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Battistini Claims 4th Oval at KY |
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August 9, 2008 – Panther Racing’s Dillon Battistini put the competition on notice at Sparta, KY, that he still has thoughts about winning the Series points championship. After a poor finish at the Nashville oval he made oval racing look easy again as he moved ahead of Raphael Matos in race wins with his 4th of the season. In doing so, Dillon also moved up to 3rd in the driver points standings with 3 races left.
Battistini is now 57 points behind Richard Antinucci and 53 behind Matos. Raphael has 3 road/street race wins and Richard has nailed 2. [4 other drivers have 1 win.] With 2 road races and 1 oval left, Dillon’s challenge it to perform very well in both of the former at Infineon besides Chicagoland’s oval.
Having come up to the Indy Light Series as a road racer, he has only one good non-oval finish, a 4th at St. Pete early in the season. Still, his potential is there.
Matos [AFS Racing/Andretti Green Racing] and Antinucci [Sam Schmidt Motorsports] have excelled on the road/street courses, but have also turned in respectable oval race finishes. Antinucci has 2-second place podium finishes, one of which was right behind Battistini at Indianapolis as well as Homestead.
But back to the Kentucky race. It was Raphael Matos who landed his second oval track pole. Beside him was Ana Beatriz [Sam Schmidt Motorsports]. In the second row was Arie Luyendyk, Jr. [AFS Racing/Andretti green Racing] in 3rd and Battistini next to him. Antinucci was back in 10th on the grid.
When the green flag dropped, the real action started and Battistini just followed Ana as she flew past Matos. Arie thought that a good idea also and Matos found himself in 4th as they started lap 2.
Dillon then made his move on Ana, took the lead on lap 2, and kept it for 66 laps and the checkered flag. She hung on until lap 21 when James Davison [Sam Schmidt Motorracing] moved into 2nd and held that position for the rest of the race.
Arie Luyendyk, Jr. fought it out with Richard Antinucci for a good part of the race to see who would finish in the last podium spot. Arie took over 3rd for the 7th time on lap 64 after turning in the fastest lap in the race. This time he did not give up that spot.
As for Antinucci, he finished 4th and Matos 6th. Luyendyk, Jr. is actually tied with Battistini for 3rd in the driver points.
What are Battistini’s chances of catching and passing Matos and Antinucci in the points? As Dillon said in a IRL post-race teleconference, “It only takes them [Richard and Raphael] to crash into each other once, and I could be right back in the hunt. They have already done it in practice once [at Mid-Ohio], so it would not surprise me if it happens again.”
Be sure to follow the excitement of the last 3 races, starting with the 2 at Infineon on August 23 and 24 [streaming video at the IRL’s www.indycar.com] and/or the ESPN2 delayed TV coverage on August 28.
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