For more information:
Linda Mansfield, Restart Communications
Cell: (317) 201-0729
E-mail: LindaKMansfield@cs.com
RLR/Andersen Racing Qualifies Sixth and Tenth
In Firestone Indy Lights Action
Friday at St. Petersburg
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., April 3 - Despite many challenges, the RLR/Andersen
Racing Firestone Indy Lights cars were a solid third and fifth in their
qualifying group Friday afternoon at the St. Petersburg street course, and the
Palmetto, Fla.-based team's cars will start sixth and tenth in the 27-car season
opener tomorrow at 4:45 p.m.
Qualifying well is very important when racing on the tight St. Petersburg
street circuit, but a lack of track time and changing weather conditions made
that even more challenging than usual Friday.
RLR/Andersen Racing's two rookie drivers only had one hour of practice Friday
morning to get acquainted with the 1.81-mile, 14-turn street circuit before
qualifications for the first half of this weekend's doubleheader were held
Friday afternoon. To make matters worse, the bulk of that practice session was
held in a steady rain while it was dry for the 45-minute qualifying session,
making progress on set-ups difficult.
The field was split into two groups for qualifying in an effort to alleviate
traffic problems and give more drivers clear laps. The polesitter, J.R.
Hildebrand, set the fastest overall time with a 1:07.7704 (95.617 miles per hour).
The fastest driver from the non pole-winning group, Junior Strous, will start
second. The remainder of the polesitter's group earned the subsequent
odd-place starting spots, while the remainder of the second-place starter's group
will make up the even starting positions.
Both of the RLR/Andersen Racing drivers were in the second group, which
unfortunately was slowed several times for full-course cautions. Despite that,
Jonathan Summerton of Kissimmee, Fla. set the third-fastest time among the
drivers in the second group for sixth overall with a lap in 1:08.9831 (93.936 mph).
He drives the RLR/Andersen No. 9 Dallara Honda sponsored by Andersen Racing,
Allied Interior Products and Lafarge North America.
His teammate, Mario Romancini, a native of Sao Paulo, Brazil currently living
in Miami, qualified fifth in the second group and tenth overall with a lap in
1:09.2736 (93.542 mph). His No. 5 is sponsored by Andersen Racing, Revita
Recycling, Win Brazil Marketing, Allied Interior Products and Lafarge North
America.
In the rainy first practice session Friday morning, Summerton recorded the
eighth-best lap out of the 27 drivers who participated with a 1:18.8650 (82.166
mph) on the 15th of the 16 laps he ran. Romancini was 11th in practice,
turning his fastest lap on lap 18 of 19 with a 1:19.0770 (81.945 mph).
Next on the schedule for the official development series of IndyCar is
qualifying for race 2 at 9:55 a.m. Saturday. That 40-lap race will be staged at 10
a.m. Sunday.
Summerton and Romancini are two of 17 rookies entered among 27 total drivers
competing in the twin 40-lap Firestone Indy Lights races that support the
IndyCar and American Le Mans Series headliners. This event is the only
doubleheader on the 2009 Firestone Indy Lights schedule this year.
Both of the races will be broadcast at 6 p.m. Eastern time Monday on VERSUS.
Andersen Racing is sponsored by Allied Building Products Corp. and Lafarge
North America. It is the official development team of Rahal Letterman Racing.
Andersen Racing is based at Andersen RacePark in Palmetto, Fla., home of the
team's own 1-mile road course test track. In addition to Firestone Indy
Lights, the team competes in karting, Formula BMW Americas and Star Mazda in its
efforts to provide the best training young open-wheel drivers can obtain anywhere.
The team's Web site is at andersenracingteam.com, while the track's Web site
is at andersenracepark.com. Live timing and scoring is available at
indycar.com/pro.
Driver post-qualifying quotes follow:
Jonathan Summerton: "It was another one of those sessions. This morning it
was a little bit of a funky atmosphere; it was rain, dry, rain, dry, rain, dry,
and we wasted a lot of time. Then this session with three yellows, I think we
may have got one or two flyers in, and the one flyer that was our quickest, we
got held up in. So it's disappointing that these silly sessions happen, but
what can you do? It's racing.
"I don't know what our biggest issue with our car is. We have to sit down and
go over the data. I think we're moving around a little too much everywhere.
I'm struggling a little with the braking too. I don't know what is up, but
we'll have to check the data and see where my bias is and see if we're actually
getting full brake pressure.
"I'm very disappointed with sixth place because I know for a fact we probably
could have been a second quicker with that last lap, but what can you do?
It's over, and we'll have to try again tomorrow."
Mario Romancini: "It's a very nice track. Unfortunately in the morning
practice it was raining, but it's a challenging track and very nice to drive.
"It was totally different conditions between practice and qualifying. We had
three or four full-course yellows in qualifying and I just did three clear
laps, but we can definitely fight for some points tomorrow.
"We're starting in the middle of the grid and it's a long race. But if we can
just stay on the track and have good, consistent lap times, I think we can
finish this race in a good place.
"We had some troubles with the set-up but this is normal because we didn't
have any chance to practice in the dry in the morning. It's just like a
lottery. We just put a set-up on the car that we thought was the best one, and then
in qualifying we could see where we needed to improve. That's what we will try
to do for tomorrow. We still have one qualifying to do tomorrow and then the
two races, and we'll try to do better the rest of the weekend."
About Allied Building Products Corp.:
Allied Building Products Corp., headquartered in East Rutherford, N.J., is
one of the largest roofing and siding distributors in the United States. Founded
in 1950 with five employees and two trucks, today it is a $1.8 billion
building material distribution company with over 3,500 employees, more than 200
branches in 30 states, well over one million square feet of office and warehouse
space, and an inventory of approximately 85,000 products, from residential
roofing and siding to doors, windows, waterproofing, manufactured stone, interior
products and commercial roofing systems. For more information see
alliedbuilding.com.
About the Lafarge Group:
The Lafarge Group is the world leader in building materials, with top-ranking
positions in all of its businesses: cement, aggregates and concrete, and
gypsum. With 83,000 employees in 78 countries, the Group posted sales of 19.0
billion Euros in 2008.
Lafarge North America Inc. ("Lafarge North America" or "Lafarge"), a Lafarge
Group company, is the largest diversified supplier of construction materials
in the United States and Canada.
In 2009 and for the fifth year in a row, the Lafarge Group was listed in the
"Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World." With the world's
leading building materials research facility, the Lafarge Group places
innovation at the heart of its priorities, working for sustainable construction and
architectural creativity.
For more information about Lafarge North America, go to lafarge-na.com or
contact Louise Muth, director of external communications, at (703) 480-3707.
About Andersen Racing:
Andersen Racing strives to provide the best and most comprehensive training
possible for future open-wheel superstars while giving its marketing partners
media exposure and hospitality opportunities at some of the most prestigious
events in North America. It provides a unique, four-step program utilizing
multiple entries in four different platforms: karting, Formula BMW Americas, Star
Mazda and Firestone Indy Lights (televised on VERSUS). In 2008 it fielded
multiple entries in 42 races in 18 states and provinces at some of the best
facilities on the continent, including the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Andersen Racing won the team championship for 2008 for both the F2000
Championship Series presented by Hoosier Racing Tire and the Star Mazda Championship
presented by Goodyear. Two of its drivers finished first and second in the
F2000 driver point standings, while another was sixth. Three of its Star Mazda
drivers placed third, fifth and sixth in that series' driver standings.
RLR/Andersen Racing finished sixth in the 2008 Firestone Indy Lights team standings,
while one of its drivers placed fifth in that series' driver point standings.
Andersen Racing's principals, brothers Dan and John Andersen, have extensive
experience in series administration as well as team management. They've worked
with many of today's top open-wheel stars, including several Indy 500
winners.
Andersen Racing is sponsored by Allied Building Products Corp. and Lafarge
North America. It is the official development team of Rahal Letterman Racing,
which competes in the IndyCar Series and the American Le Mans Series. The team
is headquartered at Andersen RacePark, an 18-acre facility in Palmetto, Fla.
that includes a 1-mile road course test track. For more information see
andersenracingteam.com and andersenracepark.com.