Sunday,
June 7
PPG-DAYTON INDY LIGHTS CHAMPIONSHIP
The Raceway on Belle Isle, Detroit,
Mich ITT Automotive Detroit Grand Prix
DETROIT RACE NOTES -- Mattco Raceworks driver Mark
Hotchkis scored the first-year team's third top-5 finish of
the season, driving the No. 78 Alco Capital Group/Nassi Group
Lola to fourth place in today's 32-lap Indy Lights race in
Detroit. The finish was Hotchkis's best in four visits to
Detroit, and his sixth-place qualifying effort was his best-ever
starting position here. Mattco has earned six top-10 finishing
positions in the first six events on the 14-race Indy Lights
schedule. Rookie Tony Renna started third in the No. 77 Alco
Capital Group/Nassi Group Lola, but finished 15th after a
stop-and-go penalty for jumping the restart after the race's
only full-course caution at lap three. Renna was running second
at the time. The race was won by Airton Dare.
MARK HOTCHKIS: "For some reason, I couldn't get the
power down as good as I could this morning in warm-up. At
times I found I was over-driving just a little bit trying
to compensate. I was trying as hard as I could. It's a tricky
place, and at least we got out of here in one piece. I've
got to say thanks to the entire Mattco Raceworks team. They
did a fantastic job and they certainly have come a long way
since I first joined them at Nazareth."
TONY RENNA, on the stop-and-go penalty: "(Airton) Dare
just took off, he had like a five-car-length lead, and Guy
(Smith) just sat there. I don't know if he had a gearbox problem
or what, because I heard him miss a shift a couple other times
before."
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