Simona De Silvestro Finishes 21st in Iowa Debut

NEWTON, June 21, 2010: With the threat of torrential rain looming overhead, Simona De Silvestro and her Team Stargate Worlds/HVM Racing crew arrived at Iowa Speedway for today’s Iowa Corn Indy 250 and after qualifying in the 20th spot, Simona was eager to make her Iowa debut. With the track being her first race at a short oval, she was ready to put aside the memories of a fiery Texas race and begin her new experience in Iowa.

Simona immediately rocketed forward at the start of the race. It wasn’t long before she completed her first pit stop after the first yellow flag for the on-track incident involving Mario Moraes and Justin Wilson. She reentered the track back in the 21st spot. Simona continued to move up and by lap # 44 she was solidly in the 19th spot. After the 2ndyellow, Simona stayed out and as a result moved up to the 16th spot and regained the lead lap. She pitted on lap # 96. An incident ensued involving her hitting the pit wall and a crew member, which after lengthy recovery forced a green flag drive thru penalty during the restart. Another stop was required to replace the nose, but an undeterred De Silvestro would reenter the race in the 20th spot, 2 laps down. Unfortunately, the problems for the No. 78 Stargate Resistance car continued to mount following the repairs, as she was experiencing on-track handling problems, so the decision was made to bring Simona in and be safe. She would officially finish the race in 21st after completing 128 laps.

The team will take a 2 week break before returning to competition at the Camping World Grand Prix at Watkins Glen for a return to road course racing on July 4th.

Simona De Silvestro, Driver No. 78 - “We were really struggling for the last 20 laps. It was really hard to drive over the bump in Turn 2. I don’t know what happened. We were OK at the beginning of the race but we had an unfortunate mishap in the pits, but what's important is that Brett is okay. I’m sure we can learn a lot from this weekend.”

Keith Wiggins, HVM Racing Team Principal – “A disappointing day. We were running reasonably and were trying to take advantage of the yellows and fuel mileage. Unfortunately after the contact with the wall in pit lane we obviously hurt the car and it was unsafe to continue. Thankfully Brett, the crew member is bruised but OK. Ironically, as a local boy he had a film crew follow him this weekend, so it added some drama he would probably have liked to avoid!.”

Imran Safiulla, Team Stargate Worlds Principal - “It’s disappointing to have a result like this but again Simona is a rookie and every race is a new experience and we are collectively learning. I am glad to see that Brett is doing well after the pit stop. We’ll take this race and learn from it and hopefully going back to road course racing at Watkins Glen will bring some positive results. Many thanks to the crew for their hard work leading up to this race."