Antinucci Victor In 2nd Lights Duel At The Glen

By Joe Jennings
- Tweet
- Pin It
Updated: July 5, 2008

WATKINS GLEN, July 5 – Richard Antinucci powered his way to victory in the second Corning Duel, the second race of the day for the Firestone Indy Lights Series. The race took place at Watkins Glen International’s historic long course.

Starting fifth, the Italian driver passed leader Ana Beatriz on the 11th of 29 laps to score his second victory of the season.

The victor drove the Lucas Oil/Sam Schmidt Motorsports entry.

“We deserved second place in the first Corning Duel but we were able to improve our car for the second race,” the winner said. “Once we got going, we were able to pull ahead of the others. And on the restarts, we seemed to be fast. In the closing laps, I wasn’t trying to set the world on fire.”

Antinucci gained the points lead with his first and second place finishes. He heads Raphael Matos, who garnered second place, by 29 points.

Matos, who won the initial Corning Duel, raced his way to second place in the Andretti Green Racing entry.

Said Matos about his race, “I made a big mistake on the last restart and I picked up dirt on my tires, which gave my car a problem. After that I just put my head down and tried to catch Richard (Antinucci) but I ran out of time.”

In gaining her third podium of the season, Beatriz led the first half of race but was overtaken by first Antinucci and then Matos of restarts.

She drove the Healthy Choice/Sam Schmidt Motorsports car.

“It was a good weekend and we had a complicated task to address,” she stated. “In the first race, we ran well and I managed to miss the accidents. We were much faster in the second race, but I over-steered on one of the restarts and almost spun out. I am happy with the podium position.”

Logan Gomez took fourth with Pablo Donoso fifth.

Sixth through tenth went to Jeff Simmons, Arie Luyendyk Jr., Matt Lee, J. R. Hildebrand and Sean Guthrie.