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FIRESTONE INDY LIGHTS: INFINEON RACEWAY 100August 23, 2009James DavisonFelipe GuimaraesJ.R. HildebrandSONOMA, CALIFORNIA THE MODERATOR: We have been joined in the press conference center by second-place finisher, James Davison. Recorded his third top five finish in a row in the Vision Racing car. Earlier this year he won the race at Mid-Ohio sports car course. We're also joined by Felipe Guimaraes, competing in his third Firestone Indy Lights event. He finished third, fourth and now second so far this season. Talk a little bit about your race today. FELIPE GUIMARAES: I think was really good. Our race was tough for me because we didn't have a perfect car, but was good. I think JR had a really good car. He was really strong, really fast. This is his home, you know, this track. So I think he had been practicing a lot here. But I think was really good. I'm very proud with my team. They did a good job this week, and better than the other race. I'm very happy. I could do what the car could do. Was really good. THE MODERATOR: James, talk about your race today, as well. JAMES DAVISON: Yeah, I mean, for both of us, we made good starts and got positions. I got by Hinchcliffe. Yeah, didn't quite qualify where I wanted to yesterday. Starting fifth, we kind of figure we were about second quickest in the practice, that's where we would have liked. I knew passing was going to be difficult. The best opportunity was going to be on the start and restart. I got Hinchcliffe on the start and basically Ana on one of the restarts. By the time I got Ana, Felipe was quite a way away. Based on where I am in the championship, it was one of those days where I just drove a safe race. So, yeah, could have been a bit more out of me in terms of lap times. But for sure if I caught (indiscernible), it would have been difficult to pass him. We've got the same under us car setup-wise, being teammates. Yeah, I think having qualified fifth, to make up two positions on this track in an Indy Lights car, a podium finish is pretty good. THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for questions. Q. James, you have been running extremely steady this year. For a new team, in the last four or five races you've been moving up substantially. I don't think you've had much under a top 10 the whole season. The last four or five races you've been podium or very close. What has been the difference? JAMES DAVISON: It's just taken us a little time to catch our stride. Being a first-year team into the series, in its current Firestone Indy Lights form, Vision was there when it was the Indy Pro Series. Post unification, there's more road courses. It's just taken us time to get everything right, to develop the car to my liking, to get all the parts on the cars on the ovals, et cetera. You know, I've realized that it's all about finishing. And I think now I have the all-time series record of consecutive finishes, 18. Yeah, I've just been chipping away at it, not trying to overstep it, throw it down the road. Yeah, we finished outside of the top 10 once when we got punted off. Yeah, we've been very consistent. Yeah, just been patient with the team. That was always going to be a key. It was always going to take time and mistakes, et cetera. Yeah, got to be happy with where we're at. Of course, I would have loved to have won. For sure at this track 90% of the result is determined after qualifying. Q. Felipe, we were watching lap times in the press box. JR was gaining half a second every single lap. What was going through your mind as you started seeing him getting farther and farther away? Were you trying to run him down? How much better was his car compared to yours? FELIPE GUIMARAES: I think his car is always good every track, oval track, the road track as I saw the last race and the other races. During the race he was really fast and I couldn't catch him. My car was good. I was about the best I could. I was trying so hard. Then I said I can't catch him. I start to be patient, to be calm with my car, don't push so hard because I have no one behind of me. So I was just saving my car and finishing second position. Q. This is your third race. The worst you've done so far is fourth. Having come to this series, you ran Star Mazda which is a somewhat similar car, this has more horsepower, how do you transition and do extremely well? FELIPE GUIMARAES: Well, I think is really good, no, third race, two podiums. The worst, as you said, was fourth. So I'm just happy. As I told you guys, I'm just here to practice before the (indiscernible) start. This was my last race, unfortunately. But I think I did a really good job to be racing. Two podiums I think was really good. No mistakes, no crash. So I'm very happy. Q. I heard from your team there's a possibility that you tested in Kentucky, that you might possibly end up at Homestead. FELIPE GUIMARAES: Well, we don't know yet. To be honest with you, I'd like to try an oval courses. I went to Kentucky and I saw was really fun racing, was really competitive, and I was really excited in that racing. So I would like to try. We will see. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Felipe and James. We've been joined by our race winner, Sausalito native JR Hildebrand. He won his fourth race of the season today, all on road or street courses, and his second from pole position. He needs to finish 13th at Chicagoland Speedway on Saturday to clinch the Firestone Indy Lights title. Talk a little bit about your race, JR. J.R. HILDEBRAND: Just a great race for us. You know, I knew we had really good equipment. In qualifying we showed that yesterday. Made some changes this morning. A little bit up in the air what the weather was going to be like. The cars are different depending whether it's hot or cold. We picked something we thought was going to be a little bit between. The car started off loose. As long as I could take care, that proved to be really quick. One of our strong points all year has been being able to run consistently fast lap times during the race. I had the car under me the whole way. I think that was sort of our key right there. THE MODERATOR: Most of us know you're from nearby Sausalito. J.R. HILDEBRAND: It doesn't hurt that I know the track like the back of my hand. It's awesome. It almost brings things full circle to some extent. Obviously, hopefully there's a little bit more to it. I won my first ever race on the track in the Jim Russell Racing Championship Series. In that race I spun out a bunch of times in qualifying. I posted the fastest lap, had to start last. Came up through the field. So it's cool to be able to come back a few levels up the ladder and be able to do the same thing. THE MODERATOR: Congratulations. Questions. Q. Yesterday you talked about climbing that ladder, the last wrung being the hardest one to climb. You just started here today a little further down on the ladder. Talk about how today fits into your portfolio of your career, how important today is to you as an individual, how that positions you to take the next step up the ladder that you talked about yesterday. J.R. HILDEBRAND: I mean, we try to just kind of take things one race at a time, one session at a time. We didn't really approach this weekend a whole lot different from that perspective because our cars, our equipment has been really good. Our cars have been fast. When they're like that, we've been able to take advantage in the past races. On the podium, I said I feel like almost all the races this year are hometown races because we go into each race knowing we've got a good shot at winning. Coming here was no different. I just have that little extra advantage. So I try to look at it instead of being a little extra pressure, a little bit more on my side to be able to pull it off here at the end of the weekend. I think once we get through the next couple of races, hopefully we'll be able to start making things happen moving forward. Q. Whatever it's worth, at the end of the race, when Michael was interviewed, he was asked, What do you think of your driver JR, is he ready to move? And he said, Absolutely. J.R. HILDEBRAND: Michael has been amazing to be around. You couldn't have a better driver coach for on the track or off the track than a guy that's had as much experience and has been so competitive like Michael Andretti. Obviously coming from him, I take that as quite a compliment. Hopefully it would be great if I was able to work with those guys moving forward. Q. JR, you pulled out such an amazing lead and kept on padding it. Were you just in such a groove that you didn't want to slow down? J.R. HILDEBRAND: Well, I wanted to try to get a little bit of a gap right away because I know from running behind guys, you know, in other races during the season, other races during my career, it's a little bit easier to break just that little bit later and all that kind of stuff, you got a little bit of a carrot you're chasing after. I tried to pull away a little bit at the beginning and thought I will settle in. Last week, the last race at Mid-Ohio, I was pushing really hard at the beginning and just wore the car out too much. So I didn't really want to do that again. So I thought I'd kind of settle in, see what the car was going to do, if it was going to be loose or understeer, how I was going to manage that. Took five, six laps to kind of get a handle on it and then from there it didn't really change much through the rest of the race. The car, I just lap to lap would kind of make sure I was keeping the rear tires under me, this and that, but was able to just keep pushing at that point. I kind of kept thinking, Well, okay, it's probably going to get a little bit worse. If that happens I'll slow down a little bit. Just never really happened. So just kept on going. Q. What did you think when you found out you were more than 15 seconds ahead? J.R. HILDEBRAND: They stopped telling me after a little while. So I just kind of -- I slowed up a little bit toward the end of the race just because it was getting -- with the heat, the race actually was 10 laps longer than our races here last year were, so I thought it's not really worth trucking it off if I'm that far ahead. At the same time I was just trying to stay focused. Sometimes if you start thinking too much about, Oh, where can I let off a little bit, then you let off a little bit too much or you stop paying attention or whatever. So I kind of tried to just stick with it through the end. Q. (No microphone.) J.R. HILDEBRAND: It didn't really change it that much. I mean, I figured at the actual start of the race that I could get off to a good jump. It was a little bit of a weird run down to the green. I wasn't really sure what was going on. I just pinned it and left, garbled it a little bit. These guys were able to take advantage, it looked like. Just kind of got off to the start. My plan from there was the same thing, to try to pull out a little bit of a gap. Ended up just having to wait a few laps to try to do that on the restart. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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