HVM Racing Mid-Ohio Race Report

Simona De Silvestro Makes the Most of Obstacles & Track Position at Mid-Ohio

August 7, 2011 - Lexington, OH - On Sunday afternoon, Simona De Silvestro persevered at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course to add another solid run to her sophomore-season record. Despite a rough start and an early pit stop incident, she was able to focus forward and cross the finish line in P12.

Simona de Silvestro, HVM Racing

Photo by: Adriano Manocchia

As the Honda Indy 200 began, De Silvestro's No. 78 Nuclear Clean Air Energy car got sandwiched between J.R. Hildebrand and Tony Kanaan. She didn't sustain any damage, but incident caused her to lose two positions. Later, on lap 21, De Silvestro clipped the front right tire that was sitting in Marco Andretti's pit box (directly behind HVM's) as both drivers came in for a stop. De Silvestro moved back to P22, but was able to make up the positions throughout the remainder of the race.

"Overall, I think we did okay today," said De Silvestro. "At the start, we kind of got checked up and lost a couple of positions, but the car felt good and we gained them back. I think we had a good pace by ourselves, but in traffic, it wasn't easy to make passes and I think other drivers struggled with that too."

Now, she's looking toward the rest of the season and setting new goals.

"I think we just need to improve our qualifying attempts. Last year at Mid-Ohio, we started further up front and were able to stay there, so I think if I can work with the Nuclear Clean Air Energy crew to focus on qualifying, we can do that again. That will really help us."