|
August 23/24, 2008 – While Richard Antinucci, Raphael Matos and Dillon Battistini fought for the series points lead in the last two Firestone Indy Lights Series road races, rookies Franck Perera [Guthrie Racing] and Pablo Donoso [Team Moore Racing] each took turns sitting on the pole and then letting the rest of the fields look at their exhaust pipes from start to finish. In doing so, they became two more first time winners in the series.
In the Saturday race, Matos started in 2nd and Antinucci in 3rd. They, too, stayed in place from start to finish behind Franck. But that was enough to give Raphael a 1 point lead over Richard. Battistini, on the other hand, saw his championship dream start to evaporate when he qualified 18th and climbed no higher than 17th before finishing 18th.
On Sunday, the draw from the hat put Saturday’s 8th place finisher Pablo Donoso on the pole and Antinucci in 6th while Matos in 7th.
Battistini found himself in a grim 18th place starting position. While one of his hopes after Kentucky came true to a degree, it did not help him a bit.
Dillion’s quote after Kentucky was, “It only takes them [Raphael and Richard] 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.” There is no question that Antinucci and Matos are aggressive drivers.
At the start of the Sunday race Antinucci stayed ahead of Matos in that order, maintaining their 6 and 7 positions through lap 24. They then both moved up a notch on lap 25 to 5th and 6th places when Daniel Herrington, who had been 5th, dropped back to 8th.
Then on lap 27 of the 30-lap race what happened did not surprise Dillon Battistini.
As Matos went to pass Antinucci on the outside of a right turn “S”, Richard blocked him and Raphael ended up going off track into the dirt, but coming back on track as he cut through the following left turn of the “S”. Matos was able to maintain his position right behind Antinucci, but he was less than happy.
Raphael was not willing to just accept being run off the course. He stood on it and just ran into the back end Antinucci’s car, knocking Richard out of his driving line and high on the track as he went into the upcoming right turn. Unaffected by the impact himself, Raphael was able to successfully pass Antinucci in that turn.
When it was all over, Matos was in 6th and Antinucci found himself now in 7th. In the mean time, Franck Perera, who had been in 8th for the whole race from the start, and right behind Matos, took advantage of the “contact event” and grabbed 5th. And that is the order of the finishing position of these three drivers: 5th, 6th and 7th.
When the points were counted Matos [AFS Racing/Andretti Green Racing] found himself now 3 points ahead of Antinucci [Sam Schmidt Motorsports] for the series driver championship.
The other podium finishers in the second race were Logan Gomez [Guthrie Racing], 2nd, and Ana Beatriz [Sam Schmidt Motorsports] 3rd. Ana had a 6th place finish in the Saturday race. Together her weekend put her in 3rd place in the series points standings. JR Hildebrand [RLR/Andersen Racing] is in 4th place.
While all of this was going on Dillon Battistini [Panther Racing] had been slowly working his way towards the front – but not fast enough. He finished the race in 11th position and finds himself now 5th in the points, 94 behind Matos and out of reach.
And then there were the two new race winners who speak so well for this year’s great group of talented rookies who are also looking for the Fast Track to Indy.
Franck Perera comes from Montpellier, France. And like so many drivers he, too, started out in karting. He then came up through the Italian Formula Renault series, the F3 Euro series and in 2006 the GP2 series where he took a 2nd at Monaco. As for handling speed, Franck was also a Toyota F1 test driver in 2006. Last year he finished 2nd in the Champ Car Atlantic Championship.
His other podium finish this year was a 2nd at Mid-Ohio. Added to that he had a pole at Watkins Glen and finished 7th on the Nashville Speedway oval.
Pablo Donoso’s home is in Santiago, Chile. And it should be no surprise to learn that he also started in karting, becoming the Chile National Go-Kart Champion. From there it was experience in the Argentina Formula Renault series, followed by the Star Mazda series and then for oval experience before trying the Firestone Indy Lights – and this may surprise you – the last two years driving in the USAC Silver Crown series! Last year being for, yes, A. J. Foyt Racing!!
Pablo’s other podium finish this year was a 3rd at Mid-Ohio. He also had three 5th place finishes, two at Watkins Glen and the other – no surprise now – on the Iowa Speedway oval. And then there was his pole at The Milwaukee Mile!
Now it’s all down to the drama of the one final race at Chicagoland Speedway on Sunday, September 7, to see who will be the series driver and team champions. ESPN2 will broadcast the race LIVE at 12:30 pm ET.
All eyes will be on the number 27 car of Raphael Matos and the number 7 car of Richard Antinucci.
|
IPS Archive 
