West Allis, WI – Hometown favorite, Bobby Wilson of Oconomowoc, WI, took the lead on the thirteenth lap of the Milwaukee 100 and drove a calculated race to take home the win in the Firestone Indy Lights Series race at the Milwaukee Mile. The win was the third career victory, his first on an oval, and gave Wilson victories in three consecutive years. Wilson also became the first Milwaukee area native to win an open wheel race since Myron Fohr in June of 1949.
“The Team E guys put together a great car for this weekend. Our first win together couldn’t have happened at a better place than The Milwaukee Mile,” exclaimed Wilson.
The caution flag was displayed early as Ana Beatriz spun while exiting turn four on the initial lap. Cyndie Allemann tried to avoid Beatriz but ran over her left front wing. The race restarted on lap eight and once again, there was trouble as Marc Williams found the wall bringing out a quick caution.
On lap ten the field took the green flag, and three laps later Wilson made his move. Taking the outside line through the third and fourth turn, Wilson motored past pole sitter Pablo Donoso into the lead.
The final caution period of the race came about when Mark Olson spun exiting turn four and then struck the inside wall before coming to a stop on the front straight. Olsen exited the car on his own and was checked and released from the infield care center.
Wilson led the field to the green on lap thirty and quickly put distance between himself and Donoso. One lap later, Indy 500 veteran, Jeff Simmons took over the second position from Donoso, one second behind the leader.
With thirty laps left in the race, Wilson had built up almost a four and a half second lead over Simmons. As he approached traffic, Wilson decided to take the cautious route to putting cars a lap down. “It was kind of a patience thing, you don’t want to ruin your whole race,” he explained.
As the laps left in the race decreased so did the distance between Wilson and Simmons. Wilson’s confidence in his car allowed him to cruise through the field without taking any unnecessary chances. With two laps remaining in the race, the gap between first and second had shrunk to less than a second on with the white flag in the air, the distance was less than a half second.
Simmons continued his charge on the final lap only to end up finishing about a car length short , or .0893 seconds, when the checkers waved.
Raphael Matos finished in third with Andrew Prendeville and JR Hildebrand rounding out the top five. Ten cars finished the 100 mile race on the lead lap.
Talking about his strategy and close finish of the race, Wilson said, “There were cars fighting for position, and I was getting a lot of dirty air. I didn’t want to get right in the middle of that with the potential for an accident to happen. I knew I was much faster than (Jeff Simmons), and I knew the lap countdown and time intervals, so I only used as much of the car as I needed to stay up front. (Simmons) did get close at the end, but timing is everything. Jeff had a run on me, but I really wasn’t worried.”
“It was a good show,” Wilson concluded with a smile.
OFFICIAL BOX SCORE Firestone Indy Lights Milwaukee 100 at The Milwaukee Mile
Sunday, June 1, 2008
1 Bobby Wilson 2 Jeff Simmons 3 Raphael Matos 4 Andrew Prendeville 5 J.R. Hildebrand 6 James Davison 7 Pablo Donoso 8 Arie Luyendyk Jr. 9 Logan Gomez 10 Sean Guthrie 11 Brent Sherman 12 Wade Cunningham 13 Chris Festa 14 Dillon Battistini 15 Jonny Reid 16 Richard Antinucci 17 Micky Gilbert 18 Cyndi Allemann 19 Ana Beatriz 20 Mark Olson 21 Marc Williams
22 Jon Brownson
John Wiedemann is the owner, editor and developer of the RacingNation.com website.
A motorsports fan from his earliest memories, John started going to local short tracks and the Milwaukee Mile with his parents, brother and sister. John enjoys drivers racing side by side and battling for the same piece of real estate on the racetrack as much as he appreciates the technical aspects of the sport.
IndyCar SeriesJohn Wiedemann