Power Stumbles: Hunter-Reay Wins
indycar.com photo
By Andrew Cutler
April 19 2010
In the early laps of the 36th annual Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach it was looking like the fans were going to see Team Penske's Will Power put on yet another driving clinic - and leave the rest of the field behind in the process. As he was comming out of the tight Turn Eleven hairpin to complete Lap 18, however, Power's transmission inexplicably got stuck in first gear.
The Aussie could only watch in anguish as 2nd place Ryan Hunter-Reay and 3rd place Justin Wilson streaked by before the issue somehow resolved itself. Power didn't have any further gearbox problems, but the damage to his race strategy was done. Will would finish third, and still maintains his commanding lead in the champioship points standings.
Hunter-Reay and Wilson kept the rest of the field at bay, only giving up the point during the normal position cycling that occurs during pit stops.
Wilson thought that he had a chance to overhaul Hunter-Reay when both drivers were stacked up behind the lapped car of Alex Lloyd for several circuts but, after finally moving aside for Ryan, Alex failed to see Justin trying to follow and chopped down on him going into a corner, taking part of his front wing assembly off. While a timely full-couse yellow flag (when Mario Romancini and Graham Rahal got togeather) helped Wilson to salvage a second place result, he still was understandably upset with his fellow Englishman. "Alex was a lap down and he nearly took Ryan out a couple of times. Once Ryan got past, it got him off line and slowed him up. I dove down the inside of Turn 8 and I braked pretty late. I just got the door slammed in my face."
From there Ryan cruised to his second IndyCar Series victory (the first being at Watkins Glen in 2008), and the first for Andretti Autosport in nearly two years. “It was the most fun I had in a race car because it was handling so well. My mom is out there today. She passed along recently and this race is for her. Over the last couple of laps I said ‘This is for you.’ ”
Here are the complete race results: http://www.indycar.com/schedule/raceresults/55-izod-indycar-series/1802-toyota-grand-prix-of-long-beach/
Earlier in the day, Canada's James Hinchcliffe lead flag-to-flag to take his first Firestone Indy Lights Series victory.
Next up for the IZOD IndyCar Series is a stint of four consecutive oval races, begining on Saturday, May 1st at Kansas Speedway.