Birmingham: Andersen Racing race report

Bad Luck Strikes Andersen Racing's Jorda At Barber Motorsports Park

LEEDS, Ala., April 11 - Andersen Racing's Carmen Jorda was forced to retire early from Sunday's Firestone Indy Lights race at Barber Motorsports Park, but the rookie from Alcoy, Spain won't have long to wait to try to improve her luck. The next race is coming right up next weekend as part of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach in Long Beach, Calif.

Jorda started 16th Sunday at Barber Motorsports Park in the Andersen Racing/ASAP Sports/Allied No. 4, which is sponsored by ASAP Sports, NTGS.es, iHOLA!, Air Europa, pepetravel.com and Allied Building Products Corp.

She spun in Turn 12 working lap 2, bringing out the event's first full-course yellow. Although she didn't hit anything, she couldn't get the car restarted and it had to be towed back to the paddock area inside the 17-turn, 2.38-mile road course.

Her official finishing position was 17th.

"It was a bad weekend all around," Jorda said afterwards. "On Friday I started not to feel well. I went to the medical facility here, and they said I had a stomach virus.

"I had something to eat this morning and I thought I would be OK, but my not feeling well probably played a factor in how things went," she said. "I didn't hit anything when I spun but I couldn't get the engine restarted when I tried to return to the field, and my race was ended.

"Everything was negative here this weekend, but I hope the opposite happens next weekend in California," she added. "Long Beach is another street course. I had fun in St. Petersburg, and I think it will be fun at Long Beach. We'll hope for better luck there."

Jorda will have a teammate at Long Beach, as Joel Miller of Hesperia, Calif. will join her on the Andersen Racing squad in Car No. 5 in his series debut. His appearance is being sponsored by a host of local businesses and individuals, including Doug Mockett of Mockett and Co., John Wilkins of Rancho Motor Co., Vance Mitchell of The Mitchell Co., Seers Lumber Co., Daniel Singh, Joe Phillips and Greg Ewald.

The Long Beach schedule shows practice at 12:15 p.m. Friday, April 16 and an autograph session at 4 p.m. that day. Another practice session is slated for 8 a.m. Saturday, April 17 before qualifying begins at 12:55 p.m. There is a warm-up session at 8 a.m. Sunday, April 18 before the 45-lap race starts at 10:40 a.m. All times are Pacific.

Polesitter J.K. Vernay won Sunday's race at Barber Motorsports Park, which was the inaugural event for the series at this facility.

-source: andersen racing