In Sunday’s 14-lap Formula BMW USA race, Monaco resident Stefano Coletti held off hard-charging opponents Robert Wickens and Simona de Silvestro to win for the locally based EuroInternational team. His average speed was 94.493.

Wickens, from Toronto, finished second. De Silvestro, an Italian national who lives in the Indianapolis suburb of Zionsville, Ind., finished third.

“Indianapolis is something special,” Coletti said. “It’s like the temple of the speed, and to come here and to win, it’s really something special. And to kiss the bricks, it’s just really unbelievable. I’ve seen it on TV and now to do it, it feels really great. I started 10th because I had some problems in qualifying, and I had a very, very good start."

Coletti’s margin of victory was 1.8 seconds, and he led the final four laps. But the statistics don’t tell the story of an exciting race that saw numerous duels for the lead, several passes between the timing-and-scoring line at the start/finish line and a long stint of close racing between Coletti, Wickens and Matt Lee, who sat on the pole for both races.

Wickens beat Lee to Turn 1 at the start of the race and led until Lap 6, when Lee retook the lead with an outside pass entering Turn 1, but Wickens nipped Lee at the line the next time around to be officially credited with leading the full lap.

On Lap 10, Wickens, Lee and Coletti were three-wide down the main straightaway, and Coletti used a daring, sweeping pass from the outside to take a lead he never relinquished. Lee got airborne going over the Turn 1 curb and went through the grass, allowing de Silvestro to take third.