This was a busy weekend in the junior formula world with several series competing across the globe. The majority of you have probably already heard who won the race, but you may not have heard who put in a good drive during the event. I’ve compiled a list of the “hard chargers” via an Excel spreadsheet from the various series that I cover here at Junior Open Wheel Talent.
The weekend “hard chargers” are as follows: [More]
Brazilian driver Mario Romancini won his first Indy Lights race moments ago at the Milwaukee Mile. Without any previous testing experience in Milwaukee, the 21-year-old driver adapted to the track extremely well and drove to victory without any serious threat. Today’s win comes in only his third career oval start. J.R. Hildebrand remained close due to several caution flags, but was unable to make a move on Romancini. Hildebrand crossed the stripe in second place, marking his fourth top-three finish in six races. Sebastian Saavedra ran a competitive race to finish third. He was battling for position throughout the 100 lap event and passed Gustavo Yacaman on lap 99 to claim the final podium spot.
American driver Charlie Kimball ran a solid race to finish in the top-ten. After an incident in practice, Kimball and Team PBIR narrowly got the car back together before yesterday’s qualifying session. Using the qualifying session as a shake-down, Kimball qualified the car in 15th. He improved five positions in today’s race to finish 10th…earning him the hard charger title.
Indy Lights-Milwaukee Mile
Full Results
(photo by Dan Helrigel)
Over the past weekend, the World Series by Renault completed Round 5 of the championship as a support race for the prestigious Formula One Monaco Grand Prix.
We have a two-way tie for the hard charger honors with both John Martin and Omar Julian Leal improving 8 positions during the race. As we all know, passing on the streets of Monaco is difficult at best—so, earning a hard charger honor at this circuit is quite impressive.
John Martin was given the official hard charger title due to a better finishing position. The 24-year-old Australian driver managed to drive from 20th on the grid to finish 12th, just outside of the top-ten. It would appear that his efforts to learn Monaco via PlayStation paid off. (photo: www.johnmartinracing.com)
Omar Julian Leal offered an equally impressive run by also improving 8 positions during the race. The 19-year-old Colombian driver started the race in 22nd and finished 14th in the final tally. Despite starting farther back in the field than ever before, the end result marked his career best finish in the World Series by Renault (to date). (photo: www.omarjulianleal.com)
World Series by Renault
Round 5: Monaco
Full Results
The F2000 Championship series completed Rounds 3 & 4 at Lime Rock Park this weekend.
ZSports Midwest rookie Benjamin Searcy ran a very solid race in Round 3, capturing his second win in three races. He started on pole and set the second quickest lap of the race to finish 3.174 seconds ahead of Chris Miller. Matthew Inge set the fastest lap of the race with a 50.519, finishing third.
The hard charger of Round 3 is Chris Burke who improved 8 positions. He started 23rd and finished 15th. Honorable mention should go to Brian Belardi who had an impressive drive from 14th to 8th.
Lime Rock Park
Round 3: Full Results
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Earlier today, the series completed Round 4 of the 2009 championship. This time the race belonged to Canadian Remy Audette who drove from flag to flag to take his first career F2000 Championship win. That said, he has been very quick in his past endeavors with six podiums (to date) over the last two seasons. Speaking of podium finishes, Chris Miller continued his streak of top-three finishes by crossing the stripe 2nd overall. The University of Minnesota student has finished on the podium in 75% of his 2009 race starts. Matthew Inge ran another solid race to finish third in today’s final tally. Friday’s winner, Benjamin Searcy, set the fastest lap of the race, with a new Lime Rock Park record of 50.272 seconds.
Masters class driver Brent Gilkes is the hard charger for Round 4– improving 9 positions in today’s race. Gilkes started in 22nd and finished the race 13th. Honorable mention should go to Round 3′s hard charger–Chris Burke who improved 6 spots in today’s race, for a weekend high of 14 total spots.
Lime Rock Park
Round 4: Full Results
The hard charger of the Freedom 100 is Mario Romancini, who put in the drive of the day at Indianapolis. He improved 15 spots in today’s race. Making some of the most daring passes I have seen in a long time, he finished 3rd after starting 18th. Today’s result ties his career best Indy Lights finish, he finished 3rd at Kansas Speedway late last month. In five starts, he has 4 top-ten finishes.
(photo by Dan Helrigel)
Wade Cunningham deserves some press for obtaining his second Freedom 100 victory. The 24-year-old Kiwi ran an impressive race that saw him conserve his tires for the majority of the event, without ever losing the lead group. Cunningham pulled the trigger with two laps remaining and passed J.R. Hildebrand for the lead. He led the most important lap of the race to take the checkered flag in Indianapolis.
(photo by Dana Garrett)
This was one of the most exciting Indy Lights races in recent memory. I provided live coverage of the event here at Junior Open Wheel Talent earlier today. The live blog seemed to be quite a hit, so look for similar coverage here in the future. If you’re not into reading, you can view highlights of the race here.
(photo’s from IndyCar.com)
Freedom 100 Full Results
