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Battistini Captures Iowa and Points Lead |
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June 21, 2008 – On the day that looked like Arie Luyendyk, Jr. was finally going to have his first Indy Lights victory Dillon Battistini pulled a rabbit out of the hat on lap 102 of the 115.
It was Arie’s seventh season in the Indy Lights Series, and he was not short on experience. This was his 53rd race in the series and he had taken the pole at the Iowa Speedway and led every single lap – until he came up on lap traffic with only 14 laps left.
On the starting grid next to Arie, driving for Andretti Green Racing/ AFS Racing, had been rookie Dillon Battistini driving for Panther Racing in his eighth series race. Dillon had stayed right behind Arie from the start of the race and was always less than 1 second back.
Although Battistini turned in the fastest lap of the race on lap 33 [160.143 mph] he still did not have the speed to make a pass on Luyendyk. On lap 69 Arie turned in the fastest leader lap [159.608 mph]. With a field of 22 cars on the short Iowa 7/8 th mile oval there was always traffic close ahead and passing was never easy.
But on lap 102 as they again approached lap traffic Dillon dropped back and then took a run at Arie when the leader had to slow down. Luck was with Dillon and he surprisingly slipped past on the high side of Arie. Then it was Arie who did not have the speed to pass Dillon.
Luyendyk got one chance when an accident on lap 106 brought out the yellow and everyone bunched up. When the track went green again on lap 114 for the final 2 laps it was the only possibility to regain the lead, but Battistini anticipated such a move and made a great restart and out sprinted Luyendyk to the finish line by 0.4948 seconds.
Finishing third on the podium for the second time this season was Ana Beatriz for Sam Schmidt Motorsports. She had gotten past Jeff Simmons on lap 97 after he had held 3rd from the start of the race, having qualified 3rd fastest. Ana now has a 3rd on the streets of St. Pete and on the Iowa oval.
For Dillon Battistini it was his third win this season. In all three races where he had qualified on the first row he has won. He moved into the series points lead with 242.
Second in points is Richard Antinucci [215], followed by J. R. Hildebrand [202], Raphael Matos [188] and Arie Luyendyk Jr. [186].
For Arie it was his 4th pole and 6th second place finish in the series, going back to 2002. He has 21 top 5 finishes in his 53 races.
On July 5 the Series moved back to road racing with a double header at Watkins Glen and the ESPN2 coverage on July 10.
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