Antinucci and Beatriz Complete Podium
by Allan Brewer
allan@indyproracer.com
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Raphael Matos wins St. Pete race one. Photo: JimHainesIRL
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Pre-race favorite Raphael Matos swept to an impressive victory Saturday (April 5th) afternoon in the Firestone Indy Lights Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
The feat brings Rafa halfway to repeating his 2006 sweep of both races.
The Brazilian built a gap of over four seconds between his No. 27 Automatic Fire Systems Dallara and Sam Schmidt Motorsports’ Richard Antinucci to win race one.
Antinucci pressed hard in the middle portions of the race, but couldn't close on the bright red and yellow car.
Ana Beatriz drove to a third-place finish behind the boys.
Team Moore’s Jeff Simmons finished fourth.
J R Hildeman of RLR Andersen Racing and Matos’ teammate Arie Luyendyk, Jr rounded out the top six.
Another RLR/Andersen car, driven by Andrew Prendeville, and American Spirit Racing’s Cyndie Allemann complete the candidates for an inverted start in Sunday’s Grand Prix of St. Petersburg race two.
Matos will draw later this evening to determine the number of finishers (0-8) who’ll switch places on tomorrow’s grid.
Race Recap
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Raphael Matos celebrates St. Pete win.
Photo: SteveSnoddyIRL |
Matos led from pole into the first turn and never was headed.
Yellow on Lap 2 and Lap 5 bunched the field briefly, and on Lap 8 Beatriz and Antinucci swapped places for second and third respectively.
A third yellow on Lap 13 led to the final restart of the race.
Behind Matos the two SSM teammates battled for position until Antinucci made the pass at the race’s mid-point that set the order of finish.
Panther Racing’s Dillon Battistini, winner of the Miami 100, retired on Lap 32 with reduced oil pressure.
Retirements by Nathan Freke, Logan Gomez and Bobby Wilson put nineteen cars running at the finish.
Rafa Owns St. Pete Indy Lights Circuit
The win was the third career Indy Lights victory for Matos, all of them coming on this racecourse.
“I love St. Petersburg," he said afterwards. "The atmosphere is great and everything was just working great today with the AFS Racing/Andretti Green Racing car.”
For Antinucci the second-place continued a string of either a win or runner-up finish in his last five consecutive races tracing back to last year.
“It was a good but tough race," he said. "Ana did a good job passing me. I tried to make it hard for her but she was just very good. After that, I had to wait to pass her back."
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Bubbly flows on St. Pete podium.
Photo: JimHainesIRL |
"I tried my best to catch Rafa, but he had a couple of tenths on me. He's had them all weekend.”
Beatriz recorded her first podium on North American shores.
“It was a great race. I didn't imagine that I would pass Richard. I just thought that Richard and Rafa would just pull away and I wouldn't be able to catch them."
"I'm looking forward to tomorrow's race and trying to finish on the podium again. We'll have to make some changes on the car because we'll probably start further back in tomorrow's race and work on passing through the straights and trying to overtake people.”
Championship Race Begins to Take Form
The results of Saturday's on-track action bring more clearly into focus the contenders for the 2008 Firestone Firehawk Cup.
Antinucci gains the top of the standings with 82 points, only six better than Matos.
Ana Beatriz rides in third, twenty-one points distant of the two.
Luyendyk Jr, Battistini and Prendeville make the top six.
Action resumes Sunday morning with an 8:05 AM EDT warm-up, followed by race two over the streets of St. Petersburg at 10:45 AM.
Firestone Indy Lights Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Race One Results
Firestone Indy Lights 2008 Firehawk Cup Cumulative Results
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