if you can walk us through today's race, and the block with your teammate on lap 62.
ESTEBAN GUERRIERI: Well, yes, good evening to everybody. It was a race where I didn't have a great start. Tristan kind of went early before turn three I think, or around turn three, so I went with him and I was on the outside. I lost my second position; I was third.
And then I just tried to be patient. That was I think the key of the race, to be patient, patient, because we were running very close to each other. I tried once to get close to Sebastian to try to overtake him, but it wouldn't work. I realized when I was really close to him, I was really hurting my front tires a lot, so it was not the way to go. It was too early in the race, and I had to take another strategy.
So I realized traffic was coming up in some laps, so I tried to save the tires and stay in third. And then I got the run on Sebastian, I was kind of stuck behind the guy. I got to second, and then kind of the same happened with Tristan. I was behind him, we got to lap traffic, a little about the faster than the previous ones, because we were lapping some guys, that they were not that slow.
Then I dive in, inside turn one, and yeah, unfortunately he decided to go, as soon as I did the move, this is very clear, the guy in front cannot block. It happened to me actually last lap at Detroit with Sebastian. So he got, unfortunately, the penalty. He went right through, and after that, basically, I had a big gap.
I saved the tires as much as I could, and then I tried to get away from the lap traffic as quick as I could but without making any silly moves. So in the end, yeah, just paid off, a very good race.
Q. Looked like Gustavo was coming very rapidly; were you glad to see that yellow flag, or were you at all worried?
ESTEBAN GUERRIERI: No, actually I wasn't worried. I have a very good support from my spotter. He does a very good job, and also my engineer, telling me the gaps and everything.
I knew eventually I was going to get around the traffic. I was just a bit cautious. Also, Tristan was getting his lap back, so I didn't want to be too aggressive. I had it under control, and once I got by the last guy in front of me, I had a clear track, and that was the time where Gustavo was the closest he had been during the whole race.
After that, I got free from traffic and I went to push again but then one lap after the yellow came back. Actually I didn't want the yellow, because the restarts, you never know how they go, and this time went our way and it was just the end of the race.
Q. What was it like throughout the night when you're kind of waiting for the race to start? Were you wondering, when are we eventually going to get going?
ESTEBAN GUERRIERI: Yeah, yeah, it was a little bit boring, a little bit long, not only for us, but for you, as well, and for all of the guys. We never have‑‑ I never did a night race apart from go‑karts.
So it was probably a little bit different downforce levels and the air, the air pressure is different. So we had maybe some changes to the car, but I have a nap before the race, if you want to that know that, just to chill out; and while the IndyCars were running, I just tried to rest a little bit because it was a long day.
What matters eventually is that the race went on, we had the shows for the fans, which it was quite busy today, which was good. We finished late, but eventually we did.
THE MODERATOR: Esteban, congratulations on another great win and best of luck in Toronto.