Servia Takes Lead in Indy Lights
28 June 1999
CLEVELAND, Ohio (June 27, 1999) - Oriol Servia, of Pals, Catalonia,
Spain, parlayed
an outside pole position into a second place finish and jumped into the
lead of the PPG-Dayton
Indy Lights Championship following round six of the 12-race series at
Cleveland's Burke
Lakefront Airport in the Medic Drug Grand Prix of Cleveland, Sunday, June
27.
Servia's runner-up showing, which was his fifth career Indy Lights
second place finish in
20 career Indy Lights races, earned 16 points to assume the series lead
with 69 points. Race
winner Derek Higgins, of Ireland, took the checkered flag 4.366-seconds
ahead of Servia in the
36-lap Indy Lights sprint. Servia scored second place honors at Nazareth
and Portland in rounds
three and five this season in the Catalonia/RACC/Elf Lola. He was also
runner-up at Trois-
Rivieres and Laguna Seca last year.
"First of all I have to congratulate my engineer, Alain Clarinval,
because he made all the
right decisions," said Servia. "Most drivers ran with high downforce in
last year's race. When we
arrived in Cleveland, Alain said he thought low downforce might be fastest.
We decided to run
low downforce and ended up improving with every session. I think my car was
the fastest in
qualifying and might have won the pole, but the mistake I made coming out
of a corner on my
clearest lap cost me the five-hundredth of a second I needed"
Servia took the lead from polesitter Didier Andre on the opening
lap when Andre's car
was knocked from contention by Jonny Kane in the first corner. Kane took an
inside line at break-
neck speed after starting fifth and failed to slow or negotiate the first
turn. He speared Andre's car
as Andre was making his turn.
"I saw Didier braking really late and I wasn't sure if he was going
to make the corner,"
said Servia. "Then something green flashed in my right mirror. I caught a
glimpse of Jonny (Kane)
flying into the corner way too fast. I braked long enough to watch him
shoot past and hit Didier.
I then made it around the corner without any problems."
Meanwhile, teammates Casey Mears and Philipp Peter were able to
take advantage of
the first turn mishap and each improve two positions. Mears, who came into
the race leading in
the championship, moved from his starting position of seventh to fifth
place. Peter improved to
seventh. Peter then proceeded to pass Airton Dare on lap five to take over
sixth place.
Servia's error occurred on lap six when he entered turn five of the
11-turn circuit too
fast leading to a brief off-course. Higgins kept to the center of the track
for the lead.
"I ran too wide and slid through turn five," reflected Servia. "That
permitted Derek to
run beneath and past me. I knew at that point that I had to avoid any more
mistakes and hope
Derek would make one.
"I had a lot of chances to win the race. My car was one of the
fastest in qualifying but I
made that one mistake that cost me the pole. If the weather had stayed the
same, I am sure I
would have had the fastest car for the race. Then it cooled down near the
end of the race and I
could feel the moisture beginning to affect the corners. The car began
loosing grip."
The next 21 laps were incident free with Servia, Mears and Peter
holding second, fifth,
and sixth place, respectively. A brief yellow flag was called on lap 28
when Cory Witherill ran off-
course in turn four, but the race resumed on lap 31 after track workers
cleared the circuit.
An error on the re-start by Scott Dixon permitted Mears and Peter to pass
him for fourth
and fifth place, respectively. Peter then made his most aggressive move of
the race on lap 34 when
he powered past Mears on the front straight-away to take over fourth place.
Mears nearly secured his sixth consecutive top-five finish when an
engine misfire
stuttered his Sooner Trailer/American Racing Custom Wheels Lola with only a
couple of corners
remaining on the final lap. Mears was able to round the final corner and
cross the finish line, but
not before giving up a three positions to lower-powered cars.
"The motor started to cut out and quit on the last lap," said
Mears. "It developed a
misfire and started to die. Cars were able to slip underneath me on the
straight-aways so I started
dropping back."
Mears scored five points for his eighth place finish and stands in
second place with 67
points. Peter remains in fourth place overall with 60 points after earning
12 points for his fourth
place finish.
The next stop for Dorricott Racing will be round seven at the
Molson Indy Toronto on the 1.721-mile temporary street circuit at
Exhibition Place, on Sunday, July 18.
ESPN2 will provide an encore telecast of the Cleveland Indy Lights
race, Wednesday,
June 30, from 12:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. ET (9:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. PT on
June 29).
Race results, team and sponsor information may be viewed on
Dorricott Racing's web
site, http://www.dorricottracing.com.
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