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Cunningham grabs pole, Saavedra claims Kansas win |
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April 26, 2009 – Former Firestone Indy Light champion Wade Cunningham, driving for Sam Schmidt Motorsports for the first time this year, had found it difficult in the first three races, all road/street races, to get the speed he wanted to get out of double digit starting and finishing positions.
At the Kansas Speedway 1.5 mile oval his team had just the set-up he was looking for, and on Saturday Wade had the look of a champion as his 187.458 mph speed gave him the pole for Sunday’s race.
Still he knew he might have a challenge from a rookie from Brazil, Sebastian Saavedra, driving for AFS Racing/Andretti Green Racing, who clocked a 187.308 mph second on the grid. Cunningham had driven for AFS/Andretti Green in 2007 and knew their fast oval set-ups for qualifying and racing. Cunningham’s teammate, Ana Beatriz, qualified 3rd and J. R. Hildebrand 4th - both in the 186’s.
When the green flag dropped on Sunday, Cunningham was at full racing speed and led the field into the first turn with Sebastian on his tail. Wade kept the lead on lap 1 and 2 as the field was flat out but the high winds of up to 33 mph in Turns 3 and 4 had their effect on the 24 cars during the 67 lap race.
The first victims, in a field of 13 rookies who had never raced on an oval track, Richard Philippe and Jesse Mason made contact and were taken out in Turn 4, and the track went yellow.
When the track went green again on lap on lap 10, Sebastian Saavedra was ready and jumped Cunningham on the restart. An expert himself on restarts and jumping cars in front of him, Wade was never able to take the lead back from Saavedra in spite of three different yellows and the restarts that would follow, all the accidents being in Turn 4. [Laps 15-23, 29-30 and 34 – 39. The final laps, 59-67 were under yellow and there was no restart.] Only 14 of the 24 cars finished the race.
Non-the –less, Sebastian had no easy race though as Cunningham stayed on him up until lap 41 when his teammate, Ana Beatriz, took over 2nd and kept trying to get past Saavedra until she got sideways in Turn 1 on lap 50 and dropped back to 4th.
At that point, Cunningham, who had received plenty of challenge from rookie Mario Romancini from Brazil, who was driving for RLR/Andersen Racing, moved from his 3rd place back up to 2nd again.
Romancini had followed Wade and moved up to 3rd place. Wade took a try again to get past Saavedra but still did not have enough speed to pull it off. When the track went yellow for the last time on lap 59 when Dillon Battistini and England’s rookie Pippa Mann, who had qualified 5th, made contact in Turn 4 everyone just followed the pace car until the race finished after the 67th lap.
So there was the podium with Saavedra having won his first race [he had a 2nd place finish in the 2nd race at St. Pete], Cunningham a 2nd place finish and Romancini happy to have a 3rd after having started 6th.
Columbia’s Sebastian Saavedra is only 18, but getting attention quickly in the Firestone Indy Lights series. A 1st place start in the second St. Pete race and a 2nd place finish there on the street course, and now a 2nd place start and a 1st place finish on the Kansas oval.
Sebastian started out karting at age 10 and raced in South America and Europe before spending 2006 – 2008 racing Formula BMW in the USA, Europe and Asia. He had 4 wins and 5 additional podium finishes along with a variety of experience that he has been showing off already this season.
Like so many drivers, 21 year old Mario Romancini started out his driving career karting in Brazil. In 2006 he ran in the Brazilian Formula Renault 2.0 series. Then came the South American F3 series in 2007 where he finished 2nd in the championship and had 2 wins.
Last year Mario left home and started switching continents. He ran in the Renault World Series in Europe. Then is was off to North America for this year as he works his way up the open wheel racing ladder.
As for the driver’s points, Jonathan Summerton is in the lead with 130, followed by Junior Strous with a close 125 and then in 3rd is today’s winner Sebastion Saavedra having 123 points. Hildebrand and Hinchcliffe are tied for 5th with 116.
Next is the big Firestone Indy Lights show on Friday, May 22 [Carb Day] at the world’s greatest racetrack, the 2.5 mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway . Don’t miss it live on VERSUS, or set up your TV to record this event. And, of course, don’t miss the Indy 500 on Sunday, May 24 on ABC.
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