July 19/20, 2008 – The two Mid-Ohio 100 Firestone Indy Lights road races at Lexington, Ohio, this weekend couldn’t have been more different.  Raphael Matos was on the pole for the Saturday race and Richard Antinucci on the second row of the grid.    

So far these two had a routine for the road/street races.  Matos was on the starting front row for the first of the two races.  He won the first race at St.Pete and at The Glen.  And Antinucci won both of the second races.  It just worked out that way.

It worked out the same way for the Mid-Ohio first race.  It was a dry track day and Raphael led the race from start to finish. He had the fastest race lap at 108.780 mph.  There were no yellows in the 40 lap race on the beautiful, hilly, wooded, 15-turn, 2.258 mile course.

Frank Perera of Guthrie Racing started on the front row and kept 2nd place for the whole race.  Jonny Reid [Integra Motorsports] qualified 3rd but Antinucci, 4th, just followed Perera on the start and stayed in 3rd place for the whole race. Richard had finished 2nd at the St. Pete and The Glen first races this year. Jonny Reid settled for 4th on Saturday.  

That was it for the first race!  Matos was the first driver to win three road/street races this season.  And Raphael took the points lead away from Antinucci by 1 point – for a day.  

The good news for Jonny Reid though was the drawing put him on the pole for Sunday’s second race.  The bad news seemed to be, however, Antinucci had the other front row spot.  Rookie New Zealander Jonny Reid’s best finish in his 6 races before Mid-Ohio, was a 10th at The Glen. Antinucci was not too worried.  He had  won Mid-Ohio last year.

Then on Sunday, it rained on the script!  It was not going to be Antinucci’s day.  It was going to be a New Zealand Kiwi day instead, in more ways than one!

The track was soaked and all of the cars would be starting on rain tires.  The race would be shortened from the 40 laps the day before to 20 laps.  Still, rain tires or no rain tires, the track was going to be very slick.  This was going to make this race very exciting.  

On a dry track, it is usually the driver with the fastest car that wins.  On a wet track it is usually the best driver, not the fastest car, that wins.  In all the water and spray nobody can use the full speed their car is capable of.  You try that and you are off the track.  

Matos [AFS Racing/Andretti Green Racing] and Antinucci [Sam Schmidt Motorsports]  put on a rain track demo during the morning warm up.  When Raphael came up from behind on Richard as they were coming into a right hand turn, Rafa went down on the inside to try a pass, made contact and the two spun off the track and made contact again.  After getting out of their cars, which were a little intertwined, they had some words with each other.  

Heavens sakes, the race hadn’t even started yet!  It didn’t seem like Matos would be too happy if Antinucci won the second race.  So much for the previous dry track pattern.

Two other Kiwis were in the race also.  Wade Cunningham [2005 Indy Pro/Lights champion] had driven for Brian Stewart Racing in four oval track races earlier in the season and finished 3rd at the IMS.  Now, however, he was driving for the first time for Alliance Motorsports [former Indy driver, Tyce Carlson, was one of the owners.] 

The other Kiwi was his younger brother, rookie Mitchell, who had also been driving for Brian Stewart Racing, where he ran two races at St. Pete and two at Watkins Glen, but was now driving for a new team, Mo’s Gold Racing. It was this team's first race weekend.  Also a member of the team is another New Zealand Kiwi, chief mechanic Mo Larsen.  [www.mosgold.com]

Wade had qualified 7th and finished 12th on Saturday.  Mitch had qualified 20th and finished 15th.  On Sunday, they were each starting in the same position they had finished the first race.  On the surface, it didn’t seem that they would be a threat to anyone.  But then the surface was very wet!  And the limited visibility could be dangerous at their high speeds.

On the start, with the cars of Antinucci and Matos having been repaired, Richard tried to grab the lead.  But that was not in Reid’s plan.  Jonny was ready.  He stood on it and gave Richard and his car his big rooster tail of rainwater.

Matos, who started 4th, quickly spun off the track on the first lap and returned back onto it to find himself in 16th place with some slight damage to his car. He was not a further threat in the race and would finish 18th.  But as a result of his spin, Wade had also spun off course trying to avoid a collision with Matos.  When he came back on track he was in 20th place.  Two other cars also spun off course avoiding Matos.

While Antinucci stayed in 2nd, further back in the pack, where cars were slipping, sliding and spinning, Mitch Cunningham was showing his rain skills.  The first thing he did on the start was pass big brother Wade, when he spun off track.  Mitch passed a few others also and ended up 10th after the first lap and the yellow came on for lap 2 because of another spin on the course.

After 3 laps in that position, and getting used to his car’s handling on the very, very wet slippery track, Mitch made another big move while a number of other cars were spinning and making contact.  He ended up in 5th.  A jump of 5 places.  At the same time, Wade was making a bigger jump of 6 spots and into 14th.  

A lap later, a pass by Mitch put him in 4th , while Wade moved up to 11th.  The Cunningham’s were on the move big time.  The other Kiwi, Jonny Reid, was taking advantage of the lesser spray, 1st place lead he was keeping.  In the meantime, Antinucci was still getting heavily sprayed on while he hung onto 2nd.    

A yellow on lap 5 kept Mitch in 4th for three laps, and then after the green was back he set up the cars of Pablo Donoso [Team Moore Racing], who was in 3rd and Antinucci, who was still in 2nd.  Then Cunningham passed both of them on the same lap and claimed 2nd place on lap 9.  It took Wade a couple of more laps to move up to 8th.

The track remained very wet and there were several more yellows.  Antinucci, now in 3rd , remained there until the 14th lap when he spun off track and returned in 8th position.  At the same time, Wade Cunningham moved up to 6th as the yellow came back out for the 4th time in the race.  

The track had dried some by this time but there were still some very slippery driving lines where oil and water made them worse than ice.  

After the track went green for lap 16, Mitch Cunningham set up his fellow Kiwi, Jonny Reid, and passed him on lap 17 and took over the race lead.  At the same time, Wade did some passing of his own and moved into 5th.  There were now Kiwi’s in 1st, 2nd and 5th.  In between them were James Davison [Sam Schmidt Motorsports] and Pablo Donoso.

On lap 18, Mitch Cunningham turned in the fastest leader lap and fastest race lap at 83.993 mph.  Jonny Reid had just not been able to get past Mitch even though he had tried a couple of runs on him.  Mitch was just a bit too fast.

Reid had driven for Team New Zealand in the A1GP Series in 2007 and 2006.  Before that he had done F3 and F3000.  Like the other Kiwi’s in the IRL, he had started out winning karting championships back in New Zealand.  

Mitch Cunningham’s background was somewhat similar.  He had raced in the Pacific Formula Ford 2000 Series in 2007.  Before that he had followed Wade’s path of winning New Zealand karting titles and then going abroad for two years driving in the European karting series for Italian factory team CRG.

In the IndyCar race there was another Kiwi who was hoping to also win at Mid-Ohio, Scott Dixon, who was leading in his series points.  

But the trophies would not go to Kiwi’s on this Sunday, July 20.  Unexpected and unusual things sometimes have a way of happing right at the end of races.

Going into Turn 1 on lap 19, when the track was mostly dry in that turn, Mitch Cunningham hit the one spot that wasn’t and spun off track and broadsided the stacked tire barrier.  His day was done.

At the same time on that lap, as Kiwi Jonny Reid retook the lead, Wade Cunningham moved into 3rd place.  It still looked like there would be two Kiwi’s on the podium.  

Then the most bizarre thing happened.  As Reid went past the white flag and started his last lap, 20, the track went yellow due to several other cars being involved in an accident.  As he approached the final turn before the start/finish line, he incorrectly thought the race was over and pulled off onto the pit lane while the cars behind him continued on the track to the checkered flag.

James Davison [Sam Schmidt Motorsports] crossed the start/finish line first followed by Wade Cunningham and then Pablo Donoso.  Reid’s official finishing position was 9th. He was confused, shocked and embarrassed.  

Two rookie Kiwi’s had put on great driving performances on this very rainy, slippery day but in the end they learned rookie lessons.  As for the two veteran Kiwi’s, Wade Cunningham and Scott Dixon, who finished 3rd later on in the day, they both finished on the podium.  Wade said after the race,"It was probably the slickest track I've ever driven on."  And Wade is a very good rain driver as he had shown in the past at Watkins Glen several years ago, and again on Sunday. 

As for the other Lights drivers, Australian James Davison finally won his first race.  He was the 7th driver to win a Lights race in the 12 completed to date.  He was one happy guy.  He had spun off track on lap 4 and returned in 15th place to make his charge in the wet.

Richard Antinucci was in a 3 car contact incident that brought out the yellow for the 5th time and had spun out again on lap 20 and ended up 14th, but enough above Matos to take the points lead back from him – by 1 point.  Cyndie Allemann came in 4th, while Ana Beatriz and J.R. Hildebrand followed in that order. 

18 of the 22 starting drivers spun off course or were involve in accidents. And yet there were 13 cars still running at the end of the race. There had been 10 laps under yellow and 10 under green. The longest green was 4 laps and the longest yellow 3 laps.  The green and yellow had  alternated with each other. The yellows gave the drivers a chance to tear off their rain covered  tear off visors.  

But as short as the race was it was still a drama and thrill packed race.  And there was some fantastic driving by some very talented young drivers.  It was just what you would expect  from a Firestone Indy Lights race on a very rainy day.

In the drivers points behind Richard and Raphael, 375, are Ana Beatriz at 332,  J. R. Hildebrand, 325, Arie Luyendyk, Jr., 316 and Dillon Battistini, the only driver to have 3 oval wins, 299.

For Wade Cunningham's story of the races see his web site: www.wadecunningham.com

The next show is the Kentucky Speedway oval on Saturday, August 9, with ESPN2 coverage on Thursday, August 14.