The Freedom 100 was the fifth Indy Light race of the season, and all the previous four races had different winners.  As for the top three podium spots, in those first four races 9 different drivers, including 6 rookies, had claimed the 12 spots.  Richard Antinucci had one win and two 2nd place finishes and J. R. Hildebrand recorded a first and second place. Raphael Matos and Dillon Battistini claimed the other two wins.  Antinucci was the only one of these four winners who was not a rookie.

With all of the talent this year the qualifying order made it look like the Freedom 100 was really going to be up for grabs.  

England’s Battistini, driving for Panther Racing, put his name in the IMS record books by winning the pole.  Dillon had gotten his share of attention in the season opener at Homestead-Miami when he drove his first ever oval race and then won.  But when the second oval came around at Kansas he had to settle for a 4th place finish.  What lessons did this road racer bring to the IMS?

Next to Battistini on the starting grid was James Davison of Australia, driving for Sam Schmidt Motorsports.  

Behind Dillon in the second row was 2005 Series champion Wade Cunningham, driving this year for Brian Stewart Racing again.  Wade won the Freedom 100 in 2006 following a second place finish the year before.  Next to the Kiwi was another Sam Schmidt driver, Brazil’s Ana Beatriz.  You just knew that Cunningham and these two Schmidt cars were not going to be slow.

In the third row were two other drivers who were going to do everything they could to get to the front as quick as possible.  Raphael Matos, another Brazilian, driving for AFS Racing/Andretti Green Racing and Richard Antinucci, one more Sam Schmidt team driver, qualified 5th and 6th. 

Antinucci, who grew up in Italy, had the additional advantage of family advice on how to get around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway 2.5 mile oval the fastest way and what it takes to win at the Brickyard.  His uncle, Eddie Cheever, was a 500 winner.

When the race went green on Saturday everyone near the front wanted to lead the first lap. They were going 3 abreast and 4-abreast, flat out!  When the field passed the start-finish line the first time around Battistini was in the lead by a hair.  He kept the lead for the first 3 laps as Davison, Cunningham and Matos kept him looking to see who was on which side of him.  Davison claimed the lead for the 4th lap, but only to have Dillon take it back for lap 5.  

Then it was Cunningham who took advantage of the draft and took his turn at grabbing the lead for lap 7.  In doing so Wade set what turned out to be the fastest leader lap of the race [189.517 mph]. Still Battistini was up to the challenge. He claimed the lead back for lap 8 and although he kept it for every time he crossed the start-finish line for the rest of the 40 lap race there was nothing easy about his victory.  Battistini was challenged on every one of those 38 laps he led and except for one lap, he never had more than a 0.300 second lead.

The race was total drama and suspense from the start to the very last lap.

And on that last lap it was not one, or two, or three, but four cars within 0.8000 seconds of each other all going for the win!  Antinucci, Cunningham and Robbie Pecorari [driving for SWE] finished in that order behind Battistini.  Antinucci’s finish was only 0.2458 seconds short.  

As for the changing driver order during the race, 4 different cars ran in 2nd place, 5 in 3rd and 8 in 4th and they were constantly trading places.

Ana Beatriz finished 5th, the highest finish ever by a female driver in the Freedom 100.  Bobby Wilson, who turned in the fastest lap in the race [191.412 mph] driving for Team E, finished 6th.

The other top 10 finishers, in order, were, Logan Gomez [Guthrie Racing], Jeff Simmons [Team Moore Racing], who would drive in the Sunday 500 race but passed up riding in the Indy parade with all of the other Indy car drivers, Andrew Prendeville [RLR Andersen Racing] and Raphael Matos.

There were only 3 yellow lights during the race, each for only 3 laps.  25 of the starting cars were still running at the end of the race.  One car contacted the wall and the other went out for mechanical reasons.


As for the Series points standings, Richard Antinucci’s one win and three 2nd place finishes have put him in the lead by 3 points over Dillon Battistini.  J. R. Hildebrand is third, 28 points behind Dillon.

Next weekend [Sunday] the Firestone Indy Lights will be racing at The Milwaukee Mile, with excitement and drama again guaranteed.