Saavedra Claims Podium Finish at Barber Motorsports Park

Topics:  Sebastian Saavedra, Stefan Wilson, Indy Grand Prix of Alabama

Andrew Herta
Bryan Herta Autosport
April 11, 2010

Bryan Herta Autosport captured its second podium finish of the 2010 Firestone Indy Lights season this afternoon with Sebastian Saavedra finishing third aboard the #29 William Rast Dallara/Firestone at the scenic Barber Motorsports Park road course. This was Saavedra’s eighth career Indy Lights podium in 17 starts. The result made up valuable ground in the championship with Saavedra now fifth in the standings.

Saavedra, who qualified fourth, passed Martin Plowman at the start to move into the top three where he remained unchallenged throughout the 40-lap race. Teammate Stefan Wilson followed up on an impressive third-place run at St. Petersburg two weeks ago with a sixth-place drive to maintain his third-place ranking in the standings, only nine points out of second. Wilson, who qualified sixth, was also unchallenged in today’s event. Both drivers, as with most of the field, were unable to capitalize on a mid-race full-course yellow to better their final positions on the challenging circuit.

Sebastian Saavedra, #29 William Rast Dallara/Firestone: “For me it was a very important and very good race for the #29 crew. I made a good start, moved up one place, and that was it really. I couldn’t quite catch Charlie Kimball in front of me but I’m very happy for the points. That was the important thing here, to keep our momentum going to Long Beach. I’m very positive about the car right now. We were fast in St. Pete, we were fast here, so we’re going with a lot of confidence to Long Beach.”

Stefan Wilson, #28 Dallara/Firestone: “The car was handling really well. The race was kind of dictated from where you started after qualifying. I made a clean start, kept my position, and from there on it was very processional because it was very hard to overtake. I felt sixth today was a good haul of points. We’re still third in the points leaving here so that’s pretty good.”

Bryan Herta, Co-Owner: “This is a really great track but passing is at a premium. There wasn’t a single pass for position among the top six after the start. Sebastian got past (Martin) Plowman right at the start and that was it. He didn’t quite have the pace to catch Charlie (Kimball) but he had the measure of everybody else so just kind of ran there. Even if he had been faster it wouldn’t have made any difference. He couldn’t pass unless someone made a mistake.”

Bryan Herta Autosport will return to racing action next week in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach on April 18.