Race Report: Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma
SONOMA,
CA August 22—The IZOD IndyCar Series ran their final road
course of the season with the Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma at
Infineon Raceway Sunday afternoon under sunny skies and
temperatures in the low-80s.
For Vitor Meira, it couldn’t come soon enough.
“I never thought I would say this, but I’m glad we’re going to
go oval racing,” said Meira after another tough weekend at a
road course.
Meira started 21st in the 75-lap race that began with a
spectacular accident coming down for the green flag. Dan Wheldon
rode over the wheel of another car which launched him onto the
wall and he then flipped upside down and skidded as cars dodged
him, finally coming to a halt in front of the ABC Supply pit.
Wheldon was not injured.
When the race got underway after several laps of caution to
clear the track, Meira settled in trying to conserve fuel while
advancing as others made mistakes. In his first pit stop on lap
26, the ABC Supply crew got him in and out in 7.39 seconds which
allowed him to pass Mario Moraes.
With several cars employing different pit
strategies, Meira found himself in 14th position when the first
full course yellow came out for Milka Duno’s spin in turn 7 on
lap 33. He moved into 13th when the raced resumed under green.
But by lap 48, the car picked up a push and by lap 50, he
radioed in that “it was getting real bad.”
The team pitted him three laps earlier than they’d planned
because he was losing so much time on the track. The ABC Supply
crew fitted him with a brand new set of the red, alternate tires
in less than 8 seconds. When he re-entered the track, he lost
positions to several cars who had pitted at the very beginning
of the final fuel window when it was questionable if they could
go the distance. A full course yellow on lap 66 made their fuel
gamble pay off and Meira found himself in 16th position with
five laps to go.
He moved into 14th with two laps to go when two cars tangled
ahead of him but by then his tires had fallen off so much that
he had to slow on those final two laps. Alex Tagliani nipped him
on the last lap dropping Meira to 15th. He remains 15th in the
points standings.
“It was a race with tough ups and downs. The last 5 laps of each
stint really hurt us. We gained time on most people the first 20
laps and the last 5 laps we‘d lose what we gained and more,”
Meira said.
Will Power won his fifth race of the season from the pole and
was also crowned the Road Course champion. Second through fifth
were: Scott Dixon, Dario Franchitti, Ryan Briscoe and Helio
Castroneves.
The next race will be the Peak Antifreeze Indy 300 at
Chicagoland Speedway Saturday night, August 28. The race will be
televised on Versus starting at 7pm ET.
Meira Qualifies 21st at Infineon
SONOMA, CA Aug 21--Vitor Meira will start 21st in the
Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma tomorrow at Infineon Raceway. Will
Power won a record eighth pole with a record speed of 108.3mph.
“Every time we go out on the track we make improvements,” said
Meira after qualifying. “We made a big improvement for
qualifying – I believe we’ll be competitive in the race but I
hope it isn’t too late. We're not starting where we wanted but
this is a race where fuel strategy counts a lot so you never
know. I’m a little more hopeful for the weekend after qualifying
than I was after the first practice.”
Meira was in the top six of his group of 13 but when he went out
for his second stint in the 15-minute session, he encountered
traffic when his car’s tires were at their best so he wasn’t
able to capitalize on the new tires. Meira qualified at a speed
of 106.4mph and will line up on the inside of role 11.
"It seems to be a trend -- the races we did last year together
-- they were good races. The road courses we didn’t do together
last year we start a little behind the 8 ball and then pick up,"
Meira said. Meira has another warm-up on race morning to
continue to improve the ABC Supply car's set-up for tomorrow's
race.
The race will be broadcast by Versus with pre-race coverage
starting at 5 pm ET
NOTES & QUOTES: Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma
• Vitor Meira on Infineon Raceway: “I think Sonoma is a
very rhythm-based track; it has a lot of rises and crests. It’s
a race track where you have to be good overall -- there are some
very slow corners and some very fast corners, flat corners and
uphill and downhill corners, it’s a technical race track but you
have to be good overall. You have to have a little bit of
compromise, compromise in some areas to be good in other
areas—the car will need a little bit of everything. ”
• A.J. Foyt on the Firestone Twin 275s to be run June 11,
2011 at Texas Motor Speedway: “I think it’s great anytime we
can race in Texas, especially at Texas Motor Speedway. Twin
races will be very interesting for the fans and very interesting
for the drivers—even more interesting if they inverted the
finish of the first race [to set the starting grid for the
second]. It’s good for the drivers because if your car isn’t
working that great in the first race, you can make some changes
to it. I’m not surprised that it’s happening at Texas first.
Eddie Gossage and Bruton Smith are always doing things to keep
their race interesting for the fans.”
• Foyt Family Wines Tasting this weekend! Saturday
evening, Indy Down Force members and race fans can sample Foyt
wines and enjoy hors d’oeuvres from 5:30 – 7 pm at the Roots in
Sonoma Tasting Room located in Cornerstone Sonoma. Larry Foyt
and driver Vitor Meira will be on hand to sign Foyt Family Wine
bottles. Vouchers for the event cost $15. Judy Bickel will be
selling vouchers in the Fan Zone from 11 am to 2 pm on Saturday.
Additional details including directions are printed on the
voucher. This event is open to all race fans, but everyone must
have a voucher for entry (limited to 50 participants).
• Meira on testing at Infineon Raceway on Aug 13th: “The
test was good but we struggled for speed--but we were able to
test a lot of things. We got good direction on where to go and
what to do. It doesn’t sound good but we know a lot about what
not to do. And knowing what we can’t do, it nails down a lot on
what we should do. There were things that we learned that we
will be able to do to the car for when we return this weekend.”
• Meira on his top-10 finishes at Infineon:
“Sonoma was always a fuel strategy race, fuel is very tight and
I think we could always get an advantage on that. And we were
always reasonably fast during the race and even while saving
fuel, we could still be fast. We always played smart and well
there.” Meira has one top-five finish (3rd in 2006), and three
top-10 finishes (9th in 2005, 9th in 2007 and 7th in 2008).
• ABC Supply roofing customer Alamo Roofing of Philomath,
OR won the ‘Your Name Here’ contest for the Honda Indy 200. The
company name will be atop the sidepods of the No. 14 ABC Supply
Dallara/Honda. Nancy Pittman will receive selected merchandise,
race tickets, hospitality and garage passes, plus a Meet and
Greet with Vitor Meira. The “Your Name Here” promotion selected
winners by random drawing from a pool of entries sent in by ABC
Supply customers earlier this year.
• ABC Supply will entertain over 400 guests in their
hospitality tent this weekend.
• Past performance for Foyt Racing at Infineon: Last
year, Ryan Hunter-Reay, subbing for Meira, qualified 19th and
finished 16th after getting tagged by Oriol Servia while running
11th and having to pit to replace the nose assembly. The best
finish for Foyt Racing came in the inaugural run when Jeff
Bucknum finished 10th in 2005.
