Pippa Mann Gets First Indy Lights Win

Lady racer Pippa Mann picked up her first Firestone Indy Lights win today by running away from the field after an early red flag due to a nasty three car crash in Turn 4 at the end of the first lap. She was so excited in Victory Lane that it looked like she didn't know what to do next in the process of accepting victory awards! We were at Nashville when Ana Beatriz got her first Indy Lights win and it is great to be here at Kentucky Speedway to see another up and coming woman racer find her way to the head of the charts. She crashed out early at Indy this year after winning the pole but that wasn't her fault as others spun and collected her then. She had them covered today and another win is added to the record books for Sam Schmidt, who always seems to find the best young drivers and get them to Victory Lane in Indy Lights. Well done Pippa! She has come a long way in the last couple of years and having Sam continue to see success is a great thing for the Firestone Indy Lights series. Phillip Major spun and was hit by Sebastian Saavedra and then by Stefan Wilson to bring out the early red flag but everyone walked away from what could have been a very nasty situation as Major slid down the track and competitors had to go high and low to miss him. Unfortunately, not everyone did. Once the race resumed, Pippa set sail and led the entire race of 67 laps to the checkers. Before I head out for the Indycar race, here's a quick slide show of the Lights action.

Brandon Wagner Takes Chicagoland Indy Lights Pole

Brandon Wagner came from nowhere in practice to take the Indy Lights pole todat at Chicagoland with an average of 189.954. Whereas everyone else went slower from the morning practice, he ran about the same as his top practice lap when he had been 15th of 16 cars on the track. Wade Cunningham will start on row 1 alongside Wagner. Anna Beatriz had mechanical problems and never took the green after a warmup lap in qualifying so she will start in the last road. Series leader JR Hildebrand had a sour sounding engine and will also start near the back.

Chicagoland Indy Lights On Track - Cunningham Quickest

Live from the media center at Chicagoland Speedway on a gray and windy day, the weather may be chilly but the Indy Lights teams have finished their hot laps and are now preparing to qualify. Wade Cunningham had fast time in this morning's practice session, followed by season points leader JR Hildebrand, who has a chance to clinch the Indy Lights championship today if he finishes 13th or better. The Lights cars are always entertaining on the ovals and today should be no different. Packs of 5 or more cars is not unusual and when I saw them doing that in practice this morning, I thought they must be crazy. Conditions today, however, are vastly different than yesterday, so all 16 teams were working on race setups the first half of the session and then focusing on changes for qualifying the second half.



My personal favorite Indy Lights driver is Ana Beatriz, who I saw win her first race at Nashville in 2008, and who had a wicked crash at Indy near me in May. I got this shot as practice wound down and the team was doing lots of work trying to tweak her shocks for qualifying. She ended up fourth quick in the practice session and should be a leading contender in the race today. I hope she can graduate to IRL next season!

Back with more later. Indy Lights qualifying is next followed by the Lights race and then IRL under the lights. Both should be entertaining. Ryan Briscoe is on pole for the IRL feature and I'm still not ready to make my pick yet...

Battistini Takes Kentucky Indy Lights Win

Dillon Battistini held off fierce challenges from James Davison and Arie Luyendyk Jr. to win the Kentucky Indy Lights 100 mile event tonight. Indy winner Battistini controlled the pace of the race from the front, leading every lap except the first one. Lots of drivers had trouble on a night when three and four wide pack racing was the rule rather than the exception. It looked like the race would end under yellow when a backmarker spun with less than two laps to go but he got out of harms way and the Indy Lights officials waved the white flag anyway. After the gift Davison got at Mid Ohio last month, he seemed pleased with a second place finish and was gesturing madly prior to the podium ceremonies about what looked like close calls and wheel banging during the event. These young guys sure can put on a show given the chance.

This is my last post for the evening before I hit the road for Indy. Thanks to Don Hamilton and American Motor Journal again for the opportunity. I'm loving every minute of it. It was a beautiful night for racing. Next year, they need to run the IRL race later so we get the added thrill of the bright lights. Maybe the new contract with Versus will get that changed. I'm sure the Lights guys enjoyed it. They probably felt like they were the feature, even though the stands were half full when they ran.

One last observation: for a race they said was sold out, there were a lot of fans dressed up as empty seats tonight. I wonder what that was all about.

The US Nationals are next up for me. Night qualifying. Awesome. Loud. Earth shaking. Flame throwing. My one night of the year for the straight line brigade. It should be fun!

Nashville IRL Notes

Having been back in Indy for a day now, I have had some more time to go through my pix from the races at Nashville Superspeedway and am generally pretty happy. I shot more with flash at high speed settings and there are more lessons learned every time I go to a racetrack it seems. Night races are tricky anyway and the lighting always seems better to the eye than the camera perceives it, so that's one. Another is the need to shoot at higher ISO and shutter speeds, even with the digital noise that brings sometimes. It's still better than pushing film to 1600 or higher. I'll take digital over film any day.

So now I set my sights on the Mid Ohio weekend ahead for the ALMS and Indycars. I just finished watching the DVD I recorded of last weekend's ALMS race at Lime Rock and I would expect this weekend to go about the same. The P2 cars should be quicker than the P1 cars at Mid Ohio since it is such a twisty track with relatively few places to pass. It's too bad there aren't more P1 cars available, but they sure are beautiful regardless of the car count. Dealing with traffic from the GT cars always makes these races interesting. And I would expect to see Marco run both races to get more road racing seat time, as the IRL now has more road races left on the schedule than ovals. That is going to make the Kentucky and Chicago races even more interesting and even though it looks like Dixon is poised to take the title, there are still lots of laps to run and anything can happen. Watch for Rahal, Wilson, Servia and the other transition teams to be even more competitive this weekend than at the Glen. It should be fun.

In the meantime, click on the following photo of TK racing with young Rahal to go to my picasa album page for more from both Nashville races this past weekend. See you Saturday, or maybe before. If you're out there reading this, then please leave a comment or two.

Nashville Indy Racing League and Indy Lights races

It's A Beautiful Day at Kentucky Speedway for Racing

After last weekend's rain delay at Michigan, it sure is nice to have a good day to shoot a race. Especially an IndyCar race. Rain has seemed to follow me this year: Indy, Nashville, Michigan. Today we should be good to go on time. And I'm happy to be in the Kentucky Speedway media center right now to catch a little relief from the heat outside.

The Indy Pro Series finished their pre-race warmup session a little while ago and were running faster than the pole speed. The scheduling is a bit odd, with the Pro Series race following the Indycars, but that's obviously a TV mandate, so the IRL will run through the twilight and the Pro Series under the full lights with a 9 pm start time. It should make for an interesting photo challenge, adjusting to the changing lighting conditions.

But the main event promises to be fast and furious and I have to wonder if the events of last weekend have been forgotten by everyone. Have Helio and Vitor made up? The Indianapolis Star seemed to imply that this morning but I have to wonder. And will Dario race for the win or be conservative and try to pad his points lead? A DNF now and strong finishes by Dixon and others could really spell trouble for his championship hopes.

And my man Sam Hornish Jr. really needs to go for it tonight to close the gap to the season leaders. The next two races are not his strongsuits (road/street courses) so he needs a good finish tonight and to keep the car on the track the next two races to be in contention for the Chicagoland finale.

Should be a good show tonight. Stay tuned. Strap in.

Jay