Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Sonoma race report

DREYER & REINBOLD RACING FINISHES STRONG IN SONOMA; GIORGIO PANTANO EARNS 6TH PLACE RESULT AND ANA BEATRIZ FINISHES 13TH

Ana Beatriz, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing

Photo by: IndyCar Series

Sonoma, CA (August 28, 2011)- Dreyer & Reinbold Racing had an extremely strong weekend as they had two great performances.The team proved that their hard work throughout the last two days had paid off as Giorgio Pantano, pilot of the No. 22 TranSystems machine finished 6th and Ana Beatriz, pilot of the No. 24 Ipiranga machine earned a 13th place result.

Giorgio Pantano really impressed and showed his true talent at Infineon Raceway today. The Italian, who substituted for Wilson for today's event, started 11th and as the green flag dropped, had a clean start as he gained one position passing his teammate Ana Beatriz for 10th place. The field quickly settled into a groove and Pantano maintained his position as he saved fuel. On Lap 21, he came into the pits for fuel and tires and he filtered out to P6. During the second stint, Giorgio stayed focused and maintained his position as he came in on Lap 48 for the final pit stop of the day.

As the laps continued to wind down Pantano did an incredible job. However it got a little interesting for the Italian and DRR as the yellow came out on Lap 65, with 10 laps remaining in the race. On Lap 69 the green flag waved and Giorgio battled for position. He brought the car home safely in 6th place.

Today was a similar story for Ana Beatriz. The Brazilian proved again that she is graduating from rookie status. As the green flag dropped, Beatriz, who earned a career best starting spot of 10th position, had a clean start and stayed out of trouble. She lost one position to her teammate, Pantano, moving her back to 11th, where she would stay for the remainder of the first stint.

Unfortunately, just before Beatriz was supposed to pit, she was running out of fuel and had to reduce her speed to make it to the pits. As a result, she lost some momentum and positions. She came in on Lap 25 for fuel and tires. Bia filtered out to P20 and just saved fuel before she would come into pit for the final time on Lap 50 for fuel and tires. Luckily, after the last stop she regained her momentum and brought the Ipiranga machine in 13th position.

What they have to say...

Dennis Reinbold, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Co-Owner: "We know that we were penalized, but we are just considering that as hot air. On the re-start the League put the lapped No. 18 car in front us randomly with no explanation as to why they did that. As a result we had to battle between lapped cars. Whatever they say we are not going to acknowledge it."

Giorgio Pantano No. 22 TranSystems: "We did a great job today and had a well deserved 6th place finish. The TranSystems car worked really well. The entire team did a fantastic job. The last time I was here was in 2006, so after six years of not driving an IndyCar I think it's an amazing thing. To be able to be up front with Will Power, Helio Castroneves, Scott Dixon, Dario Franchitti and Ryan Briscoe was just a fabulous opportunity. I really enjoyed it. I have to say thank you to the team and all of the sponsors because I would not be here if it weren't for them."

Ana Beatriz, No. 24 Ipiranga: "We had a good start. We lost one spot to Giorgio, but we were able to hang in there. I think what really hurt us was when we ran out of fuel before the first pit stop. I had to really over slow on that last lap before we pitted and we lost a lot of time. When I went back out on track we had lost a lot of positions and we got behind a group of cars that were fighting each other hard. After that, we got back into a good rhythm after the second pit stop. Track position is so important here and all of those things really hurt us. Now we move on and get ready for Baltimore next weekend."