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Camara, Cunningham 1-2 at IMS Drama Filled Futaba Freedom 100 |
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May 27, Speedway, IN. This was a race to see. The largest
crowd to attend a Menards Infiniti Pro Series race at the Indianapolis
Motor Speedway saw it. Rookie Jaime Camara won the race, but
there were eight exciting lead changes and three different race
leaders. There was nothing easy about his victory. He
worked for it, and Jaime deserves credit for a great first Pro race
victory. It was another victory also for Sam Schmidt
Racing. We suspect that today Jaime Camara, whose heroes were
Emerson Fittipaldi and Helio Castroneves, is the national hero of
Brazil. 
Finishing second was New Zealand’s Rookie, Wade Cunningham. In
doing so, Wade moved into the Menards Infiniti Pro Series points lead.
That’s enough to generate plenty of pride in his country also. The
second place for Canadian Brian Stewart Racing was also a nice birthday
present for Brian.
Brazil and New Zealand both had significant media personnel here.
They also, of course, get to cover their IndyCar heros, Helio
Castroneves, Tony Kanaan, Vitor Meira and Scott Dixon on Sunday.
Wade Cunningham wasted no time launching the drama at the start of the
race. The fastest all month, Camara seemed obvious to lead the
race at the start. But when the green flag dropped Wade lit the
afterburner and literally blew down the inside of the main straight
away, past the three cars in front of him, including Jaime, and roared
into turn one leading the field.
The dramatic start didn’t last long, however, as Cole Carter, who had
qualified third, but spun out on one of the warm up laps and
started in the last position, was again a spin victim and this time
went into the SAFER barrier in turn 3, and out of the race.
Cunningham, who had qualified fifth, but started fourth, now led the
race for four laps under yellow. And then the rain drops brought
out the red flag. The raced was stopped for about 10 minutes,
with the cars having come into the pit lane in single file. Then
the sun came out! 
On the restart, it was Camara’s turn to jump the leader. In doing
so, Cunningham, with no draft, dropped back to fifth. In between
these two were, Travis Gregg, Jay Drake and Jon Herb. These
three, along with Wade, and Marty Roth behind him, now looked like a
NASCAR draft line giving Jaime a push.
By lap 15, Jon Herb, who had muscled his way into second, took the
lead away from Camara. Not for long though. On the next lap,
Camara repassed Jon. In the meantime Cunningham had reorganized
himself, moved up into third, and then past Herb and into second by
lap 17. On 18 Camara and Cunningham came down the whole length of
the main straight side-by-side, wheel-to-wheel, but with Wade's “nose”
enough ahead to take over the lead. On 19 Camara took the lead
back. On 21 Wade prevailed. 22 saw Jaime reclaim
first. Throughout this drama Camara and Cunningham had broken
away from the field.
At this point Cunningham simply tucked in behind Camara and let Jaime
break the air. Jaime pulled Wade and Wade pushed Jaime.
Wade had done his passes on the outside, and it looked like he might be
planning to do a famous Sam Hornish, Jr. move down the inside on the
last lap to grab the win.
That was not to be. On lap 34 Jon Herb spun, made slight contact
with the outside wall, and brought out the yellow. Behind Wade
were Jay Drake, Al Unser and Marty Roth. It was announced that
the track would go green on lap 37. It did. Camara stayed
ahead of Cunningham, but back in the field, German Quiroga got
off into the grass and spun in turn 4, causing Nick Bussell to spin to
avoid him, and then Marco Andretti to spin to avoid Bussell. Back to
yellow. Now Unser was ahead of Drake. How long had the green been on?
It looked like the 40 lap, 100 mile, race would end under
yellow.
On lap 39 the yellow and white flags were shown. On the last lap,
however, when Camara reached the point in between turns 3 and 4, which
had been used earlier to go green, the track went green again.
Now Camara, Cunningham and Unser made a dash for the green and
checkered flags and the bricks at the finish line. Camara arrived at
the line 0.1319 secconds ahead of Cunningham. The closest 1-2 of
the three Pro races which have been held at the IMS. 
Unser followed, in third, with Jay Drake in fourth and Marty Roth in
fifth. Or did they? Al Unser went to the podium media press
conference. Several hours later, however, Jay Drake was awarded
third place and went home with more points. Well, actually Vision Racing’s Jay Drake went off with the extra points
to the Indiana State Fairgrounds to run in the 54th Hoosier Hundred
sprint car race tonight.
Jon Herb recorded the fastest race lap with a 190.266 mph. Wade
Cunningham's 189.926 mph was the fastest run by the race leaders.
Don’t EVER think that Menards Infiniti Pro Series racing in dull and
boring. These future IndyCar stars are already stars in their own
right! You thought St. Petersburg was exciting? This was
even better. Look out Texas here we come. And then it's back to the IMS for the F1 weekend.
In our follow up story we will hear from the drivers.
Photos are, from top to bottom, Camara, Cunningham, Drake.
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