For more information:
Linda Mansfield, Restart Communications
Cell: (317) 201-0729
E-mail: LindaKMansfield@cs.com
Donoso Finishes Eighth to Lead RLR/Andersen
In Saturday's Firestone Indy Lights Race
At Watkins Glen
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y., July 4 - There weren't any fireworks, but Pablo Donoso
celebrated the Fourth of July by coming from 14th to eighth for RLR/Andersen
Racing Saturday in the Corning 100 Firestone Indy Lights race at Watkins
Glen International.
Donoso, of Santiago, Chile, drove the Andersen Racing/Allied Interior
Products/Donoso LTDA No. 9 in the 30-lap/102-mile race.
Ali Jackson only had nine laps of practice to get acclimated to the
3.37-mile, 11-turn road course on Saturday morning due to flight delays getting to
the Glen from his home in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He started 21st in the
race after missing qualifying on Friday, but ended up 15th for the
Palmetto, Fla.-based team with his Moyvalley Golf & Hotel Resort/Allied Interior
Products No. 6.
Like Jackson, Mario Romancini was making his first start at the historic
track. The native of Sao Paulo, Brazil qualified tenth in the RLR/Andersen
Racing No. 5 sponsored by Andersen Racing, Revita Recycling, Win Brazil
Marketing, Allied Interior Products and Lafarge North America. He got as high as
ninth despite a lack of power almost as soon as the green flag waved. He
drifted back to 13th before he coasted to a stop off the track at the exit of
the Boot with 14 laps compete, bringing out the event's second full-course
caution flag. The crew suspects a gearbox problem was the likely culprit.
Romancini ended up 20th in the final rundown, but he's still second in the
point standings.
The race was won by J.R. Hildebrand over polesitter James Davison and
series newcomer Felipe Guimaraes.
Hildebrand now leads the point standings with 279 points to Romancini's
221; Wade Cunningham's 216, Sebastian Saavedra's 215 and Davison's 206.
Donoso ran in 14th place for the first four laps, and then moved up to 13th
with five laps down by passing Mike Potekhen. Romancini dropped from tenth
to 12th at that point. The two RLR/Andersen teammates ran together from lap
six through 10, which included a yellow for James Hinchcliffe, who backed
into a tire wall at the entrance to the Boot with eight laps down while he
was running fourth.
Donoso moved from 12th to tenth between the restart on lap 10 and lap 11 by
passing both Martin Plowman and Romancini. Romancini stayed in 13th until
he stopped while working lap 15, which caused a full-course yellow during
laps 16 and 17.
Donoso was still in tenth for the restart on lap 18, but he advanced to
ninth on lap 19 by passing Gustavo Yacaman. He moved up to eighth with 27 laps
down when Cunningham got onto the grass in Turn 11 while running sixth,
which sent him head-on into a tire wall. That set up a one-lap dash to the
checkered for the restart with 29 laps down. Donoso was still eighth on that
restart but he ended up ninth on the last lap after an altercation with Yacaman
under yellow. Donoso got eighth in the final rundown several hours after
the race after Saavedra was penalized 30 seconds for blocking, which dropped
Saavedra from fifth to 18th in the rundown.
Jackson received $2,500 and Romancini got $1,000 as bonuses from Firestone
that are awarded via a blind, post-race draw by the top three finishers for
three drivers who placed outside of the top 10.
Donoso's fastest race lap was a 1:38.8575 on lap 26. Romancini's was a
1:40.2024 on lap 13 of the 14 he ran. Jackson's fastest lap also occurred on lap
13, when he did a 1:42.6101.
The race is slated to be broadcast at 11 p.m. Eastern time Monday on VERSUS.
The next Firestone Indy Lights race is next Saturday, July 11, on the
street course in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. For more information on that event,
including live timing and scoring at 12:30 p.m. Eastern time, see
indycar.com/pro.
For more information on Andersen Racing, which is sponsored by Allied
Interior Products and Lafarge North America and offers programs in karting,
Formula BMW and Star Mazda in addition to Firestone Indy Lights, see its Web site
at andersenracingteam.com. For more information on its 1-mile road course
test track in Palmetto, Fla., see andersenracepark.com.
Post-race quotes follow:
Pablo Donoso: "My car was OK. It was better than it was in practice.
Yesterday we had a really hard day. This is a different car than I drove in Iowa
and I had a different engineer this weekend. When you try different cars and
different engineers it is kind of hard in the beginning because every guy
is different.
"But finally we did a decent job. We improved a little bit and finished in
the top 10. I'm not happy because I'd like to obviously be in the top five
or the top three. I know I can do better than this, but this was only our
second race and thinking back to Iowa, we definitely did better today. We
passed people on the track. So I'm pretty happy about the job everybody did.
"It's good to be back with Andersen Racing. I drove for them in 2005 in
Star Mazda. I wanted to put together a deal with Dan [Andersen] to do Indy
Lights after Star Mazda, but we didn't have the budget. We always kept talking
and trying though.
"It's good to be back with Dan. When I ran Star Mazda with him in 2005 it
was one of the best years of my career. I think if we can run more races with
the same car and the same people, we're going to be good.
"Mario had mechanical problems today but at the beginning we had a good
fight together.
"I had a battle with a couple different drivers, like Ana Beatriz and
Yacaman. I was up to eighth, and then there was a yellow flag for an accident.
On the yellow flag Yacaman started touching me. Then he just hit me before
one of the restarts, which caused me to lose some time and drop to ninth. I
did not feel there was any call for that.
"In the end I got eighth after all."
Ali Jackson: "I like the track; I just needed more time on it. I'm tired
from jet lag and my wrists are killing me because I haven't driven in two
months.
"The car was pretty good. I had a constant battle the whole race with the
Russian kid.
"This is my first race on a road course with Andersen Racing. We need to do
a few minor things to get me more comfortable in the car, like we need to
change the seat a little; just minor things.
"I'm looking forward to Toronto, where we hope to get all the circumstances
right and finish in the top five."
Mario Romancini: "I just didn't have any power. We don't know exactly why
yet, but it might have been a gearbox problem.
"It is very bad for us. We saw how it hurts you when you don't finish,
like we did at Long Beach. I just really wanted to finish. I'm very
disappointed.
"All we can do is fix the problem and try to do better at all the other
races."
Saturday's stats:
Second practice (Saturday, 9 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.):
1. Charlie Kimball, 1:38.1625, 123.591 mph, lap 13 of 14
8. Mario Romancini, 1:38.9506, 122.607 mph, lap 12 of 12
9. Pablo Donoso, 1:38.9539, 122.604 mph, lap 13 of 14
20. Ali Jackson, 1:46.7311, 113.669 mph, lap 8 of 9
Combined practice results:
1. James Davison, 1:37.7887, 124.063 mph, practice 1.
8. Mario Romancini, 1:38.5836, 123.063 mph, practice 1.
10. Pablo Donoso, 1:38.9529, 122.604 mph, practice 2.
21. Ali Jackson, 1:46.7311, 113.669 mph, practice 2.
Race (Saturday, 1 p.m., 30 laps):
1. J.R. Hildebrand
8. Pablo Donoso
15. Ali Jackson
20. Mario Romancini
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. 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.