News
Team E's Mitchell Finishes Eighth in N.H.
August 16, 2011
Team E Racing's Rusty Mitchell of Midland, Texas, continued his excellent record of never finishing outside of the top-10 in an oval-track race with
an eighth-place finish Sunday in the Firestone Indy Lights race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
It was his third race in this series, the top
step in the Mazda Road to Indy program, and Mitchell's sixth race on an oval ever.
Driving the Motorola/Petro Communications No. 17 fielded by
Team E Racing, which is based in the Tampa Bay, Fla., area, Mitchell started seventh in the 100-lap race after struggling during practice on Thursday.
He averaged 141.818 miles per hour in Sunoco Qualifying on Saturday.
Sunday's race was a 100-lapper on New Hampshire's 1-mile oval. Mitchell
moved up to sixth almost immediately when the driver who started second, Bryan Clauson, spun in turn two on the first lap.
Mitchell reverted
back to seventh with eight laps complete when Gustavo Yacaman passed his bright blue No. 17. David Ostella got by him 10 laps later to push him to
eighth, and he was still in that position at the checkered.
His fastest lap of the race was lap 66, when he was clocked at 140.131
mph.
The winner, Josef Newgarden, led the entire race from the pole. Jorge Goncalvez finished second and Duarte Ferreira placed
third.
"It was a tough weekend," Mitchell said Sunday after the race. "The team worked really hard and we got the car better throughout the
weekend. We'll do better next time, for sure. I really have to thank the team and our sponsors for their support.
"Our car was decent in
qualifying," he said. "We experimented and ran a totally different deal on Thursday, and then switched back to a normal oval set-up for qualifying
on Saturday. We lost one day, and that day was hard to recover. We just didn't have enough time to catch up. But the team really worked hard, and
the car was a lot better for the race than it was when we unloaded it off the trailer."
Mitchell and Team E hope to enter all three of the
races remaining in 2011 in preparation for a full assault on the championship in 2012. The next race is slated for the new street course at
Baltimore's Inner Harbor on Sunday, September 4. That race will be shown live on VERSUS at noon.
"I'm really looking forward to the street
course at Baltimore. Road courses and street courses are predominately what we've been doing," Mitchell pointed out.
The last two races are
on ovals: October 2 at Kentucky Speedway, and October 16 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
The complete schedule and more series news can be found
on indycar.com/fil.
Additional information can be found on the team's website at TeamERacing.com and Mitchell's website at
RustyMitchellRacing.com. Updates can also be found on Team E Racing's Facebook page.