Tag: Sausalito

IZOD IndyCar Rookie of the Year Points Leader Returns to Track Where He Made IndyCar Debut in 2010

INDIANAPOLIS, IN (August 5, 2011) – National Guard driver JR Hildebrand and the Panther Racing crew finished in the 16th position during Friday’s practice session in preparations for the fifth Honda Indy 200 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. The IZOD IndyCar Series returns to the 2.25 mile, 13-turn track as Mid-Ohio celebrates its 50th year in racing. This narrow, natural terrain track with elevation change, sweeping corners, tight turns and a challenging pit entry will test driver skill and offer great action for IZOD IndyCar Series fans.

Hildebrand turned a total of 24 practice laps on Friday and finished with a top speed of 115.142, 1:10.5981 seconds. There will be another practice session tomorrow morning prior to IZOD IndyCar Series Firestone Fast Six qualifications. A total of 27 entries participated in today’s practice session, with the driver of the No. 38 car posting the fastest lap speed and he was followed on the chart by KV Racing driver EJ Viso and current championship points leader Dario Franchitti.

The Mid-Ohio road course marks the only track so far this season that National Guard Panther Racing driver JR Hildebrand has had previous IndyCar experience. The young rookie is looking forward to returning to the track where he made his IndyCar debut last year, finishing 16th for Dreyer and Reinbold Racing. Panther also participated in a one-day test here late last week, the first time all season that Hildebrand has tested as a venue immediately prior to racing there.

The last four years at Mid-Ohio has seen Panther finish 14th in 2010 and 16th in 2009 with driver Dan Wheldon, 6th in 2008 and 17th in 2007 with Vitor Meira, and 12th in 2007 with Kosuke Matsuura.

After climbing 13 positions to finish 11th at Edmonton, Hildebrand is tied for ninth place in the IZOD IndyCar Championship with Helio Castroneves, and is only six points away from 8th place. Securing the finish at Edmonton also bumped Hildebrand’s Rookie of the Year points lead over James Hinchcliffe to 39 points, a lead that Hildebrand is hoping to increase after this weekend’s Honda Indy 200.

The Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio will be broadcast Sunday, August 7th at 2:00pm ET onVersus, with additional coverage provided by the IMS Radio Network, XM channel 94 and Sirius channel 212.

JR Hildebrand, No. 4 National Guard Dallara Honda:

“Having competed here last year is big for me because I’ve been here and I’ve got some baseline for what it feels like when a car has been good. And we feel pretty good about where we are right now, and being able to test here last week was a big help. We were reasonably competitive at Mid-Ohio last year (at Dreyer & Reinbold) and then even more so at Infineon so those being the next two road courses we go to, I’m excited about some of the things we’ve already learned. We’re ready this year and with test days for both the races it gives us the change to work out what we’ve been doing right and do things we want to try and still have plenty of time to sort everything out on the race weekend.”

www.JRHildebrandRacing.com – www.pantherracing.com – www.NationalGuard.com

The IZOD IndyCar Rookie of the Year Points Leader Has Moved Up a
Total of 64 Positions in Six Non-Oval Starts

EDMONTON, Alberta (July 24, 2011) – National Guard Panther Racing driver JR Hildebrand climbed the grid yet again Sunday during the Honda Indy Edmonton, where the IZOD IndyCar Series rookie climbed a total of 13 positions for an 11th-place finish on the City Centre Airport circuit. Hildebrand has now improved his finishing position relative to where he qualified by a total of 64 positions in his six road/street course starts; St. Pete (+13), Barber (+2), Long Beach (+10), Brazil (+12), Toronto (+14) and now Edmonton (+13). Hildebrand has also completed 100 percent of the possible 495 laps held this season on road and street courses.

After starting in the 24th position, JR moved up to 15th by the team’s first pit stop during a full-course caution on Lap 26. He later passed Marco Andretti into Turn Five on Lap 41 to move up to 13th position, with several cars ahead of him running an alternate fuel strategy. Hildebrand advanced up to 12th position when Alex Tagliani had to pit for fuel and with three laps remaining JR made a move to pass former Panther driver Vitor Meira into the last corner to help secure his final finishing position of 11th.

The National Guard Panther Racing team currently ranks in the ninth position in the IZOD IndyCar Series points standings, and in 11 starts this season has collected four Top Ten and two Top Five finishes. Hildebrand is tied for ninth with Helio Castroneves, and is just six points behind Graham Rahal, who is in the eighth position. Hildebrand also extended his lead in the IZOD IndyCar Series Rookie of the Year points’ championship by 39 points over fellow rookie James Hinchcliffe.

Team Penske driver Will Power captured the victory and was joined on the podium by teammate Castroneves and current championship points leader Dario Franchitti of Ganassi Racing.

JR Hildebrand, No. 4 National Guard Dallara Honda:

“The thing for me that’s encouraging, and encouraging for everybody on the National Guard Panther team is we had a really fast race car out there. We rolled out this weekend and thought we were looking OK and then kinda lost track of it in the second practice and in qualifying, but made some changes this morning and started to get it back and, man, during the race I felt like I had as quick a race car as lot of the guys that were running up front. As far as temporary circuits go, I feel like this is the best race car I’ve had in all of those events. That’s good and it definitely and it allowed me to be aggressive and allowed me to make some good passes on-track; setting guys up, braking late and getting by them and pulling away – so that always makes your day a lot more exciting.”

www.JRHildebrandRacing.com – www.pantherracing.com – www.NationalGuard.com

– Panther Racing, Press Release

J.R. Hildebrand and National Guard/Panther Racing Ride Into Alberta With Two Straight Top Ten Finishes on Street Courses

EDMONTON, Alberta (July 21, 2011) – This weekend marks the fourth year the IZOD IndyCar Series returns to the Edmonton City Centre Airport for the Honda Indy Edmonton. Located in Alberta Canada, the 2.2-mile track incorporates sections of airport runway to help comprise the 13-turn course. With two long straight-aways, tight corners and tough break zones, Edmonton promises some of the closest action yet in the 2011 season. This will be the first season the IZOD IndyCar Series has competed on the new track layout.

Though this will be Hildebrand’s first race on the Edmonton course in an IndyCar, he captured a first-place finish in Firestone Indy Lights in 2009. Currently ninth in the IZOD IndyCar Series championship points chase, Hildebrand is the highest ranked rookie driver in the standings. An eighth place finish in the Honda Indy Toronto means that in 10 starts, Hildebrand has secured four Top Ten finishes, two Top Five finishes and the team is looking to keep their hot streak alive this weekend in Edmonton.

The past three races at Edmonton has seen Panther finish 20th in 2010 and 15th in 2009 with driver Dan Wheldon, and 19th in 2008 with driver Vitor Meira.

The Honda Edmonton Indy, will be broadcast live on VERSUS on Sunday, July 24th at 2:00 pm (ET) with additional coverage provided by the IMS Radio Network, XM channel 94 and Sirius channel 212.

JR Hildebrand, No. 4 National Guard Dallara Honda:

“Based on our track walk today, the straights are longer and the corners are a lot tighter than I originally thought, especially with the changing conditions we might be dealing with the possibility of some weather rolling in. It’s definitely going to be tough, given that it’s a new track for all of us. That puts a priority on adapting quickly. We had a strong car in the rain in Brazil and hopefully that serves us well if there is weather up here this weekend. Otherwise we’ll be looking to continue improving based upon where we’ve been in the previous few races here.”

www.JRHildebrandRacing.com – www.pantherracing.com – www.NationalGuard.com

– Panther Racing, Press Release