St. Pete Race Two Ends with a Thud for Indy Lights Field

Antinucci Penalized Ten Champ Points for Punting Teammate

by Allan Brewer
allan@indyproracer.com

Sam Schmidt Motorsports’ Richard Antinucci lost ten points in the Firestone Indy Lights Series championship race after surviving a forty-lap slug-fest in Grand Prix of St. Petersburg race two.

Antinucci clipped teammate Ana 'Bia' Beatriz on a late race restart to win the third race in his last six, closing the first double-header weekend of the season.

"I tried several moves on Bia on all parts of the track. I wasn't really managing to get by, just put it that way," said Antinucci from the press room, intimating he was blocked by his teammate prior to the collision.

"As you could see the lap after, I set the fastest lap by half a second. We really were being held down, and it was time to move on."

"It's absolutely a racing incident. I'm very happy for the points and to finally get a race this year, and six races in a row for me in the top two, so I'm very happy with the consistency."

"I do feel sorry for Bia. I will apologize to her."

The incident was judged ‘avoidable contact’ by stewards post-race, who docked the winner ten championship points.

Crossing the finish line behind him in the accident-marred affair were RLR Andersen’s J R Hildebrand and Guthrie Racing’s Logan Gomez.

"It was one of those races," said Hildebrand afterwards. "You start in the top ten and you get on the podium by default. There was a lot of attrition there, a lot of accidents, and I was able to make my way through them."

Gomez added, "It turned out there were a lot more incidents in the race than we expected. We moved up 11 spots during the race, after starting dead last."

"People were getting aggressive, trying to make something happen where it's not available."

Panther’s Dillon Battistini, Sean Guthrie and Playa del Racing’s Al Unser III completed the top six finishers.

First lap collision in St. Pete race two. Photo: SteveSnoddyIRL

Race Recap

An inauspicious start found cars swerving and colliding before the green flag officially fell.

Unser III, Chris Festa, Cyndie Alleman, Juan Manuel Polar, and Pablo Donoso tangled in the final turn of the pace lap.

Up front, pole-sitter Jeff Simmons (the benefactor of the grid-setting top-four inversion by rule) led the field toward Turn 4 where Brent Sherman, James Davison, Arie Luyendyk Jr and Robbie Pecorari collided—knocking the last two out of the race.

A Lap 9 spin by Festa brought yellow again.

Bobby Wilson tried unsuccessfully to move beneath Andrew Prendeville on Lap 23. Both retired.

Racing resumed on Lap 26 with Simmons and Matos banging wheels, sending both to the pits.

An alert Beatriz swooped around the pair, with Antinucci in tow, and the teammates raced alone at the front.

Mitchell Cunningham found the wall in Turn 10 on Lap 28.

Matos pursues race-leading Jeff Simmons. Photo: SteveSnoddyIRL

The restart six laps later found Antinucci punting Beatriz out of the lead, then contact between Beatriz and Donoso sending both to the sidelines.

Antinucci hung on for the win with Hildebrand and Gomez making the podium.

Donoso, Prendeville and Luyendyk Jr were awarded “Firestone Lucky 3” prizes of $1000 post-race.

Antinucci Remains Firehawk Cup Leader

The result left Antinucci twenty-six points better than the rest in the title race for the Firestone Firehawk Cup.

Matos stands second, Battistini now third.

Hildebrand and Beatriz round out the top five.

Racing in the Firestone Indy Lights Series now takes a break until the end of the month, when the cars line up for the Kansas 100 on April 27th.

Teams will participate in an open test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Friday (April 11th) weather permitting.

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Firestone Indy Lights Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Race Two Results

Firestone Indy Lights Firehawk Cup 2008 Cumulative Results

Comments

[Dale Nixon]

Hey Allan,
Matos was apparently reprimanded, but not penalized points, for pushing Simmons into the outside wall...

[Allan]

I've asked around trying to verify your info but haven't found anyone yet to confirm it; but if you say so, I'm not really inclined to disbelieve it

There's a lot of correction/education that goes on in the series: from over-the-radio in-race instruction to little "chats" post-race with the boss Roger Bailey or one of his staff

That's what being in Indy Lights is all about: learning through some trial and error with feedback good and bad on how to be a better racer

Hopefully that will never change