Hawksworth Impresses with Fifth Place Start in Long Beach

Hawksworth Impresses with Fifth Place Start in Long Beach

Topics: Jack Hawksworth, Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach

Hawksworth Impresses with Fifth Place Start in Long Beach

Monica Hilton
Bryan Herta Autosport
April 12, 2014

Jack Hawksworth is following up his solid St. Pete season opener with an impressive weekend on the streets of Long Beach, starting fifth for Sunday’s Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

The Verizon IndyCar Series rookie started the weekend with three solid practices, finishing all three sessions in the top ten. Hawksworth really started turning heads when he earned a P3 in the second practice session.

On Saturday afternoon, the 23-year-old British driver was placed in group two for IndyCar qualifying. He was sixth in the session with a best lap time 1:08.0968, and advanced to round two.

Hawksworth improved his lap to a 1:07.9641 in the second round, giving him a P5 spot and allowing him to advance to the Firestone Fast Six, where he was only 0.2306 seconds off the leader, giving him a fifth place spot on the starting grid for Sunday’s race.

“It was a really good day for the BHA/BBM with Curb-Agajanian team,” said Hawskworth. “We’re fifth on the grid for qualifying and we got all the way through. We just made it better and better throughout the session, to be honest.

“I made a little bit of a mistake on my last lap there, which perhaps cost us a couple of positions but overall, I’m so thrilled to have got us to the front. We have a really good shot now of having a great race. I think starting from fifth puts us in a good window, strategy wise, and hopefully we can get through it and have a good day.”

Team owner Bryan Herta added, “Jack and the BHA guys did a great job today. Jack really got a lot out of the car and the engineers made some good changes throughout the session. We feel like we’ve got a very strong package for tomorrow and we’re looking forward to the race.”

The Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach will take place on Sunday, April 12, with pre-race activities beginning at 12:30 p.m. local (PST). The 80-lap competition will be broadcast live on NBC Sports Network from 4-7 p.m. ET, with the green flag scheduled for 4:50 p.m. ET. Fans can also listen to the radio broadcast on IMS Radio Network and Sirius XM Channel 211.