New Champion Crowned at Sonoma
Record Books Tumble From the Shelves (Again)
by Allan Brewer
allan@indyproracer.com
Riiip!
Schhiiick!
Thuuud! and Clunnnk!
The past is passed by; the shock of the new now perfectly confronted.
Ripped pages from the record books droop; and the dusty, old tomes cascade to the floor.
Toss the familiar leather volumes in the trash pail, because a fleet young lion has rewritten them page by page.
Alex Lloyd won the Indy Pro Series championship today. He did it in the style that he promised: by winning the race, and crafting the conclusion to a run to the title that was as sure as it was swift.
Lloyd took the lead from the top of the first hill at Sonoma’s Infineon Raceway to the checkered flag thirty laps away, accumulating the fifty-two points awarded race winner and the driver with most laps led.
The result was a new record total of 600 championship points in a single season, more than enough to slip the Firestone Firehawk Cup from its tethers and put it into the Sam Schmidt Motorsports hauler bound for Carmel, Indiana.
“It's been an amazing day,” he said afterwards. “We really wanted to win the championship by winning the race. That was the way we wanted to do it.”
“We had a big lead (in the points), but we didn't want to fall behind and win it through the fact that we just had a big lead from the beginning of the season. We wanted to show that we were dominant from the beginning and finish that way as well.”
Befitting a champion, Alex Lloyd made sure he gave credit to the Sam Schmidt Motorsports team that put him in the Winners’ Circle again.
“It's a great testament to how great this team is to the results we've been able to do this year. It's been a dream year for me, it really has. Hopefully I can carry this momentum into next year."
Richard Antinucci Gives Ground On Decisive Move by Lloyd
Richard Antinucci pursued valiantly but he simply hadn’t enough for Lloyd on this day. The Cheever Racing ace closed in the turns, but Lloyd’s horsepower pulled him out of reach every time poor Richard drew near.
Antinucci finished second, ahead of third-place Mike Potekhen of Apex Racing and Kenn Hardley’s Stephen Simpson in fourth. Andretti Green’s Jaime Camara came home fifth.
“It was a good race,” said Antinucci. “ We lost a little bit at the beginning and that determined the race. It was pretty obvious. He (Alex) just drove around me.”
“Thanks to my team,” he added. “They've built a really good car. Even with the little deficit (at the start), we still managed to be as quick as anyone out there. I'm proud of my guys.”
Lloyd’s only viable championship pursuer, Hideki Mutoh of Panther Racing, met misfortune on lap 17. He moved under Jaime Camara in turn eleven, who clipped the front of his car, sending him stalled to the edge of the hairpin.
Mutoh lost over a lap before resuming, and with that his challenge to win the Cup dissolved.
Race Decided on One Pivotal HillClimbing Charge
Alex Lloyd sped past Antinucci going up the Sears Point hill the first time to take the lead. At the back of the field Mickey Gilbert got sideways in front of Wade Cunningham, but both cars continued on the racetrack.
Debris in turn eleven from a collision of Bobby Wilson and JR Hildebrand brought out full yellow on lap 3, erasing a two second-plus lead Lloyd had taken over Antinucci. Cunningham required a front wing change to continue, while Wilson pitted for repairs and eventually took a new front wing as well.
With the restart Lloyd once again took off like a shot, followed by Antinucci, Mike Potekhen, Stephen Simpson and Phil Giebler.
This time Antinucci got closer as Lloyd’s tires began to wear and his car understeer badly.
On lap 17 Hideki Mutoh stalled on the course as he battled for position with Jaime Camara, and lost one and a half laps before returning to the race.
At the front of the field Lloyd and Antinucci continued one-two as the full-course yellow flew for the second time over Mutoh. By this point Lloyd had secured the two points for “Most Laps Led” to build his margin to 100 points, only five shy of the championship.
Lap twenty brought the race’s second restart with the first five unchanged.
From there Alex Lloyd simply outdrove the competition, maintaining a one-second lead as he rewrote the record books once again. His official margin of victory was 0.8927 seconds.
“The car changed a lot during the race,” Lloyd said later. “We started off really strong and then it kind of fell apart a little bit in the middle of the race. I was struggling a little bit and Richard was catching back up.”
“After the (second) yellow, the car cooled down, the tires cooled down and the car was great again,” said Lloyd. "Big thank you to the team, Lucas Oil, Isilon Systems, everybody has done a great job all year.”
The pace of 91.026 mph put the leaders home at shortly over 45 minutes, testament to the virtues of a mere four laps under full yellow.
Championship Secured, Records Continue to Fall
Lloyd’s tenth career victory reset his own record as the Indy Pro Series all-time winningest driver. His eight wins in a season also eclipse the previous mark held by Mark Taylor of seven in 2003 with which he was tied.
He also became the first driver to clinch the championship in the third-to-last race. And he pushed his lifetime mark in the series to a brilliant 10 wins in 24 tries.
For the record, the Firestone Firehawk Cup was clinched with Lloyd holding 600 points, 139 ahead of Hideki Mutoh’s 461, with only two races and 105 possible points remaining.
The field will invert the first eight for Sunday’s Valley of the Moon 100 finale as the Indy Pro Series doubleheader weekend comes to a close.
It will be Alex Lloyd's poorest starting position on the grid of the year; but that should not bother a champion in the least.
Indy Pro Series Carneros 100 Results
Indy Pro Series 2007 Cumulative Results
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