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Romancini Takes Milwaukee Mile |
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May 31. 2009, West Allis. Brazil’s rookie, Mario Romancini, has driven his first three oval races - ever. With each he has worked his way up the ladder of accomplishment. At the 1.5 mile Kansas Speedway, he qualified 6th and finished 3rd, the highest position he reached that race.
At the 2.5 mile IMS Firestone Freedom 100 IMS Mario qualified 18th, reached as high as 2nd place, and ended finishing in 3rd – another podium finish.
At The Milwaukee Mile, the great legendary track at the Wisconsin State Fairgrounds and the oldest track that has been in use since 1903, Mario put it all together. He just kept it simple given that the track is noted for being pretty flat, i.e, relatively little banking and hard to pass. Just win the pole, keep first place when the green flag drops and don’t let anyone pass you for 100 laps. Do that and you are the winner. And he did. Mario and his team, RLR/Anderson Racing, were one happy bunch of guys.
As for the rest of the field in the race, J. R. Hildebrand (AFS Racing/Andretti Green Racing) qualified 2nd and copied the same strategy as Romancini. Don’t let anyone pass you in the race. His limitation was that he was not able to make the only pass he wanted to.
Qualifying 3rd was Jonathan Summerton, driving for RLR/ Andersen Racing, stayed there for the first 4 laps but on the 5th lap dropped down to 15th. Finishing 3rd was J. R.’s teammate, Sebastian Saavedra, both with AFS Racing/ Andretti Green Racing. Sebastian qualified 4th.
Wade Cunningham, Sam Schmidt Motorsport, qualified 5th and finished 6th while his teammate, Gustavo Yacaman, who qualified 6th finished 4th. James Davison, driving for Vision Racing, who started 7th finished 5th.
You may have guessed that there wasn’t much passing in this race and the position changes were typically only one or two positions.
Yacaman stayed in 3rd place for laps 5 – 98 before Saavedra passed him and left him in 4th. James Davison stayed in 4th place for laps 8 – 83 before Yacaman moved him down to 5th.
And then there was Cunningham, who stayed in 5th place for laps 8 – 71 before getting bumped down to 6th.
Going back, the top 6 finishers were Romancini, Hildebrand, Saavedra, Yacaman, Davison, Cunningham.
The last two drivers who were on the lead lap at the end of the race, which had a field of 16 cars for this race, were James Hinchcliffe (Sam Schmidt Motorsports) who qualified 10th and finished 7th and Andrew Prendaville of Team Moore Racing who stated 8th and finished 8th.
After this 6th race in the Series, the drivers points standings are now: Hildebrand 198, Saavedra 188, Romancini 179, Cunningham 163 and Summerton 162.
The next race is on another oval at the Iowa Speedway on June 20. VERSUS coverage is on June 22 at 4pm EDT. |
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