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John Drives Determined Race - Charges from P5 to P2 at Lime Rock

(July 18, 2009, Lime Rock, Connecticut, Mazda Atlantic Championship - click photo to left to see YouTube Highlights and interview) 

John knew it would not be easy on a difficult track to pass. Starting from fifth position (after a wet qualifying session) he passes Niemela (who was having a clutch problem) on the start.  (John's start was just good enough to save his position after going side by side with teammate Summerton on the outside going into the first turn). John then catches Vervisch who was clearly slower; getting passed him however proved difficult.  This allows Garcia and de Silvestro to gain a gap and pull away.  Finally John passes Vervich. Then it is on to Garcia who now has over a 6 second lead over John.  With consistent laps John methodically chips away 3 to 5 1/10s of a second a lap until Garcia sees him coming; under relentless pressure and pushing to stay ahead Garcia goes "off roading".  John then catches him a lap or so later and passes him. From there John goes after de Silvestro who is another 10 seconds ahead.  John sets the fastest lap of the race.  But the gap is too large.  He finishes P2. 

“I got the Hard Charger, and I don’t think I’ve ever had to work so hard to finish second in my life,” John said. “It was really a hard-earned podium finish, because we didn’t have a good qualifying. I was really trying to come from behind in the race. Once I got clean air and up to second, I was able to run the same speed as Simona and I think I got fast lap in the race. At least we know that the car is good and we didn’t lose 10 seconds to Simona. Unfortunately, we just had a lot of traffic in the beginning that I had to get by. We’re really looking forward. It’s too bad that the person we’re fighting most in the championship won the race, but we know we’re on pace with her now. It’s only halfway in the season. We’ve still got a lot left to go.” 

Pos Car Cls CP Driver Now Laps Gap Intv Last Lap Best Lap Best Speed Best Lap # Total Time
Last Lap
1 78 Atl 1 Simona De Silvestro Run 53 0.000 0.000 00:00:51.402 00:00:51.171 105.529 24 00:45:40.416
2 36 Atl 2 John Edwards Run 53 41.722 41.722 00:00:51.566 00:00:50.928 106.032 36 00:45:50.420
3 6 Atl 3 Borja Garcia (R) Run 53 35.493 6.229 00:00:51.790 00:00:51.264 105.337 51 00:46:00.794
4 34 Atl 4 Jonathan Summerton Run 53 32.722 2.771 00:00:51.729 00:00:51.182 105.506 52 00:46:01.145
5 35 Atl 5 Tonis Kasemets Run 53 31.785 0.937 00:00:51.711 00:00:51.123 105.628 42 00:46:03.115
6 17 Atl 6 Frederic Vervisch (R) Run 53 26.100 5.685 00:00:51.509 00:00:51.124 105.626 50 00:46:11.259
7 19 Atl 7 James Winslow(R) Run 53 18.393 7.707 00:00:52.798 00:00:51.698 104.453 52 00:46:22.158
8 7 Atl 8 Max Lefevre (R) Run 52 1 Laps 1 Laps 00:00:54.058 00:00:52.092 102.041 23 00:46:27.979
9 1 Atl 9 Markus Niemela Run 50 3 Laps 2 Laps 00:00:52.020 00:00:51.344 105.173 50 00:45:54.107
10 77 Atl 10 Frankie Muniz Run 50 3 Laps 50.958 00:00:53.334 00:00:51.432 104.993 43 00:45:57.267
11 66 Atl 11 Richard Zober Run 49 4 Laps 1 Laps 00:00:54.393 00:00:53.072 100.521 44 00:45:57.128
12 3 Atl 12 Michael Nacol (R) Run 48 5 Laps 1 Laps 00:00:54.537 00:00:53.918 100.152 36 00:45:53.370
13 12 Atl 13 Matt Lee Ret 1 52 Laps 47 Laps 00:00:58.649 00:00:58.649 92.073 1 00:01:03.983

 

 

 

 

 
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