Pippa Mann finished the Carneros 100 from Infineon Raceway in a credible fifth place – her careerbest Firestone Indy Lights finish since joining the series in 2009. The result marks a sensationalcomeback for the young Brit, after she was forced to sit out of the previous round at Mid-Ohiofollowing surgery to her broken hand.
In only her first day back in the car since the operation four weeks ago, Mann captured her bestroad-course qualifying result of the year. Getting a good start from seventh on the grid, Mannfought to hold onto the position but was pushed down into eighth by a charging Adrian Campos Jr.(Team Moore Racing).
Mann continued to fight hard for position, and was up to sixth on lap 11 when a full-course yellowwas brought out for an incident between Dan Clarke (Walker Racing) and Bryan Herta Autosport’sSebastian Saavedra .
On the re-start, the #11 Sam Schmidt Motorsports machine came under pressure from team mateAlex Ellis in the #77 car. However Mann stayed ahead, and when the chequered flag waved forher team mate J.K. Vernay to take the win, Mann brought the #11 car home in a strong fifth place.Commenting on the race, Mann said: “About 10 laps into the race I locked up my front wheelsbraking for the hairpin. It's an area I've been struggling with a little this weekend, and I flat spottedmy tyres. From that point on, I had to give up some time in the braking zones to manage the tyresand do my best to stop them from deteriorating too quickly. By the end of the race they werecompletely square, and the vibration from them was terrible, but they hung on for me. We had agood clean race with no mistakes, and coupling that with the speed we found this weekend, wewere able to come away with a really good result.
“I was struggling for enough strength in my hand, and that got more difficult as the race went ontoo, but again, like the tyres, it was just another situation which I had to stay on top of andmanage.”
Mann added: “The team have done a fantastic job. We've all been working so hard all year, andwe've shown this potential on several occasions - it's great to finally have the whole weekend cometogether for a good result.”
Mann will be back in action next weekend, when the Firestone Indy Lights Series returns to ovalracing as it heads to Chicagoland Speedway in Illinois.
