April 4/5, 2009 -The IRL’s Firestone Indy Lights Series got off to a spectacular 2009 season start on Saturday/Sunday, April 4/5, on the beautiful, sunny streets of St. Petersburg, Florida. A field of 27 drivers, including 16 rookies and 2 former Series champions, arrived to race in the thrilling Grand Prix of St. Petersburg double header.
The field of new rookies was more than impressive in terms of international diversity and talent. They represented, Brazil, Canada, Columbia, England, France, Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Russia and, of course, the U.S.A.
The rookies made their opening statement by taking the top two podium spots in the first race and the top 7 finishing positions of the second race. Heading the list was the Netherlands’ Junior Strous, driving for the Winners Circle Group, who qualified second and finished first in both races. It seems that a new Flying Dutchman has arrived.
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September 7, 2008 – It was hard to say who was the most thrilled and excited when the checkered flag dropped at the IRL’s 2008 season ending Firestone Indy Lights SunRichGourmet.com 100 mile race at Chicagoland Speedway on this wonderful Sunday afternoon.
The one person we put at the top of our list was Gary Peterson, the founder and owner of AFS Racing, the AFS coming from Automatic Fire Sprinklers, Inc. He had waited every year from the 2002 start of Tony George’s Indy Pro Series [now the Firestone Indy Lights Series], as both a driver and owner of his own team, for a Series championship.
And then, there was Arie Luyendyk Jr., who also waited from the 2002 start of this Series for his first win – in his 62nd race. Arie had to settle for six 2nd place finishes and six 3rd place finishes over those years to get the middle spot on the podium. During those six previous seasons Arie had also driven for Gary in 2004, 5 and 6 before this year. Gary had also hoped that Arie would win this race.
Third was Raphael Matos, whose dream was to win the duel for the series championship against Richard Antinucci of Sam Schmidt Motorsports. Rafa had the lead over Richard by only 4 points going into this last race.
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August 23/24, 2008 – While Richard Antinucci, Raphael Matos and Dillon Battistini fought for the series points lead in the last two Firestone Indy Lights Series road races, rookies Franck Perera [Guthrie Racing] and Pablo Donoso [Team Moore Racing] each took turns sitting on the pole and then letting the rest of the fields look at their exhaust pipes from start to finish. In doing so, they became two more first time winners in the series.
In the Saturday race, Matos started in 2nd and Antinucci in 3rd. They, too, stayed in place from start to finish behind Franck. But that was enough to give Raphael a 1 point lead over Richard. Battistini, on the other hand, saw his championship dream start to evaporate when he qualified 18th and climbed no higher than 17th before finishing 18th.
On Sunday, the draw from the hat put Saturday’s 8th place finisher Pablo Donoso on the pole and Antinucci in 6th while Matos in 7th.
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