Hildebrand Takes Dominant Victory in Edmonton

07.25.2009

Indianapolis, Ind. - July 27, 2009

J.R. Hildebrand, of Sausalito, California, scored a dominant win from pole position in the inaugural Firestone Indy Lights race at the Edmonton City Centre Airport this past weekend. Hildebrand was quickest in both practice and qualifying, then went on to win Saturdays race by just over 14 seconds, setting fastest lap along the way. The victory further padded his points lead which now stands at 69 points over teammate Sebastian Saavedra with five races remaining on the schedule.

Early Friday, Hildebrand and his Andretti Green/AFS Racing crew quickly got to work at the challenging Edmonton circuit, testing a variety of adjustments during practice in preparation for qualifying. Hildebrand knew from prior experience that the track would gain grip as the weekend went on, so he and his team made careful decisions about their setup with that in mind. He ended Fridays practice as the quickest driver, but after a few more changes he and the car really came into their own later that day in qualifying. Hildebrand led the timing charts throughout the session before bolting on a new set of Firestones Firehawk tires inside the final five minutes and cemented his fourth pole of the season - a full half-second faster than his competition.

"The car was right on the money, it felt great to be able to put it all together," said Hildebrand. "Its a tough track to get right because the first six or seven corners are all back to back and fairly technical, then the rest of the lap is high speed and really rough. In Toronto we tried way too many things and got caught out in qualifying, so here we just stuck with the game plan which I think definitely paid off."

Hildebrand and the team worked on race set-up for the ARPRO #26 car in Saturdays morning warm up, then got ready for 50 laps in the mid-day heat only making minor changes for the race. Hildebrand knew the start would be hectic due to the ultra-wide straightaway leading into Turn One, but he got a good jump on the start, was able to fend off a strong challenge by second place starter Richard Philippe, and immediately began to pull away. Hildebrand tried to balance speed with tire conservation as the race went on, and was able to maintain a steady pace and distance himself from the rest of the field.

"We had an awesome race, everyone did a great job all weekend," said Hildebrand after winning the caution free race by a margin of 14.015 seconds. "The start was a little unnerving but Richard and I both gave each other just enough room and we just got on from there. I figured with the track being as rough as it is that as long as I could run consistently fast laps I would be able to slowly pull away and thats pretty much what happened. As the tires wore off, I picked up a little bit of balance, and then I started catching lapped cars so I decided to go ahead and lay some laps down to put them between myself and Philippe in case a caution came out. We had a great weekend all around. Im so happy for everyone and am looking forward to the next few weeks as well."

Hildebrand and his Andretti Green/AFS Racing crew have a quick turnaround as they head to the Kentucky Speedway this weekend for Round 11 of the Firestone Indy Lights Series. Hildebrand would like to thank his Andretti Green/AFS Racing crew, along with ARPRO, Bald Spot Sports, The Racemaker Press and Doug Mockett and Company for all their support.