'Three-Horse Race' Decided on Dash Past Wade Cunningham in Closing Moments
by Allan Brewer
allan@indyproracer.com
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Alex Lloyd at Iowa. Photo: SteveSnoddyIRL |
Sam Schmidt Motorsports' Alex Lloyd battled AFS Racing driver Wade Cunningham over the last ten laps of a thrilling Indy Pro Series 100-mile "horserace" that put the 16,000-plus fans on their feet at little Newton, Iowa's Iowa Speedway on Saturday (June 23rd) afternoon.
Lloyd passed Cunningham on a daring maneuver that took him beneath the New Zealander as the pair headed into the small oval track's first turn, then matched him wheel-to-interlocked-wheel for a hundred yards down the straightaway before the two finally separated and Lloyd stretched out to a 0.3927 second margin of victory.
"It turned out it was a three-horse race," Alex said afterwards. "I'd been planning the move for awhile, going to the high side trying to lull (Wade) into a false sense of security that I wouldn't try the bottom. I went down there knowing that was the best place and did catch him off-guard. To come out on top was just fantastic."
"The car at the end was able to stay down on the bottom (groove), and that enabled me to get a comfortable run to the finish. To win a race as close as that means a lot to me and to the team," he concluded (see audio MP3 interview below).
The winning pass came on a restart after Guthrie Racing's Sean Guthrie suffered a firey crash along the front straightaway of the racetrack on lap 79, and Jonathan Klein and Stephen Simpson collided in turn four on lap 92.
Guthrie incurred a foot injury that could possibly force him to the sidelines for the Watkins Glen rounds nine and ten of Indy Pro Series racing on July 7th and 8th.
Al Unser III Charges from Nineteenth Spot to Strong Seventh-Place Finish
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Al Unser III battles for position at Iowa. Photo: SteveSnoddyIRL |
Panther Racing's Hideki Mutoh finished third; while Lloyd teammates Ryan Justice and Logan Gomez rolled home in fourth and sixth, with Team KMA's Robbie Pecorari between them in fifth place.
Al Unser III, whose father Al Unser Jr. was on hand to spell granddad Al Sr. (participating in this weekend's Goodwood Festival of Speed in England), finished seventh after making a determined charge from the nineteenth starting position.
Behind him came Michael Crawford Motorsports' Marc Williams in his best Indy Pro Series career result of eighth, Brian Stewart Racing's Bobby Wilson was ninth, and Ben Petter (Williams' teammate) finished tenth.
Cunningham Yields First-Place to Lloyd, but Not Without a Fight
Wade Cunningham took the lead on the opening lap and drove solidly throughout the 115 lap race, only to see his advantage taken away on lap 103's final restart of the contest.
The experience left him with the dubious honor of accumulating the most laps led (105) of any Indy Pro Series driver ever, without coming away a winner.
“We did a very good job today in traffic," he recollected later in the paddock. "I built a lot of gaps that way but the cautions caused us to lose that advantage. Still, I was very happy to have a second.”
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Wade Cunningham paces field for 105 laps at Iowa 100. Photo: SteveSnoddyIRL |
Caution Periods Consume Nearly a Third of the Racing Day
The race was interrupted by four caution periods, which brought out the safety car for a total of thirty-two laps.
Jon Brownson experienced an untimely contact with the concrete wall of the 0.875 mile oval on lap 6 when he touched the SAFER barrier in turn two, lost the front wing assembly and damaged his car, forcing his retirement after skidding to a halt on the backstretch near the inner retaining wall.
Jaime Camara went high into the marbles and brushed the barrier along the front straightaway, leaving a fifty-foot long black donut on the freshly-painted white structure as he exited turn four on lap 39, again bringing out yellow and eventually forcing his retirement as well.
Sean Guthrie got loose as he was dodging slower cars while running fourth and coming through the field on lap 79, finding the tire residue in the high groove and getting sideways down the front straightaway of the oval at over one hundred and fifty miles per hour.
Guthrie managed to right the yellow number four Dallara partially before striking the inside retaining wall hard, igniting fuel and oil at the car's rear before settling to a rest aside the outer pitlane wall near the pit exit. He was recovered immediately by safety crew members, suffering bruises and a left foot injury from the impact.
"We were coming up to lapped traffic and I had to back out a bit, and then the car stepped out on me and I ended up hitting the inside wall pretty hard," he said ruefully. "I don’t know if we would have stayed in the top three, but we had a top-five car for sure."
"My left foot has a slight fracture and my knees are pretty banged up. I’m not sure if we’ll make it back for Watkins Glen."
Guthrie will undergo medical re-evaluation prior to the next race (Watkins Glen) to determine his racing status.
On the ensuing restart of lap 92, Jonathan Klein rear-ended Stephen Simpson bringing both racers' days to an end, and sending Andrew Prendeville spinning to a stop at the south end of the pitlane.
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Alex Lloyd overtakes Wade Cunningham for the lead at Iowa 100. Photo: SteveSnoddyIRL |
Eight Career Victories Set New Indy Pro Series Mark for Lloyd
Alex Lloyd's eighth career victory, and sixth win of the 2007 Indy Pro Series season, moved him one trophy better than former IPS drivers Thiago Medeiros, Mark Taylor and current IndyCar driver Jeff Simmons to set a new benchmark for lifetime most by a series contestant.
He also moved to within one win of the record for most wins in a season (7) set by Mark Taylor in 2003; and extended his consecutive top-five finish mark to eleven going back to last season.
The win also pushed Lloyd's points total to 390, a striking one hundred and nineteen digits higher than second-place Hideki Mutoh with 271. Bobby Wilson remains third with 229 points in the 2007 chase for the Firestone Firehawk Cup.
The Indy Pro Series will take one week off before returning for July 7th's Watkins Glen race one over the venerable grand lady of American road courses in upstate New York. The race will mark the beginning of the end of the 2007 season with rounds nine and ten of sixteen races now in sight.
Download AlexLloydPostRaceInterview.mp3
Indy Pro Series Iowa 100 Results
Indy Pro Series Cumulative Results 2007
Poor Wade - One mistake all day and there goes the race. Lloyd is unstoppable.
Meanwhile Mutoh continues to impress beyond expectations at this level. Is it possible he could take Matsuura's ride before the end of the season? He couldn't possibly be worse, and it might get that Panther/Aguri team some publicity.
IMO, Hideki's the best Japanese driver to turn an IndyCar since since Tora Takagi.
Posted by: My Name Is IRL | June 24, 2007 at 09:34 AM