Robbie Pecorari Paces Self, Races Off With Nashville Win
Pennsylvanian Profits from Lloyd's Last-Laps Misfortune
by Allan Brewer
allan@indyproracer.com
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Robbie Pecorari.
Photo: ChrisJonesIRL |
A firey crash with twelve laps remaining in Saturday's Sunbelt Rentals 100 left Alex Lloyd wingless and Robbie Pecorari soaring as the Team KMA driver brought the black Cabo Wabo Dallara home first at Nashville Speedway.
The triumph was Pecorari's first Indy Pro Series victory and punctuated a recent spate of success that saw the team roll out of the trailer quick for yesterday's (Friday, July 13th) qualifying effort and simply continue to pound away at the granite-rock good driving and good fortune of Alex Lloyd for a win.
"For not coming here and testing, I have to give all thanks to the team and crew. It's been a great weekend," Pecorari said. "I'm still learning and getting experience on these tracks. There didn't seem much difference between this concrete at Nashville and asphalt I've raced on in the past. As the track heated up it did seem to lose grip though."
Sam Schmidt Motorsports' Logan Gomez finished second, moving past Wade Cunningham on the final race restart on lap 75 for the runnerup position. He was followed by Andretti Green's Jaime Camara in third.
"Well, I'm very happy with this finish. It's our best so far, and starting ninth, it's always nice to move up. The car was really strong when I belive other teams' cars went away at the end," Logan said, adding counterpoint to his rapid progress around Cunningham to take the spot from the New Zealander and send him rearward to fourth.
Team Moore's Jonathan Klein put in another strong oval track performance as well, finishing fifth in the yellow and white Xtreme machine right behind Cunningham.
Pecorari and Lloyd Prove Racy Pair on the Point
Pecorari engaged Alex from the early stages of the race, moving past second-on-the grid Wade Cunningham into P2 on the fourteenth lap. On lap 32, Robbie went around Lloyd as the latter was held up by slower traffic, only to see Alex return the favor sixteen laps later. The pair then drove one-two within a second of each other the remainder of the way until Brad Jaeger moved into Al Unser III on turn four and went into the wall in a firey crash that sent carbon fiber and suspension pieces into the air and across the track en masse.
The hapless Lloyd, who was leading at the time but following the pair on the track, inadvertently struck one of the multiple pieces slicing the right front wing of his number seven Dallara nearly in two and necessitating repair to the nose cone prior to any further movement at speed.
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Familiar Nashville Sight on Saturday.
Photo: DanaGarrettIRL |
His crew brought him in when restart became apparent with five laps to go, changed the nose and front wing assembly to put him back atrack on the same lap as the leaders, but at the rear of the field. His official finishing place was eleventh, hardly representative of the fifty-four laps he led.
Attrition Thins Ranks by Half on a Hot, Humid Tennessee Day
Hideki Mutoh of Panther Racing finished sixth, ahead of Kenn Hardley's Stephen Simpson and Gomez' teammate Ryan Justice in eighth. Chris Festa drove a solid race to ninth position on the final scoring sheet just ahead of veteran Ken Losch in his TraCares Foundation machine.
Only eleven of the cars remained running on the track of the original twenty-one starters at the close of a hot, humid day in the central Tennessee sunshine.
The race was run under twentyfive laps of yellow flag, the substantial portion of which came on lap one when Andrew Prendeville and Joey Scarallo were knocked out of contention by a spin that sent Tom Wieringa and Mike Potekhen to the showers with them. A spin by Marc Williams in turn two on lap forty-four brought out a short yellow also.
Brad Jaeger underwent further examination and xrays offsite, then was released at 7 PM EDT to return to the racetrack and rejoin the Brian Stewart Racing team.
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Indy Pro Series Southern Style.
Photo: ChrisJonesIRL |
The average speed of 113.452 miles per hour put Pecorari afront at the end by a margin of 0.2226 seconds. Robbie also set fastest race lap at 177.954 miles per hour on lap 64 (immediately before the Jaeger/Unser III accident) as he began advancing for the final charge of the day on Lloyd's position.
Championship Points Standings Closes Slightly with Lloyd Aloft
Alex Lloyd's disappointment at finishing off the podium for the first time in 2007 can be salved by consulting the championship points standings where he still reigns supreme with 499 points.
The win by Pecorari, complimented by teammate Gomez's strong second in the race, kept more proximate points challengers from advancing materially on his lead which stands now at 132 with only five races remaining.
In this respect Lloyd's luck held true: the pursuers in championship positions two through five found themselves deprived of the best advantage they might have taken as Lloyd's teammates held them at bay.
Hideki Mutoh (367 points) remains second with Wade Cunningham third (302 points); while Bobby Wilson (292 points) and Jaime Camara (266 points) constitute the current top-five.
The racing takes a northernly swing next week where the Indy Pro Series joins the American Le Mans Series as well as the IndyCar Series racers at park-like Mid-Ohio Sports Car course outside Mansfield, Ohio for round twelve of sixteen on Sunday July 22nd.
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