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Luyendyk Jr. and Matos Douse Fires |
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September 7, 2008 – It was hard to say who was the most thrilled and excited when the checkered flag dropped at the IRL’s 2008 season ending Firestone Indy Lights SunRichGourmet.com 100 mile race at Chicagoland Speedway on this wonderful Sunday afternoon.
The one person we put at the top of our list was Gary Peterson, the founder and owner of AFS Racing, the AFS coming from Automatic Fire Sprinklers, Inc. He had waited every year from the 2002 start of Tony George’s Indy Pro Series [now the Firestone Indy Lights Series], as both a driver and owner of his own team, for a Series championship.
And then, there was Arie Luyendyk Jr., who also waited from the 2002 start of this Series for his first win – in his 62nd race. Arie had to settle for six 2nd place finishes and six 3rd place finishes over those years to get the middle spot on the podium. During those six previous seasons Arie had also driven for Gary in 2004, 5 and 6 before this year. Gary had also hoped that Arie would win this race.
Third was Raphael Matos, whose dream was to win the duel for the series championship against Richard Antinucci of Sam Schmidt Motorsports. Rafa had the lead over Richard by only 4 points going into this last race.
Finally, there was Michael Andretti and Kim Green of Andretti Green Racing, a partnership with Gary Peterson and AFS Racing. They were also thrilled with Arie having won the race on the last lap and Raphael finishing third and winning the championship.
At the start of the race, one would have probably thought that Matos had the odds on his side. Before qualifying, the odds looked in favor of Antinucci to qualify higher than Matos as he had done better on ovals. Richard’s best oval finishes were 2nd at both the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Kansas while Rafa’s best finish was a 3rd at Milwaukee. But when qualifying was over Matos was on the pole and Antinucci back in 9th on the grid. Still, Richard was both good and aggressive about moving through traffic.
Richard’s teammate, Ana Beatriz, was on the front row next to Matos, and Arie Luyendyk Jr. would be starting 3rd, right behind his teammate.
When the flag dropped, Matos kept the lead and Arie stayed right behind him leaving 3rd for Ana. There was nothing about this order that was a surprise. But the real focus was what was Antinucci doing on the start?
Richard did not have a good start. Bobby Wilson, Pablo Donoso and Robbie Pecorari, who all qualified behind him, were able to pass him on the first lap. Only Daniel Herrington, who had qualified 5th , fell back to the end of the pack and into 22nd place on the first lap. When the order was posted after Lap 1, Antinucci was back in 11th.
In the meantime, Rafa, Arie and Ana held the top 3 spots.
Antinucci stayed in 11th for 3 laps and then made his move and passed Wilson, Donoso and Pecorari back all in one lap. In doing so, Richard found himself in 8th. After holding onto that spot for 4 laps he was able to make a pass on Logan Gomez for 7th. There were still 53 laps left. Things were looking up.
Rafa, Arie and Ana were still in 1-2-3.
But on lap 15 Richard’s luck started running out on him. Bobby Wilson repassed him, and Richard was then in 8th. On the following lap a little more luck ran out as Pecorari did his repass and Richard was back in 9th , where he had qualified. It was like starting all over.
And then his luck got worse. Sean Guthrie, who had started 22nd had moved up behind Richard for Lap 17 and then passed him on Lap 19. The two of them were in a pack of 8-10 cars that were running 2 and 3 wide and flat out about the 1.5 mile high banked oval.
On Lap 25 Antinucci claimed back 7th position, finally putting Guthrie back behind him in 8th. Matos, Luyendyk Jr., Wilson and Beatriz were then running in 1-2-3-4.
And then on Lap 26, Richard Antinucci’s dream came to and end. As a pack of 9 came around running three wide, with Sean in the middle of one row and Richard on the outside, Sean drifted up and made contact with Richard and in a flash Antinucci was into the wall. [He finished a very disappointing 21 in the field of 24.]
Ana Beatriz was able to pass Bobby Wilson on Lap 32 reclaiming 3rd. It was back to Rafa, Arie and Ana in 1-2-3 positions. [Wilson was, and finished, in 4th.]
On Lap 63, Tom Dyer spun in Turn 2 and brought out the yellow. When the track went green again on Lap 66 of the 67 Arie started to make his move, with Ana right behind him.
On the last lap Arie made his move on Rafa and Ana followed him. All three had driven a fantastic race. And there was the season. Arie had won the race, his first ever IRL race. Ana came in 2nd. It was her first 2nd place finish of the season, to go with her one win and four 3rd place finishes.
As for Raphael Matos, who finished 3rd, his day was made. He had won the 2008 IRL Firestone Indy Lights Series Championship. He made Brazil proud! And Ana did also with her 3rd place standing in the Series points. And then there was one more Brazilian who added on before the day was over – Helio Castroneves, who started last in the IndyCar race and took the win from Scott Dixon by 0.0033 seconds. [But like Matos, Scott was happy with his second IndyCar Series championship. It went well with his Indy 500 pole and win and made New Zealand proud.]
Richard Antinucci ran a great 2008 season series and finished 2nd in the points. Arie Luyendyk Jr. came in 4th. J. R. Hildebrand 5th . Dillon Battistini was 6th in the points. Dillon also had a bad day at Chicagoland. After starting 7th .he was collected in a first lap accident that put him out of the race and ended his season on a flat note.
And now it’s time to start thinking about the 2009 season. Tony George is putting together a fantastic schedule, which at this time has 15 Lights races, starting in April and ending in October. Included are 8 road/street races [which included only one double header!] and 7 ovals. Included are two visits to Canada – Toronto and Edmonton – and the streets of Long Beach. The season will open at St. Petersburg and end at Homestead-Miami. Start counting down the days until April 4.
In closing, we’d like to give a special thanks to Harv Sweezie of Team E for his inputs and insights throughout the season. Our thanks also to the IRL’s Tim Harms. |
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