Indy NXT
IPS: St. Pete: Mathew Hamilton race one notes
HAMILTON SEVENTH IN FIRST INDY PRO SERIES RACE AT ST PETES New Zealand racing driver Mathew Hamilton has finished seventh in the first of two Indy Pro Series races of the weekend at the St Petersburg street circuit meeting in Florida this morning ...
Edited: Mar 27, 2008, 11:54 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
HAMILTON SEVENTH IN FIRST INDY PRO SERIES RACE AT ST PETES
New Zealand racing driver Mathew Hamilton has finished seventh in the first of two Indy Pro Series races of the weekend at the St Petersburg street circuit meeting in Florida this morning (NZ time).
It was a confidence-boosting result for the 23-year-old from Christchurch, the sole New Zealand representative in the race, after compatriot and defending Indy Pro Series champion Wade Cunningham was forced to sit the meeting out after an emergency appendectomy on Thursday night.
The race, the first of two for the Indy Pro Series at the 'double-header' meeting this weekend, was won by fastest qualifier Raphael Matos in what looks like being a one-off appearance in the series.
The Brazilian dominated practice and qualifying though he didn't quite have the 40 lap race to himself, Jay Howard getting a jump on him and making a successful pass on lap 26 and Indy pro Series Rnd 1 winner Jeff Simmons doing the same - after he had got past Howard - with four laps to go.
A determined Matos was back past Simmons on the next lap however, and crossed the finishing line just over half a second in front of Simmons with Howard 2.5 seconds back in third.
Kiwi Mathew Hamilton, who qualified 11th, had an at times lonely race, though he and Brett Van Blankers engaged in a spirited battle, eventually settled in Hamilton's favour, in the third and fourth quarters of the race.
'We're reasonably happy with seventh," said Hamilton afterwards. "We're still not quite there in terms of set up on the car - it's still got a pretty big push (understeer) - but 40 laps is a long way round here so bringing the car home and in seventh position is good."
The second race of the double-header meeting will be held in the early hours of Monday morning (NZ time) and presents another opportunity for Hamilton to feature.
It will also provide beleaguered compatriot Wade Cunningham a second opportunity to see what life is like on the other side of the pit fence, in this case behind a microphone.
Modern-day surgery techniques mean having your appendix removed is not the three or four-day ordeal it used to be, as the 21-year-old Aucklander proved.
"I was admitted to hospital (St Petersburg's Bayfront Medical Centre) at 2.30pm on Thursday, operated on at 7.30pm and released midday Friday," he said this morning.
So how does he feel?
"Pretty sore...but as far as the doctors were concerned if I was well enough to keep food down I was well enough to leave, so I did! They just said don't overdo it, keep hydrated, stay out of the sun, take your antibiotics and that was about it. In about a week I have a follow up to make sure the wounds are healing properly then I have to wait probably another week and I can start training again."
In typical style Cunningham went straight from the hospital to the track on Friday afternoon and accepted as offer from the course commentary team to be their comments man for the Indy Pro Race on Saturday.
He can't have done a bad job either, because he was invited back to comment on the second of the weekend's two race tomorrow!
-fast company-
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article IPS: St. Pete: Friday practice notes
Next article IPS: St. Pete: Race summary
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Jay Howard
Howard to enter team in 2019 USF2000 series
USF2000
USF2000
Howard to enter team in 2019 USF2000 series
Patrick completes Indy 500 Refresher program, laps at 218mph
IndyCar
IndyCar
Indy 500
Patrick completes Indy 500 Refresher program, laps at 218mph
Howard returns to Schmidt Peterson for Indy 500
IndyCar
IndyCar
Indy 500
Howard returns to Schmidt Peterson for Indy 500
Latest news
GTA VI 'Vice City' blimp to appear at NASCAR championship weekend
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Phoenix II
47 min
GTA VI 'Vice City' blimp to appear at NASCAR championship weekend
Verstappen Racing struggles to 15th as Porsche takes emotional Portimao pole
GT World Challenge Europe Endurance
WCEE GT World Challenge Europe Endurance 1 h
Verstappen Racing struggles to 15th as Porsche takes emotional Portimao pole
Franco Colapinto urges fans to stop the abuse: “You’re not helping me or my future”
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Singapore GP
5 h
Franco Colapinto urges fans to stop the abuse: “You’re not helping me or my future”
Gresini: New MotoGP rules won't increase gap between factory and satellite teams
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Indonesian GP
6 h
Gresini: New MotoGP rules won't increase gap between factory and satellite teams
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe