Road To Indy - Freiberg Continues To Gain Experience

Birminghan, Apr. 3, 2012: Straight from the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, TrueCar Racing driver Ashley Freiberg (pronounced FRY-BURG) drove north to Barber Motorsports Park in Leeds, Alabama for the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear Rounds 3 and 4 held during the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama.

Coming off a successful top ten finish in her first race of the season, Freiberg had to keep her expectations in check coming into the weekend at Barber, as the track is known for its technicality and high speed corners.

“I realize that I am behind the rest of the field experience-wise in that most of the drivers I race against have at least two to three years of driving with wings and slicks,” said Freiberg, who finished ninth out of 21 drivers in St. Pete last weekend. “Every time I go out on track I continue to learn and develop my skills. That is really what I have been focusing on rather than just trying hard for results.”

Freiberg was pleased with her progress at the beginning of the weekend, as her lap times were as close to the front runners as they had ever been.

“JDC MotorSports and I have been working really hard to get myself and the car to ‘talk’ to each other,” said the 20 year old from Vermont, “and I was really happy to see that we were heading in the right direction.”

Due to storms on Friday, qualifying turned into a twenty minute session in the rain in which Freiberg’s transponder did not work for most of the session, meaning most of her lap times did not count, putting her 14th out of 20 for the race on Sunday.

“Qualifying at this track is so important for the race,” said the two-time Skip Barber Champion. “Because it is so fast and so technical, there is really only one corner on the track to pass in. Starting 14th only made me realize that I had a lot of work to do to gain positions!”

Luckily the weather on Sunday was sunny and hot, but that also meant Freiberg had to modify her strategy for the race.

“This track is very hard on tires and even more so when it gets hot. My plan was to just be as good as I could to the tires, and hope that people in front of me would wear theirs off before I did!”

Her strategy worked, as she ended up advancing three positions to finish 11th in race one, and made up two positions in race two finishing 12th.

“I definitely learned a lot this weekend and have made some good improvements driving-wise. Of course I would have loved to finish inside the top 10, but I also know that I just need to keep gaining more experience and keep working hard to find time. This field is extremely competitive, and it only pushes me even harder to be the best I can be.”

Round 5 of the Star Mazda Series will be held on May 26 in Freiberg’s first oval race at Lucas Oil Raceway for the “Night Before the 500” in Indianapolis, IN. “I am excited to drive my TrueCar Star Mazda on an oval. Talk about ‘learning experience’… this will definitely be new territory for me!”

To follow the action live go to www.starmazda.com/timing/ for live timing and scoring. You can also find on-track schedules for the events.

Follow Ashley:

www.AshleyRacing.com

Twitter Name @AshleyFreiberg

Facebook Fan Page “Ashley Freiberg Racing”