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Strous Makes St. Petersburg Look Easy - Twice |
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April 4/5, 2009 -The IRL’s Firestone Indy Lights Series got off to a spectacular 2009 season start on Saturday/Sunday, April 4/5, on the beautiful, sunny streets of St. Petersburg, Florida. A field of 27 drivers, including 16 rookies and 2 former Series champions, arrived to race in the thrilling Grand Prix of St. Petersburg double header.
The field of new rookies was more than impressive in terms of international diversity and talent. They represented, Brazil, Canada, Columbia, England, France, Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Russia and, of course, the U.S.A.
The rookies made their opening statement by taking the top two podium spots in the first race and the top 7 finishing positions of the second race. Heading the list was the Netherlands’ Junior Strous, driving for the Winners Circle Group, who qualified second and finished first in both races. It seems that a new Flying Dutchman has arrived.
The Saturday race had veteran J. R. Hildebrand, driving for AFS Racing/Andretti Green Racing, having qualified for the pole. It is Hildebrand’s third year in the Firestone Indy Lights series. A native of Sausalito, California, he had attracted significant attention in 2006, when he won the Cooper Tires Formula Ford 2000 series championship by winning a record 12 of the 14 races!
Next to him on the grid was Junior Strous. He had raced in various European Renault series in 2003 – 2006. During that period, he also won the Dutch and Benelux BMW Compact Championship. Then he added two years of experience [2007/8] in the Atlantic Series.
Hildebrand led the first 22 laps of the 40-lap race, but Strous seized the lead from him in Turn 1 on the lap 23 restart after a yellow and led the rest of the laps.
Another rookie, American Jonathan Summerton, driving for RLR/Andersen Racing, also took advantage of that restart, grabbed second place and held that position for the rest of the race. Hildebrand finished third on the podium.
Summerton made an international name for himself when, at age 16, he won the Formula BMW road race that was a preliminary race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway before the 2004 F1 U.S. Grand Prix. He also won 4 other races in the Formula BMW USA series that year. After that he went on to win races in the F3 Euroseries, for Team USA in the A1GP series and in the Atlantic Championship series. Jonathan is a native of Kissimmee, Florida.
The second race, on Sunday, had 18-year-old rookie Sebastian Saaverdra from Colombia qualifying for the pole and Strous again in the number 2 starting position. Saaverdra drives for Automatic Fire Sprinklers, Inc. And, as in the first race, the pole setter led the race for more than half of the 40 laps, 32 in this case.
Again, Strous did his thing. He had moved from 3rd to 2nd place on a restart passing Hildebrand on lap 27 and then waited for the next restart after another yellow. Again he made a big pass going down low in Turn 1 on lap 33 and took over the lead and held it for the rest of the race. In this case, however, the initial race leader, Saaverdra, hung onto second place. Although Saaverdra stayed close behind Strous he did not have the speed to try to try to make a pass on him.
Canadian rookie James Hinchcliffe, who had started in 7th position, worked his way up to the third podium position on lap 27, when Hildebrand dropped out of 3rd position and out of the race. Hinchcliffe, who drives for Sam Schmidt Motorsports, has three years of experience in the Atlantic Championship series. Jonathan Summerton finished 4th, having started in 16th.
As for the two former series champions, Jay Howard, with Team PBIR, qualified 8th and finished 5th in the first race and started 10th and finished 8th in the second race. Wade Cunningham, driving for Sam Schmidt Motorsports, qualified 16th and finished 16th in the first race and started 14th and finished 11th in the second race.
The driver points standing has Strous in first place with 100 points, Summerton in second with 72 and Hinchcliffe in third at 63 points.
This weekend was the only double-header that the Firestone Indy Lights will have this season. In two weeks, however, they will be back on the streets again, the streets of Long Beach on April 19. That will be followed by one oval race at Kansas Speedway on April 26, before everyone heads to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the big show.
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