De Silvestro keeps the points lead and Muniz earns his second Hard
The race for the 2009 Cooper Tires Presents The Atlantic Championship
Powered by Mazda title was turned uncomfortably tight for Team Stargate
Worlds driver Simona De Silvestro after the first race of the Harrah's
Autobahn Grand Prix presented by Mazda double-header weekend. Coming into
Saturday's race, the last of the weekend, De Silvestro and teammate
Frankie Muniz were seeking to finish the weekend regaining ground in the
points chase.
Starting third on the grid De Silvestro once again began the race tucked
behind the second place of Jonathan Summerton, while his teammate and
race leader John Edwards charged ahead. As was the case during race #1,
De Silvestro and Summerton spent much of the race battling each other
with De Silvestro trying to set up Summerton for a pass and not being
able to get the right opportunity. De Silvestro's fortunes changed with 8
minutes to go as Summerton pulled off the track due to a mechanical
issue. With Summerton no longer in the mix she picked up the pace and put
down lap times quicker than the race leader Edwards but in the end she
did not have enough time to show what she could have done. De Silvestro
would end up finishing in the second spot. She still retains the 2009
Championship lead by five points.
Muniz begun the race in the tenth spot and after a couple of laps had
managed to claw himself to the eighth spot and continued to focus on the
seventh place of Markus Niemela. Muniz enjoyed a very big gap between
himself and the ninth place of Max Lefevre. Muniz would end moving one
position after Summerton pulled out of the race with eight minutes left.
He would go on to finish the race in the seventh spot. The solid effort
put on by Muniz by charging from the tenth spot to the seventh spot also
earned him the race's Hard Charger award. This would be his second such
award of the 2009 season. The first award was earned at the Miller
Motorsports Park race earlier in the season.
The series returns to competition on August 8th at Mid Ohio..
Frankie Muniz, Driver No. 77 - "I'm very happy with the result.
After having had a poor qualifying for this race I am glad we ended up
where we did and equally happy for receiving the Hard Charger award. I
learned a lot from this weekend. Thank you to my engineer Gerald Tyler
and the rest of the crew for a great car. I'm still learning a lot and
I'm looking forward to the next race."
Simona De Silvestro, Driver No. 78- "We had a great race. We caught
a break because of Summerton's issue towards the end of the race. Before
that incident he and I had a great battle and we raced each other well.
I'm grateful to the Team Stargate Worlds team for all of their hard work
this weekend and I'm looking forward to continuing our push for the
Championship."
Imran Safiulla and Shane Seneviratne, Principals Of Team Stargate Worlds-
"We are happy to have had a strong result here and stay ahead in the
championship lead. Simona drove a fantastic race and its unfortunate that
due to the lack of passing ability we weren't able to contend for the
win. We are very proud of Frankie's continued development and he had a
fantastic run. John Edwards and NWR didn't put a foot wrong all weekend
and we congratulate them."
-credit: tsw
