Firestone Indy Lights: Valley of the Moon 100

Topics:  Valley of the Moon 100

Ana Beatriz
Logan Gomez
August 24, 2008

SONOMA, CALIFORNIA

THE MODERATOR: We have been joined by the second- and third-place finishers from today's Firestone Indy Lights event. Logan Gomez finished second today for Guthrie Racing. This is his best finish of the season. And Ana Beatriz finished third for Sam Schmidt Motorsports. This was her eighth top five of the season.
Logan, maybe talk about your race today and how things went.
LOGAN GOMEZ: Yeah, it was pretty good. With the inversion we started forward today. Got up the hill, was pretty tight. I was able to pass Bea, I believe, for third, and get a good run up the hill. There was a quick yellow for I think a car overturned. We were able to on the restart get another driver for second place.
Chasing down Pablo, he was quick. We were about the same speed. I'd be able to gain on him in braking zones. I used up the tires quite a bit, so mid-race I was letting them cool off. Then towards the end I started charging and it was just -- the track had gotten a little slippery and I wasn't able to pull back up to him.
But it was a good race. I'm happy to be here in second place. I've got to thank IZOD, Menards and Guthrie Racing for their support and help. We have the people from IZOD here this weekend, my cheering section, and it was great to have them here.
THE MODERATOR: Ana, how did things go for you today?
ANA BEATRIZ: Well, with the inversion we started third. The lead just decided to push the throttle a little bit later than I expected, and so I got a good run on Donoso but then I was stuck behind him, and then I have to lift a little bit and Gomez just was able to pass me. After that I was just behind Herrington. I was, I think, a bit faster, but it's so hard to pass here.
Then he did a mistake, and I was able to pass and stay in third and just focus on finishing the race in third position. I'm so happy to finish third, another podium in the season for us. It's my first year and my first time here at Infineon, so my Healthy Choice Sam Schmidt team has to be really proud of the result this weekend. It's great.

Q. Most of the drivers that have been on the podium or qualified have all said pretty much the same thing, going up the hill into 7 into that turn is very slippery. Is that the same situation you guys both ran into?
ANA BEATRIZ: There's a bit of inclination. Actually the corners 1 and 2 are just amazing. I think it's one of the best of the track, it's just a big uphill. And after the change of the track, the inclination part, the rear seems to be sometimes to get some over-steer, so we have to control a lot. I think it's not slippery, I think it's just because of the inclination.
LOGAN GOMEZ: Corner 7 going into that new hairpin that they have, going up the drag strip, underbraking is pretty slippery in that new section. It's a such a tight corner that you get a little hot, and that's one of the probably three passing zones on this track unless the person in front of you makes a mistake. I like the layout this way better than last year.

Q. From an observer's standpoint, watching the race, it seems like the top ten cars were all the same speed because unless somebody made a slip you got by, but you're running and nothing happened; everybody was running about the same. Seems like everybody in this series is as fast from 1 to 12 or 15.
ANA BEATRIZ: I believe this track is hard to pass. That's why it's so important to start up front, because if the guy in front of you is just like half a second slower than you, you have to stay in the same pace. It's really hard to pass.
But what I think is the guys, Matos and Perera that was behind us, they couldn't really get us. So I think today was really lucky.
LOGAN GOMEZ: Yeah, I think being the end of the year the teams are meshing together and everybody is hitting their setups a little more on. We had the open test before this weekend and everybody was pretty happy with the car. We didn't change much from yesterday's race to today.
THE MODERATOR: We'll let you guys go. Thank you very much. We're just waiting for Pablo Donoso to join us, and he will be in shortly.