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Dorricott Racing Preview - Long Beach
DORRICOTT RACING SETS SIGHTS FOR LONG BEACH SUNNYVALE, Calif. (April 12, 1999) - This weekend's 11th running of the PPG-Dayton Indy Lights Championship in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach may well be the spring board that ...
Edited: May 8, 2001, 12:19 PM
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DORRICOTT RACING SETS SIGHTS FOR LONG BEACH
SUNNYVALE, Calif. (April 12, 1999) - This weekend's 11th running of the PPG-Dayton Indy Lights Championship in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach may well be the spring board that Dorricott Racing's talented three-driver team needs to confirm itself as a title contender in the 12-race Indy Lights Championship. The 47 lap/75.542 mile Indy Lights sprint around the eight-turn seaside street circuit is scheduled to begin at 10:20 a.m. (PT), Sunday, April 18, and is the featured support race to the CART FedEx Championship Series Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach later that day. Early returns bode well for Dorricott Racing. Casey Mears, of Bakersfield, Calif., piloted his Sooner Trailer/American Racing Wheels Lola T97/20 to a fifth place finish in the season opener at Homestead. Mears top-five run was made more impressive by the fact that he improved seven positions during the race from 12th place on the starting grid. Mears, who drove for Team Mears the past two Indy Lights seasons, is fifth place in the driver standings with 10 points. Oriol Servia, of Pals, Catalonia, Spain, started this season similar to where he left off last year in his rookie campaign - fast, steady, and among the front runners. The veteran European F3 driver finished sixth place at Homestead in his Catalonia/RACC Lola. Indy Lights followers may recall Servia's second-place finish in last year's next-to-last race at Laguna Seca. He encored Laguna Seca with a podium appearing run in the California Speedway season finale until a mid-race collision caused by Sergio Paese dropped Servia from second place to out of the race. Servia's first visit to Long Beach proved challenging last year when a series of light trackside contacts inhibited Servia and his crew from creating the best set-up. He started 16th and finished 19th. Philipp Peter, of Monte Carlo, Monaco, had one of his best showings in 1998 at Long Beach where he started fifth place and finished fourth. Peter is coming off a painful race at Homestead where a crash during an early week testing session and a subsequent crash during a race weekend practice literally destroyed his cars but not his spirit. A near "all-nighter" by the crew of the Red Bull/Remus/Estebe/Chicco d' Oro Lola provided Peter with a race-ready, albeit untested, car for the race. A valiant effort by Peter, who was hampered by a severely bruised left knee and ankle, led to a 13th place finish after starting 16th. "I was pleased to be able to get into the race," said Peter. "However, all thanks and success goes to my teammates. They were the ones that put my car together and prepared it overnight for the race. They were the most supportive of all in encouraging me to race if I felt physically capable." ESPN2 will provide a same-day delayed telecast of round two of the PPG-Dayton Indy Lights Championship from Long Beach, Sunday, April 18, from 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. ET (4:30 to 5:30 p.m. PT).
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