Tag: Sausalito

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

J.R Hildebrand from Sausalito, CA is coming off an exciting 4th place finish in Iowa two weeks ago and now finds himself in 9th place in the points standings. Here is a release from his team about the upcoming race in Toronto, Canada.

TORONTO, Ontario (July 7, 2011) – The IZOD IndyCar Series returns to Canada this weekend for the third Honda Indy Toronto race on the streets of downtown Toronto. Historically, races on the 1.75-mile, 11-turn street course have hosted some of the most exciting non-oval races in the series, and this year’s IZOD IndyCar Series field is one of the most talented and evenly matched in league history.

“Toronto is a tough track, for sure,” Hildebrand admitted. “This is one of those places that looking at the schedule before the season you know is going to be a tough place for everybody. It’s a rough track and it’s difficult to set the car up to be good all the way around the place, and there are a couple sections specifically where you can make up a lot of time.”

At the midway point in the season National Guard Panther Racing rookie JR Hildebrand is in ninth place in the IZOD IndyCar Series Points Standings after a thrilling fourth-place finish at the Iowa Corn 250. After a break in the action over the Fourth of July holiday, Panther and Hildebrand are looking forward to the upcoming race weekend and hope to keep their momentum going through the streets of Toronto.

In the team’s two previous starts in Toronto, former driver Dan Wheldon finished 10th in 2010 and 14th in 2009.

“We had a little bit of a rough start on the road and street circuits but we’ve done some development and are excited to get back on these types of tracks,” JR continued. “We take a lot of pride in this and we know we’re all good at it and that’s why we’re excited about getting back to the road courses.”

Though this will be his first IndyCar race in Toronto, Hildebrand has raced the circuit in a Firestone Indy Lights car; finishing second in the Toronto 100 in 2009. Hildebrand, the Indy 500 runner-up and Rookie of the Year, is the top rookie in the IZOD IndyCar Series, leading Toronto hometown favorite James Hinchcliffe by a total of 27 points.

The Honda Indy Toronto race will be broadcast Sunday on VERSUS at 2pm (ET) with additional coverage provided by the IMS Radio Network, XM channel 94 and Sirius channel 212.

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

J.R. Hildebrand from Sausalito, our only Northern California driver competing regularly in the IndyCar Series, showed us again that he has a great future ahead of him. Starting in the 4th spot, he spent the entire day in the top ten and made several outstanding passes on some of the series biggest stars. He is the leader in the Rookie of the Year standings and seems to be learning quickly how to compete in the IndyCar world. Here is the race summary from his Panther Racing team.

NEWTON, Iowa – (June 25, 2011) – National Guard Panther Racing driver JR Hildebrand put together the best drive of his young career Saturday night at Iowa Speedway, where the IZOD IndyCar Series rookie diced his way through the field for a fourth-place finish on the 7/8-mile oval. Hildebrand battled for a majority of the night with open-wheel’s biggest stars, including Ryan Briscoe, Dario Franchitti, Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan and just missed out on a podium finish during the 250-lap thriller in front of a sold-out Iowa crowd.

“First time running up front rubbin’ with the big boys and a helluva run for the National Guard Panther Racing boys,” Hildebrand said after. “We’re really excited about how we did today. There are certainly still some things to learn from myself so I can earn those guys’ respect but we had a great car tonight. There were a couple of spots out there that got a bit dicey, but the car was great the entire race.”

With the finish, Hildebrand jumps back into the Top Ten in the IZOD IndyCar Series championship standings, where he is now in eighth position. He also extended his lead in the IndyCar Series Rookie of the Year standings, where he now leads second-place driver James Hinchcliffe by a total of 27 points. The result was Hildebrand’s second Top Five and third Top Ten finish of the season.

After starting in fourth position, Hildebrand lost one position to a charging Franchitti and remained in fifth position until the team’s first pit stop on Lap 26. JR slightly over-shot his marks and lost two spots exiting the pits but was able to make the positions back up on the racetrack, passing Danica Patrick and Briscoe to return to the Top Five by Lap 77. Another near-incident leaving the pits on the team’s next stop on Lap 95 – where Hildebrand got sideways after Marco Andretti pulled out on front of him with Briscoe on his outside – caused Hildebrand to return to the field in eighth position on a restart on Lap 107.

As the race progressed Hildebrand again passed Briscoe (Lap 108) and then Dixon (Lap 130) to once again reach the fifth position. As drivers cycled through green-flag pit stops Hildebrand reached the lead of the field on Lap 184 until a caution flag allowed the team to make its final pit stop under yellow at Lap 187. Hildebrand restarted in fifth position for an exciting last mad-dash to the finish.

“I felt if we could have started the last restart closer to the lead we could have finished up there, but this was a really cool experience for all of us at Panther tonight,” JR continued. “Hopefully we can turn this into something positive for the rest of the season.”

The most exciting moment of the race came when Hildebrand passed Briscoe again on Lap 227, going underneath the Team Penske driver and making slight contact with the lapped car of EJ Viso on the exit of Turn Four in the process.

“I had a run on (Ryan) Briscoe coming out of Turn Two so I got underneath him and I was trying to keep him high so that I could pin him behind the lap car, because I’d had that happen earlier to me by another driver,” JR explained. “He boxed me in there and I tried to slow it down there and I got a little wiggle and just got into Viso a little bit.”

Hildebrand had one more move left before the 250-lap race concluded, passing championship point leader Franchitti into Turn One on Lap 142 to secure the fourth place result for the National Guard Panther Racing team.

The IZOD IndyCar Series will take a weekend off before traveling to the Streets of Toronto for the Honda Toronto Indy, which will be broadcast live on VERSUS, Sunday, July 10th at 2:00 pm (ET) with additional coverage provided by the IMS Radio Network, XM channel 94 and Sirius channel 212.

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