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Mid-Ohio: AFS/AGR IRL Indy Lights Race 1 Recap - Victory!
Raphael Matos started from the pole and led wire-to-wire en route to his third win of the 2008 Firestone Indy Lights season while teammate Arie Luyendyk Jr. drove to an eighth-place finish in the first of two Mid-Ohio 100s this weekend.
Matos, who drives the #27 AFS Racing/Andretti Green Racing Dallara/Firestone, raised his career win total to five with the victory and took over the championship points lead in the process. Luyendyk Jr. started fifth in his #26 Targus/Andretti Green Racing/AFS Racing machine and fought to battle his way back into the top five after dropping three spots during the first half of the event. Matos will start fourth in the second Mid-Ohio 100 tomorrow as the result of a randomly-determined four-car invert. Luyendyk will roll off from the eighth position.
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The second half of the Mid-Ohio 100 double-header goes green at 10:35 a.m. (EDT) Sunday.
Arie Luyendyk Jr., #26 Targus/Andretti Green Racing/AFS Racing Dallara/Firestone:
"It wasn’t as easy as it looked. I pushed really hard in the beginning, especially. I just wanted to build a good enough gap and bring the AFS/Andretti Green car back to victory lane. We just have look ahead to tomorrow, make the proper changes to the race car and try to win again. Our goal was to leave this race with the points lead and we achieved that."
Raphael Matos, #27 AFS Racing/Andretti Green Racing Dallara/Firestone:
"At the start of the race, everyone kind of "accordianed’ in the first corner and I dropped a position. I was a lot quicker than the people in front of me – a lot quicker than Jonny Reid, who finished fourth – but I couldn’t find a way by. Then, I made a mistake and ended up getting onto the grass, which was my fault. I got back on the track in eighth and had a good battle with the guys in front of me, but it was just too hard to pass here. Lapped traffic got in the way again and things just didn’t fall my way this race. It’s a bit frustrating because the car was pretty good and definitely capable of a fourth-place finish."
PaddockTalk Perspective
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Also in IRL Weekend Team Reports: |
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