After England's Alex Lloyd [with a Sam Schmidt Motorsports car underneath him] won his fifth consecutive IPS race at The Milwaukee Mile it was starting to look like maybe he was becoming unbeatable. Since he had snapped up both of the street races at St. Pete it seemed that he was a good bet to grab both of the Liberty Challenge races.
At the Infineon road race last year he finished 2nd in the first race and then with the inverted order for the second race he zipped through the cars ahead of him and won that one.
Winning seven IRL races in a row would put Alex in the company of A. J. Foyt when it came to record winning streaks. A. J. had a record seven consecutive Indy car wins in 1964.
But all records come to an end, and Lloyd’s was no exception. Not by much though!
Earlier we mentioned the names of drivers who we thought might be able to challenge Alex. Two of them stepped up to the challenge on the F1 USGP weekend.
On Saturday, June 16, it was Japan’s Hideki Mutoh, driving for Super Aguri Panther Racing, who made a statement. Rookie Mutoh-san threw the challenge down to Alex by winning the pole for Race 1. Alex qualified second. The test would be the start of the race and the first lap.
Twenty-one year old Mutoh-san showed why he already had finished races with 5th, 4th, 3rd, and 2nd place finishes. He knew that Lloyd would try to grab the lead at the start, but he was ready for the test. Hideki Mutoh became the first Japanese driver to win an IRL race. He led the Liberty Challenge every lap from start to finish. Alex finished just where he started, in second place. He was never able to pass Mutoh.
The second race took place on Sunday, June 17, just before the F1 race. The inverted starting order put American Bobby Wilson, who had finished 7th in the first race, after starting 4th, on the front row in the 2nd position. [Ryan Justice was on the pole]. Lloyd started 7th and Mutoh 8th. Wilson drives the number " 1 " car for Canada's Brian Stewart Racing.
Wilson, who had won the Watkins Glen pole and road race last year, led every lap from start to finish and made sure that no one took the lead away from him. Lloyd worked his way through the traffic to finish 2nd again and Mutoh was right behind him with a 3rd place finish.
Alex Lloyd will be on the Iowa oval next, and he is still the man to beat. He has a comfortable lead in the points, with 340. Mutoh is second in points, with 236, and Bobby Wilson is right behind him with 207.
The one thing that everybody now knows is that Alex Lloyd is beatable, but not by much.
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