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Strous Doubles At St. Petersburg

St. Petersburg, FL – Junior Strous continued with his winning ways at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, winning the Firestone Indy Lights 40-lap race for the second day in a row. In winning, Strous became the third driver to win the first two races of the sesson and the third time a driver has swept the weekend at this street course.

The victor started from the front row but dropped back as J. R. Hildebrand and Sebastian Saavedra moved into the front positions, but Hildebrand was penalized for jumping the start. Strous inherited the second spot only to be passed again by Hildebrand.

On lap 27, Strous went underneath Hildebrand in turn one and Ana Beatriz tried to pass Hildebrand, but the two cars made contact dropping them from contention. Six laps later Strous made the winning pass and took the checkered flag .44 seconds ahead of Saavedra and James Hinchcliffe.

“This was just an amazing weekend and an amazing day,” Strous said. I had a good run and made some great passing moves, including the pass for the lead in turn one. It was really close, but all of the guys drove so professional.”

Said Saavedra, a Colombia native, “It was a much better day than yesterday. We were able to get our problems out of the way and to be very consistent the whole way.

In finishing third, Hinchcliffe, one of 17 rookies in the race, said, “I don’t think we had the quickest car out there, but we had a consistent one. It is one of those days where it’s better to be lucky than good.”

On-track incidents triggered six caution periods that consumed 18 of the 40 laps.

Fourth and fifth place went to Jonathan Summerton and Daniel Herrington.

Rounding out the top-10 finishers were Mario Romancini, Charlie Kimball, Jay Howard, Gustavo Yacaman and Richard Philippe.

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