Pippa Mann dominated the Kentucky 100 to take her maiden victory in the Firestone Indy LightsSeries, completing a perfect weekend for the young Brit.
After winning the pole on Friday, Mann led from the green flag at Kentucky Speedway onSaturday, and instantly pulled out a lead of four car lengths to Martin Plowman (AFS Racing).However, a collision on lap two involving Mann’s team mate Phillip Major, and the Bryan HertaAutosport cars of Daniel Herrington and Stefan Wilson, led to the race being red flagged on lapthree.
On the re-start, Mann was under pressure from Plowman, and as the pair ran side-by-side, hetried to drive around the outside of the #11 car. Mann refused to give up the lead, and her pacewas too much for Plowman’s #27 machine. She pulled away, and by lap 10 had extended herlead to just over a second.
From that point onwards, nobody had an answer for Mann’s pace. The Sam SchmidtMotorsports driver controlled the race from start to finish, and took a superb victory in the DriveSmart Buckle Up Kentucky 100. Underlining her dominance, the 27 year-old racer crossed theline almost seven seconds ahead of second-placed man James Hinchcliffe (Team MooreRacing), having led all 67 laps on the 1.5 mile oval.
Speaking about the win, Mann said: “I joked yesterday that I was going to run away and hidetoday, but I didn’t really think it would happen. I got my legs underneath me, started pedalingand no one could catch me. Last week at Chicagoland, it was fast racing, but this is a handlingtrack. You have to set the car up to run the fastest line and we focused on that. If we got intodeep traffic today, I don’t think we could’ve run as well, but we took a little bit of a gamble on theset up and it paid off. I’m extremely happy for the Sam Schmidt Motorsports team and obviouslythe #11 crew – they thoroughly deserve this.”
The result puts Mann in seventh position in the 2010 Firestone Indy Lights championshipstandings. The series now heads to Florida where the final race of the season will play out atHomestead-Miami Speedway on 2 October.
