Indy Lights: JR dominates Long Beach

[Placid]

A new team and a new start for JR Hildebrand
as he wins his 1st race of the season snapping
a 15-race winless streak at their inagural race
at Long Beach by a 1.8 second margain over
Richard Phillipe. James Hinchcliffe seals the
poduim for 3rd. Jonathan Summerton and Ana
Beatriz lock up the top 5.

Notables:
Daniel Herrington - 10th
Jay Howard - 13th
Jonathan Bomarito - 18th
Charlie Kimball - 19th.

Series points leader Junior Strous had a flaming
premature end for his race when his car caught
a fire. Despite his DNF, Strous holds his lead.
However, Strous, Summerton, Hildebrand and
Hinchcliffe are separated by 9 points going to
Kansas next week. Herrington is a distant 5th.

Report:
http://www.indycar.com/pro/news/story.php?story_id=13634

Results:
http://www.indycar.com/indylights/stats/boxscores/2009/longbeach_04192009.pdf

[dj4monie]

Kimball was moving his way up before she crashed. I was expecting Summerton to challenge but I would assume his car's balance was off a bit and couldn't gain any time on the leaders.

Still a solid podium finish...

JR well done, I wonder who's going to be drafted in to run the Team USA A1GP car in Mexico....

[bblocker68]

I talked to one of Summeton's mechanics and they said they couldn't balance the car as well as it was on Friday. Good to see him get a top 5.

[vintage]

I'm not sure I understand the comment regarding Summerton's balance being better on Friday. He was way closer to being on pace on Sunday than the rest of the weekend. He was 1.2 seconds off in the final practice, 6 tenths in qualifying, and only 3 tenths off in the race.

The only session he did better was the first one, and that's before everyone has sorted setups and drivers have learned the track.