6th and 7th races in 16-race 2007 Indy Pro Series™ season
Indianapolis Motor Speedway, 2.605-mile, 13-turn road course
Race 1: 3:45 p.m. (EDT), Saturday, June 16
Race 2: 8:35 a.m. (EDT), Sunday, June 17
18 laps/46.89 miles
CARS:
Dallara chassis; Firestone tires
PRIZE MONEY:
More than $380,000 (combined)
PREVIOUS RACE WINNERS:
2006 – Alex Lloyd (AFS Racing); 2005 – Marco Andretti (Andretti Green Racing)
2006 SERIES CHAMPION:
Jay Howard
TV:
ESPN2, 5 p.m. (EDT), June 21
Announcers: Bob Jenkins, Robbie Buhl
Pit reporter: Mike King
SCHEDULE: (all times local; subject to change)
Friday, June 15
6 a.m. – Garages open
8:45-9:15 a.m. – Indy Pro Series practice
4:45 p.m. – SWE Pole qualifying (all cars)
Saturday, June 16
8 a.m. – Garages open
3:45 p.m. – Liberty Challenge Race 1 (18 laps/46.89 miles)
Sunday, June 17
6:30 a.m. – Garages open
8:35 a.m. – Liberty Challenge Race 2 (18 laps/46.89 miles)
INDY PRO SERIES STORY IDEAS:
• Lloyd re-writing record book: Alex Lloyd is re-writing the Indy Pro Series record book by starting the season with five consecutive wins. Below is a look at some of his milestones:
• 7 career victories: Lloyd’s fifth win of the season, June 2 at Milwaukee, was the seventh of his Indy Pro Series career, tying him with Thiago Medeiros, Jeff Simmons and Mark Taylor for the most all-time.
No. of races to record seven wins
Mark Taylor
(2003) Thiago Medeiros
(03-04) Jeff Simmons
(03, 05-06) Alex Lloyd
(06-07)
10 24 32 14
• 5 consecutive victories: Lloyd is the first Indy Racing League driver to record five consecutive victories. Thiago Medeiros held the mark with four straight wins in the Indy Pro Series in 2004. Dan Wheldon and Kenny Brack share the IndyCar Series record with three consecutive wins. Notable all-time winning streaks include:
10 – Richard Petty (1967), NASCAR Nextel Cup
9 – Alberto Ascari (1952-53), Formula One
8 – Patrick Carpentier (1996), Atlantics
7 – A.J. Foyt (1964), Indy car
5 – Greg Moore (1995), Indy Lights
• Indy history: Lloyd is the first driver in the history of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to win on both the oval and the road course. Lloyd’s first Indy Pro Series victory came last July at the Liberty Challenge when he passed Graham Rahal with two laps to go. Earlier this season (May 25), Lloyd led all 40 laps of the Freedom 100 to win on the oval.
• 159 consecutive laps led: Lloyd enters the Liberty Challenge having led the last 159 laps over three races. Lloyd led the final 19 laps at St. Petersburg before leading wire to wire at Indy (40) and Milwaukee (100). The streak ranks third all-time behind streaks of 249 and 220 by Thiago Medeiros in 2004.
• Two Hoosiers to compete: Two natives of Northwest Indiana are entered in the Liberty Challenge. Logan Gomez, an 18-year-old from Crown Point, will drive the No. 23 Sam Schmidt Motorsports entry. Gomez made his Indy Pro Series debut in last year’s Liberty Challenge, finishing 10th. He also competed in this year’s Freedom 100, finishing 12th. Munster native Doug Boyer will make his Indy Pro Series debut in the No. 8 Michael Crawford Motorsports entry. Boyer, 20, previously competed on the Indianapolis road course with Formula BMW.
• Streak buster: Robbie Buhl, color commentator for the Indy Pro Series telecasts, knows all about five-race winning streaks. Buhl was the driver who ended Greg Moore’s five-race streak in Indy Lights in 1995. Ironically, Moore’s streak began in Miami and ended in Milwaukee – the sites of Alex Lloyd’s first and fifth wins this season. Buhl defeated Moore at Belle Isle to end the streak.
• Doubleheader format adds to intrigue: The Liberty Challenge will be the fourth doubleheader weekend in Indy Pro Series history and the first with a revised format for setting the starting grid for the second race. The series has raced on back-to-back days at St. Petersburg (2006 and 2007) and at Infineon (2006). All cars participate in a qualifying session to determine the starting order for Race 1. Following the first race, the winner will participate in a blind draw to determine how many cars will be inverted for the start of the second race – 0, 4, 6 or 8. In previous doubleheader events, the top-six finishers from the first race were inverted for the second race. In the races at St. Petersburg, Raphael Matos (2006) and Alex Lloyd (’07) were able to move up from sixth to first in the second race to sweep the weekend. At Infineon, Race 1 winner Wade Cunningham finished fourth in Race 2.
• Nine drivers return: Nine drivers from last year’s Liberty Challenge will compete in this year’s event, including five top-10 finishers. The returnees include: Alex Lloyd (1st), Jonathan Klein (3rd), Phil Giebler (7th), Bobby Wilson (9th), Logan Gomez (10th), Mike Potekhen (11th), Jaime Camara (13th), Chris Festa (15th) and Wade Cunningham (16th).
• Indy 500’s top rookie to compete: Phil Giebler, who won this year’s Chase Rookie of the Year award at the Indianapolis 500 with a 29th-place finish, will compete in the Liberty Challenge with Playa Del Racing.
• IndyCar Series influence: Four of the top IndyCar Series teams are fielding cars in the Indy Pro Series this season, including two for the first time. Andretti Green Racing returns for its third season in the series while Panther Racing returns for the first time since its championship-winning campaign in 2003. Target Chip Ganassi Racing and Rahal Letterman Racing enter the Indy Pro Series for the first time.
• They’re back: The Indy Pro Series is the only series in the world to conduct races on both the oval and road-course circuits at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The Freedom 100 was May 25 on the oval. The Liberty Challenge is June 16-17 on the road course.
• Double duty: Team KMA’s Robbie Pecorari will be pulled in several directions race weekend. In addition to driving the No. 13 Cabo Wabo Tequila entry in the Indy Pro Series, Pecorari will help the team’s Formula BMW drivers prepare for their two races. Pecorari ranks sixth in points.
• Eight countries represented: Drivers in the Liberty Challenge represent eight countries. In addition to the United States, drivers hail from Australia, Brazil, Canada, England, Italy, Japan and New Zealand. Stephen Simpson, a native of England, has resided in South Africa for several years and has competed for that country in A1GP.
RACE NOTES:
• Camara to assume ‘Iron man’ title: Jaime Camara tied Arie Luyendyk Jr.’s all-time mark for consecutive starts (31) at Milwaukee on June 2. Camara will become the series’ ‘Iron Man’ when he starts Race 1. Camara competed for Sam Schmidt Motorsports in 2005 and for Andretti Green Racing in 2006. He returns in the AGR entry in 2007.
