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Sam Schmidt Owns Podium at Iowa Speedway |
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June 20, 2009 – Newton. Sam Schmidt Motorsports set a new Firestone Indy Lights record by winning all three spots on the podium for the Miller Lite 100 race at the 7/8 mile, oval track, Iowa Speedway.
The names that went with those podium spots were Ana Beatriz, who won the race [her second career Indy Lights win], 2nd place finisher Wade Cunningham and James Hinchcliffe in the 3rd. And then, there was the fourth SSM team member, Gustavo Yacaman, who ended up in 5th place. In between was Mario Romancini [RLR/Andersen Racing] who was in 4th – having worked his way up from 13th.
Based on qualification, one might have expected a somewhat different outcome. Driver point’s leader J. R. Hildebrand [AFS Racing/Andretti Green Racing] had ended up on the pole. Beside him was Wade Cunningham and behind J.R. was his teammate Sebastian Saavedra, who was 2nd in the driver’s points. Making up the rest of the second row was Daniel Herrington [Bryan Herta Autosport].
The start of the 115 lap race took several laps to get the drivers sorted out and then the top three just stayed locked in their place for what seemed like was going to be the whole race.
On the start Saavedra had a tire problem which was due to a front suspension problem and then ended up in the pits. He came back into the race later 22 laps down. He was then in no position to work together with his teammate Hildebrand to try to double team Cunningham as they had done at the Freedom 100.
On lap 4, Wade made a pass on the high side and took the lead away from Hildebrand, who dropped back to 2nd. In 3rd in the 17-car field was Daniel Herrington.
Thus, these three stayed in those positions until lap 60. At that point, Hildebrand was penalized for blocking and had to do a drive-through the pits and ended up in the back of the pack for awhile.
As a result, Herrington moved up to 2nd and Mario Romancini slipped into 3rd. And that order, with Cunningham still leading, lasted until lap 94 when the whole picture started to change. That was because Ana Beatriz arrived!
She had started 6th on the grid and just methodically worked her way up in the field. On lap 2 she moved up to 5th. On lap 36 she was in 4th and then on lap 94 she and Romancini both decided to put a move on Herrington. It worked. Herrington found himself back in 4th behind the two of them.
Then on the next lap, Ana put a pass on Romancini and he found himself in 3rd while she was then in 2nd, just behind Cunningham, who was still the leader.
On the following lap, her teammate, James Hinchcliffe, put his move on Romancini and claimed 3rd place. Thus, on lap 96 the top 3 were all SSM teammates – Cunningham – Beatriz – Hinchcliffe.
All that remained was that on lap 107 as Cunningham and Beatriz came up on lap-cars Ana found an opportunity to pass Wade and take the lead. She took it!
The car that Cunningham had come up on was that of Saavadra who had dropped down in front of Wade before he then pulled off the track into the pits [he ended up completing only 84 laps in the race.] This forced Cunningham to go high to pass him, but Beatriz, who had moved up even higher without having to lift off to try to pass Wade had made her move first. Credit to Ana.
Then it was a matter of whether Wade could pass her on the last lap and still win the race. He had turned in what was the fastest race leader lap earlier in the race and still had perhaps the fastest car. He started closing the gap to catch up. But the last lap opportunity did not happen as the track went yellow for the last lap, lap 115, as a result of an accident on lap 114 that involved Pippa Mann and James Davison.
That was the story of Sam Schmidt owning the podium. And the fans loved the end of the race drama! Ana Beatriz had just become the 6th driver this season to win a Firestone Indy Lights race.
Romancini finished 4th, Yacaman 5th and Hildebrand 6th.
The driver standings had closed up a little more with the following order: Hildebrand 227, Romancini 211, Cunningham 205, Saavedra 203 and Hinchcliffe 191.
With the last four races having been on ovals the Firestone Indy Lights Series moves on for some 4th of July fireworks on the Watkins Glen legendary road course. The VERSUS coverage will be on July 6. Check for the time in your time zone.
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