St. Pete: Nathan Freke summary

Kidderminster motor racing champion Nathan Freke has had mixed fortunes in the early testing and first 3 races of the 2008 Firestone Indy Lights series in the USA. Despite early testing success Nathan has had a torrid time recently particularly in the first oval race at the Homestead Speedway in Florida where engine and gearbox problems hampered his chances of success together with car setup problems.

These problems continued into the first road course test at Sebring and then into the practice for the Honda Grand Prix of St Petersburg. This meant that Nathan languished near the back in qualifying 22nd of 24 cars.

Some changes made the car better for the race and in race one Nathan appeared on for a good finish until minor spin damaged the car and he lost 7 laps whilst the damage was fixed finishing in 20th place.

Race 2 however saw Nathan get to grips with the car and the circuit and pull of his first top ten finish of the series with an 8th place and some competitive times.

'The car is still not right under me, but today I have made the most of what I have and with some good luck for a change I have produced a satisfactory result. I am confident that if we can get the car right I can run comfortably inside the top ten regularly' commented Nathan afterwards.

Nathan and the team now move on to a test on the famous Indianapolis Oval in preparation for the Indy 500 meeting before returning to the UK to fulfil some of his own team commitments.

-credit: nathanfreke.com