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Conquest Racing Sonoma race report

Conquest Racing press release

Sebastian Saavedra, Conquest Racing

Sebastian Saavedra, Conquest Racing

IndyCar Series

STRONG RUN FOR SEBASTIAN SAAVEDRA AT THE INDY GRAND PRIX OF SONOMA

Sebastian Saavedra, Conquest Racing
Sebastian Saavedra, Conquest Racing

Photo by: IndyCar Series

Indianapolis, Indiana – August 30, 2011 – Conquest Racing’s Sebastian Saavedra had a strong run this weekend at the Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma, round 14 of the 2011 IZOD IndyCar Series season. Despite the limited passing opportunities at the picturesque 2.303-mile circuit, the Colombian driver managed to pick up nine positions through daring on-track passes and a clever pit strategy and finished the 75-lap race in the 14th position.

Saavedra had a strong start to the race weekend with the #34 Bogota Es Mundial / Conquest Racing car posting the eight fastest lap in practice and went into qualifying with high hopes, but after a difficult session he had to settle with the 23rd position on the starting grid.

The 21 year old driver started the race on the primary Firestone tires and extended his pit window as long as possible until Lap 25 when he made his first pit stop, the clever strategy by the Conquest Racing engineers allowed him to complete the last two stints of the race on the faster alternate Firestones giving him a speed advantage and allowing him to be only one of two drivers to pick up nine positions during the event. In a race that had only one caution period, Saavedra maintained a fast pace all throughout and despite having a late race off track excursion after contact with Mike Conway, he managed to hold on to the 14th position and increased his 2011 championship points to 161.

Sebastian Saavedra
Driver #34 Bogota Es Mundial / Conquest Racing / Honda / Dallara / Firestone

“That was an amazing race, I enjoyed every lap of it! We managed to pass a lot of cars and were always quick and competitive. The Conquest crew did a great job during the pit stops and the strategy definitely paid off for us, starting on the primary Firestones was the key to getting a good solid run on the alternates for the rest of the race. Towards the end of the race we made contact with Mike Conway and that was unfortunate but we still managed to get a strong finish and that’s what matters. What’s important is that we showed that the Bogota Es Mundial car is strong and now we can go to Baltimore and continue to build on the positive momentum that we got at Sonoma.”

Eric Bachelart
Team Owner Conquest Racing

“I’m very happy with the way the race went for us this weekend. Sonoma is a track where it’s very hard to pass, but despite that Sebastian picked up nine positions and passed a lot of very fast cars. The Conquest Racing engineers did a good job with the setup of the car throughout the whole weekend and also made the right call with strategy during the race. We were very quick in practice and unfortunately qualifying didn’t go as well, but we know that we can be fighting up there in the top ten and we will keep working and look for an even stronger result at Baltimore next weekend.”

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