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Battistini Wins Firestone Freedom 100 At IMS

Speedway, IN – May 24, 2008 – The British are coming, the British are
here! Dillon Battistini who won his first Firestone Indy Lights race
in the season opener at Homestead won his second Firestone Indy Lights
race in only five starts. With wonderful weather, temps in the low
70’s and lots of sun, the 27-car field was ready for the 40-lap,
100-mile sprint. Battistini, the rising star from the Panther Racing
stable started from the pole (speed of 188.397mph) with fellow rookie
James Davison alongside. Battistini took the lead on the break as the
field made its way through turns three and four as Jon Brownson did a
half spin and nosed into north short chute wall incurring light
damage, however it was enough that Brownson, after making it to the
pits, retired from the event. Brownson remarked, “I got a little too
ambitious to catch the cast of cars in front of me. Going into Turn 3,
I tucked in close to a gearbox and lost all the air off of the front
wing, and I was headed for the fence at that point. I was a passenger
at that moment, day over, game over.”

On the restart Battistini and Davison waged a great battle for the
lead dicing back and forth. By lap 6 Wade Cunningham entered the mix
as he passed Davison for second and one-lap later took the lead.
However a lap later Battistini and Davison both passed Cunningham as
the trio continued to battle. There were good fights throughout the
field as drivers like Richard Antinucci, Bobby Wilson, Ana Beatriz and
J.R. Hildebrand all battled each going three wide in many cases.

Things really heated up on lap 30 when Antinucci, Davison and
Hildebrand went three wide going through turn one. Exiting turn 2, the
right rear of Davison made contact with the left front of Hildebrand
causing damage to his multi-element front wing bringing out the yellow
flag. Antinucci with his wing damaged and Davison who had a flat right
rear tire, headed for the pits. Problems continued to add up for
Hildebrand as he was issued a black flag for a pit speed violation.
Jeff Simmons running with the lead pack had to go to the grass to
avoid contact, “Two guys touched in front of us, and I had a big run,
so I went down to the inside and the other car wanted that track, too,
and it just kind of put me in the grass and that killed my run and
allowed some other cars to go by. It was unfortunate.” Problems
continued to add up for Hildebrand as he was issued a black flag for a
pit speed violation. Hildebrand remarked after the race, “Man, I mean,
we could have won that race. We got up to the front there, got a
really good restart, got up ahead of Antinucci, and Beatriz pushed up
and Antinucci got kind of hosed by it. I was right on Davison; I guess
I was running third or fourth or something. Davison went under me
going through (Turn) 1. We were three-wide through there. He was
coming, bumping and banging against the two of us, come through (Turn)
2, stayed high, and we came out of the corner and he was not clear by
5 feet and just drove all the way out to the exit of the track. I
don’t know what else to say. I feel terrible for the team because we
had some bad luck in qualifying and had some things go wrong. They
gave me a great car. To end the race like that was just terrible.”

The green flag came out on lap 33 with Battistini leading Cunningham,
the fight continued for the next several laps when eventually
Antinucci passed Cunningham for second. Antinucci made several charges
at the leader, Battistini . However Battistini was able to hold him
off as he led Antinucci, the nephew of Eddie Cheever across the finish
line by 0.2458 of a second to win the sixth annual Firestone Freedom
100. Battistini led 38 of the 40 laps, however the lead exchanged
several times within some laps. Battistini never led more than second
on the competitive field.

Robbie Pecorari finished fourth and with Brazilian, Ana Beatriz in
fifth place. Bobby Wilson ran the best race with the new Team E, ended
up sixth after running as high as third. Wilson was happy to be
competitive again, “Hats off to the Team E crew – put together a good
car. We knew we were going forward in the race. Just happy for them.
The guys put in long hours and a lot of hard work. The race was pretty
wild, good for the fans, nice day out today, nonetheless a good race.
We were wheel to wheel at points, aero understeer to oversteer, guys
were three-wide, four-wide at times, it was pretty wild. Some drivers
did not give as much room as others, but the cream rises to the top
and good job Dillon (Battistini) for keeping it out front all race.
Kind of wanted to see him dice it out with us, but he had the
advantage of clean air, and it showed.”

Jeff Simmons, who will start 24th in Sunday’s Indianapolis 500,
finished eighth after starting 10th. It was his fourth top-eight
finish in as many starts in the Firestone Freedom 100. Second and
third generation drivers, Al Unser III, Sean Guthrie and Arie Luyendyk
Jr., finished 11th, 12th and 14th, respectively, all improving at
least four positions during the race.

Antinucci tried his best, “We were quick in the corners. I think were
the quickest out there. I just kept hitting the (rev) limiter. But
congratulations to Panther (Racing) and Battistini . They did a good
job. He was running those times by himself, without a tow – pretty
good.”

The rookie from Ewell, England summed it up best when asked about his
first win at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. he said, “Means a lot,
this is the best place to win.” It may have looked easy at the end,
however Battistini explained, “It wasn’t easy at all, especially at
the start of the race. I think it was James (Davison) who managed to
get a few of the good runs on me. You can get a massive tow from quite
a long way back here, and I knew that I could get it back. I’m glad I
came out on top.”

Cunningham who fought hard all day remarked, “It was a bit of a gamble
on setup, really. We didn’t do much running in practice and the
conditions were a lot different, so I think we ran with a little too
much downforce and that was pretty evident once I got to the lead.
Dillon was pretty much able to pass me at will. So it was just a case
of managing the race. Once him and I broke away, it was kind of easy
to manage the draft of one car. I could just time it through (Turn) 1
and stick with him. I really wasn’t trying to push him or anything; I
was just waiting for the end of the race. Fortunately, someone had
some problems out there and we got that 10-lap shootout at the end,
and that just allowed the field to bunch back up. Richard was probably
pretty even with me, and he got me a lap after the restart just with
momentum. After that, he had the same problem I did. He w as stuck
behind Dillon. Once he pulled out of the draft, I don’t think he had
much to pass him. Dillon had the fastest car today. It was probably
pretty easy out front for him.”

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