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FONTANA,
Calif. -- Esteban
Guerrieri and Sebastian Saavedra finished 1-2 in the 45-lap Firestone
Indy Lights race in Long Beach, Calif. on Sunday. Then, their
racing teams and seven others loaded up their car haulers and
drove 60 miles east to the Auto Club Speedway. The drivers participated
in a testing session at the track located in Fontana, Calif. Each
driver ran for a few laps on the track, then made some adjustments
and got back on. It is all to preview their season-ending race,
which will also take place at the Auto Club Speedway on Sept.
15.
"This
will be my first time here, my first time at an oval," Guerrieri
said in an exclusive interview. "We've only been doing street
courses and road courses so far. I'm looking forward to jumping
in the car and doing a couple of laps here. Long Beach was a very
good race. Obviously, to get the win is the best you can aim for.
It was an interesting race. I had to push in the first lap from
the start more than anything to try to get my first position.
I could manage a good start to overtake the break into Sebastian
Saavedra and after that, just look after the tires a little bit.
From flag to finish, I was in first position so it was a good
race."
David
Ostrella and Alex Jones were the only two drivers who participated
in last weekend's Long Beach race, but didn't test at the Auto
Club Speedway on Tuesday.
"This
is an area where you basically have everything," the winner
of the Long Beach race added. "Here you have the mountains
and very close is the sea and also I heard on the other side of
the mountains is the desert. Basically, you have whatever you
want. I really like this place. My dream place to know from young
and now I come to here. I could win in Long Beach and it was one
of the dreams come true. Obviously, the people are very enthusiastic.
They come to the track to watch the races. It's a lot of fun and
they love it. I couldn't ask more than this."
The Firestone
Indy Lights series is considered to be the feeder series for the
IZOD IndyCar Series.
"It
was running pretty good, we need to make some improvements to
the car," said Juan Pablo Garcia, driver of the No. 76 Jeffrey
Mark Motorsport race car. "I'm really happy how we started
the car. It was my first time here so it was difficult. Also,
I have a year that I haven't been driving in an oval. We have
a really good car here, we just need to improve it. After lunch,
we are going to go faster. I like the weather and the people and
we have many Hispanic people around here. I'm really happy about
coming back here. I'm looking forward to this last race especially
since I already tested here."
Marco
Andretti, Josef Newgarden, James Hinchcliffe, Charlie Kimball,
Ed Carpenter, Jay Howard, JR Hildebrand, and Alex Lloyd are some
of the recent drivers who have graduated from the Indy Lights
series.
"It
wasn't what I expected at the beginning," Garcia explained
about his seventh place finish in Long Beach. "Unfortunately,
we had some rain on Friday so we couldn't go out on track. On
Saturday, our car wasn't how I like to drive it at the session
in the morning. At qualifying, it was better, but not still the
way I like it. We change completely the car from qualifying to
warm-up. We changed the complete car. Finally at the race, I got
the car I wanted. We were running pretty good lap times. I think
we need to improve more. At least we know we can be in the front
with the other guys so we need to work harder."
The Indy
Lights series finale will take place on Saturday, Sept. 15, the
same day as the IZOD IndyCar series' season-ending race.
"It
went well, it's been a long time since I've drove in Indy Lights,"
said Sebastian Saavedra, driver of the No. 27 AFS Racing/Andretti
Autosport race car. "It takes some time to get used to it
to get back down from an IndyCar to an Indy Lights. Surely, it
was a pleasant experience around the Fontana speedway. I'm looking
forward to a better evening session. It is my first time here.
It's very interesting to learn it knowing that we will be back
in some months. From the different temperature changes, you need
to learn everything and keep as much information as possible."
This year
will be the first time the Indy Lights series has raced at the
track in seven years.
"I'm
very pleased on the weekend," the second-place finisher in
Long Beach added. "Of course, it was very important for points.
I'm now leading the championship. This season I would say is the
toughest of a long time. There are great names out there. I'm
proud to be working with such great people. I'm a bit disappointed
not being able to win from pole, but we did an incredible job
out there. I love California. I think it's such a nice culture.
Until you experience it, you don't realize how cool it is. It's
a very chilled kind of environment. We might also be in IndyCar
so we might be doing a doubleheader here."
All cars
in the Indy Lights series run on the Dallara chassis and use Firestone
tires.
"It's
going to be a good race weekend," Guerrieri explained. "Obviously,
very tight racing on a big oval like this. It's a good race track
to finish the season and I hope that everybody can come at the
end of the year. You have a lot of time to book your tickets so
come over here in September."
For
more information or to purchase tickets to the Firestone Indy
Lights race at Auto Club Speedway, visit www.autoclubspeedway.com.
Related
Story: Preview:
IndyCar drivers ready to show the fans a good time in Long Beach
PHOTO
BY JASON RZUCIDLO / ©AMERICAJR.com
Esteban
Guerrieri won Sunday's Firestone Indy Lights race in Long Beach.
PHOTO
BY JASON RZUCIDLO / ©AMERICAJR.com
The
No. 28 of Nick Andries and the No. 24 of Armaan Ebrahim are pushed
into the garage.
PHOTO
BY JASON RZUCIDLO / ©AMERICAJR.com
Sebastian
Saavedra finished second in Sunday's Long Beach Indy Lights race.
PHOTO
BY JASON RZUCIDLO / ©AMERICAJR.com
Crews
making adjustments to Darryl Wills' No. 20 Indy Lights car.
PHOTO
BY JASON RZUCIDLO / ©AMERICAJR.com
Juan
Pablo Garcia is hoping to do better at the Auto Club Speedway
after finishing seventh in Long Beach.
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