California 100, 11th race in 12-race 2004 IRL Menards Infiniti Pro Series™ season.
WHERE:
California Speedway, 2-mile asphalt, D-shaped oval - 7:30 p.m. (EDT), Saturday, Oct. 2
DISTANCE: 50 laps/100 miles
CARS:
Dallara chassis; Infiniti V8 engines; Firestone tires
PREVIOUS RACE WINNERS: 2003 – Mark Taylor
2003 SERIES CHAMPION: Mark Taylor
TV: ESPN2, 3:30 p.m. (EDT), Oct. 7
SCHEDULE: (all times local; subject to change)
Friday, Oct. 1
6:30 a.m. – Garages open
8:15-8:45 a.m. – Menards Infiniti Pro Series practice
12:45 p.m.-1:15 p.m. – Menards Infiniti Pro Series practice
4:30 p.m. – Menards Infiniti Pro Series qualifying
Saturday, Oct. 2
9 a.m. – Garages open
1:45-2 p.m. – Menards Infiniti Pro Series warm-up
4:30 p.m. – California 100 Menards Infiniti Pro Series race (50 laps/100 miles)
2004 MENARDS INFINITI PRO SERIES STATISTICS
Driver Points
1. Thiago Medeiros 4372. Paul Dana 3423. Jesse Mason 2834. Arie Luyendyk Jr. 2825. P.J. Chesson 272
Entrant Points
1. Sam Schmidt Motorsports #11 4372. Hemelgarn 91 Johnson Motorsports #91 3423. Keith Duesenberg Racing #2 3234. Brian Stewart Racing #3 2835. Brian Stewart Racing #33 274
Wins
1. Thiago Medeiros 52. P.J. Chesson 33. Paul Dana 1Phil Giebler 1
Pole Positions
1. Thiago Medeiros 6
2. Paul Dana 1Travis Gregg 1Jeff Simmons 1Al Unser 1
Laps Led
1. Thiago Medeiros 4972. Paul Dana 1233. Travis Gregg 574. P.J. Chesson 26
• Medeiros looks to clinch championship: Thiago Medeiros can clinch the 2004 Menards Infiniti Pro Series championship this weekend at California Speedway. As long as Medeiros starts the race Saturday, he clinches the title. Medeiros has won five of the 10 races this season and has built a 95-point lead over Paul Dana. Medeiros has captured six pole positions, and earlier this season, set an Indy Racing League record by winning four consecutive races. At one point this season, he led a series record 249 consecutive laps over a four-race period.
• Sam Schmidt Motorsports to clinch first championship: Sam Schmidt Motorsports will clinch its first championship if driver Thiago Medeiros starts the California 100. Sam Schmidt formed his race team in 2001 and joined the Menards Infiniti Pro Series in 2002. The team had made 38 starts in the series before this season. Schmidt, a Las Vegas native, made 27 IndyCar® Series starts as a driver, including a win at Las Vegas in 1999. Schmidt earned a master’s degree from Pepperdine University in Malibu.
• Drivers feel at home at California Speedway: Three Menards Infiniti Pro Series drivers call Southern California home. Driver Phil Giebler hails from Oxnard. Driver and team owner Gary Peterson, owner of Automatic Fire Sprinklers, Inc., lives in Huntington Beach, and driver Taylor Fletcher resides in San Clemente.
• Quintanilla, Maia have college spirit: Drivers Rolando Quintanilla and Leonardo Maia attended college in California. Quintanilla, who helps run a family trucking business on the Texas-Mexico border, graduated from Pepperdine University with degrees in international business and political science. Maia, who grew up in Oakland, attended the University of California-Santa Cruz for two years.
• Mears guides young racers: Bakersfield native Rick Mears is the driver coach and consultant for the Menards Infiniti Pro Series. The four-time Indianapolis 500 winner began racing motorcycles in the deserts of southern California in 1968 before gravitating to open-wheel race cars.
• Drivers graduate to IndyCar Series: The Menards Infiniti Pro Series is doing its job graduating drivers to the IndyCar Series. Series champions A.J. Foyt IV (2002) and Mark Taylor (2003), along with Ed Carpenter, are all regulars in the IndyCar Series.
PRE-RACE QUOTES:
JAMES CHESSON (No. 67 Mo Nunn Racing Dallara/Infiniti/Firestone): “I can’t wait to get back into the car in Fontana. I’m used to racing three times a weekend, every weekend, so this three week break is driving me crazy. I think it’s especially difficult for me because things went as well as they did back in Chicago with our first race. While I learned a great deal there, the single biggest adjustment that I experienced was the element of drafting. It obviously played a very large factor in the outcome of the race at Chicagoland and likely will again in California. As a new team, we’re still trying to figure out exactly what these cars like and don’t like out on the track. Additional seat time will certainly help in that respect.”
P.J. CHESSON (No. 76 Mo Nunn Racing Dallara/Infiniti/Firestone): “I’m excited to race at California Speedway. While I’ve never had the chance to visit the facility, I’ve heard nothing but good things about it. I love the weather out here and have taken the liberty of arriving a bit early to soak up some of the sun. The track is pretty similar to Michigan, so we should at least have a good baseline to start from. It sure would be nice to bring home a strong finish for Pioneer in their neck of the woods.”
PAUL DANA (No. 91 Ethanol/Hemelgarn Johnson Dallara/Infiniti/Firestone): “It’s a shame to say that the championship is out of reach. We’ll focus on finishing second, which we have a comfortable lead over third. Chicago really hurt us. We were loose all day and had to run up top instead of along the bottom. We got shuffled to the back. We let the championship slip away, but we’ll regroup, learn from our mistakes and try to get back up front where we’ve been all year. We’ll try to notch another win to go with our victory in Milwaukee.”
LEONARDO MAIA (No. 33 Skip Barber Racing School Dallara/Infiniti/Firestone): “I’ve never been to California Speedway before. I guess it will be similar to Michigan. We did pretty well there, we finished fourth there, so I think we’ll be good in California. It’s going to be another one of those tracks where you have to play it smart, and hopefully at the end, you’re sort of at the right spot. It’s going to be a tough race, and I just hope we can be at the front and fight for the win.”
THIAGO MEDEIROS (No. 11 Sam Schmidt Motorsports Dallara/Infiniti/Firestone): “We’re really close to the championship. We have one priority, to win the race. I don’t want to share Victory Circle with anybody. I want to keep winning. That will make it easier to find a ride in the IndyCar Series next year. California is a nice track. I think there will be a lot of close racing like we had in Chicago. We’ll go out Friday and try and find a good race setup and a good qualifying setup.”
SAM SCHMIDT (Owner of Sam Schmidt Motorsports): “It's just been an absolutely fantastic ride. As many owners will tell you in motorsports - and drivers for that matter - it's kind of all about the people. We made a few personnel changes over the winter, and kind of just laid it all on the line, so to speak. It does take a lot of energy for me to travel and to manage the team and everything else. I just kind of came to the decision that if we weren't winning races, competing for the championship, it almost wasn't worth doing. We made some good changes. Of course, Thiago is a heck of a driver. To me, the program has finally been what it needs to be, with the proper level of testing, just the right people in place. Everything's gone remarkably smooth.”
