Top-Five Finishes for Wilson and Saavedra at Mid-Ohio |
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Topics: Sebastian Saavedra, Stefan Wilson, Mid-Ohio 100
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Andrew Herta
Bryan Herta Autosport
August 8, 2010
It was a battle between teammates as Stefan Wilson held off the charge of Sebastian Saavedra to give Bryan Herta Autosport a fourth and fifth-place result in the Mid-Ohio 100 this afternoon. Polesitter Martin Plowman claimed a dominant flag-to-flag victory – his first in the Firestone Indy Lights Series.
Saavedra, who started fourth, lost two positions at the start with Wilson, who qualified fifth, and Charlie Kimball the beneficiaries. Kimball was able to pass Wilson on Lap 3 and the field began to separate but it wasn’t until the latter stages of the caution-free 40-lap race that Saavedra managed to close the gap to challenge Wilson. The pair crossed the line nose-to-tail with Wilson claiming his third top-five result of the season and the fifth for Saavedra.
While Wilson and Saavedra were hoping for better results after a promising pace in practice, they did make up some points in the championship standings following an eighth-place finish by series points leader J.K. Vernay and a seventh-place result from James Hinchcliffe, second in the championship entering the Mid-Ohio race weekend.
Hinchcliffe and Plowman are now tied for second in the standings with Saavedra, in fifth place, trailing them by 37 points and Wilson, in sixth, by 72. Vernay leads by 53 points.
BHA will return to the track in two weeks time for the Carneros 100 at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma,Calif., on August 22.
Race Results:
1. Martin Plowman
2. Dan Clarke
3. Charlie Kimball
4. Stefan Wilson
5. Sebastian Saavedra
Stefan Wilson, #28 Dallara/Firestone: “The race was good. We expected more going into this weekend but the track changed a little bit compared to the test and the balance that we had just wasn’t quite there this weekend. We had to do some work to improve the car and some good decisions were made in the engineering room. On my fastest lap in qualifying, I was held up in Turn 4 and that cost me a tenth-and-a-half [of a second]. You are fighting for every little bit around this track because the times are so close and that would have put me on the front row in P2. The way things played out, if I had started P2 I think I probably would have finished there if not fighting for the lead. Starting fifth, we had to go quite aggressive on downforce. We started quite low on downforce and that made the handling of the car a little bit of a compromise but that allowed us to try to overtake people. Bryan Herta Autosport did a great job this weekend. We kept on digging and kept on pushing and came home with a solid points finish with the cars fourth and fifth. I am happy with that.”
Sebastian Saavedra, #29 William Rast Dallara/Firestone: “It was a great race for us. We are back in the fight. It was a tough race because everyone was so close on times. We did a great job and we are very happy to finish without any mistakes. I had a really tough start. I lost valuable positions which, at the end, I couldn’t get back because of the really fast pace of the race, but fourth and fifth is something very positive and a good result for the team.”