Hildebrand Scores Top Five After Rough Start in Milwaukee

06.02.2008

Indianapolis, Ind. - June 4, 2008

J.R. Hildebrand once again showed his ability to overcome adversity this weekend at the Milwaukee Mile, coming from 14th on the starting grid to finish fifth, completing his last pass coming to the white flag. The young Californian entered the weekend having never driven on the notoriously difficult one-mile circuit, and while immediately fast, was caught out by a loose car and gusting winds resulting in contact with the Turn Two wall in the first practice session. He was forced to play catch up for the rest of the weekend, but put in a fantastic drive on Sunday, making up valuable ground in the points standings.

Hildebrand came into the weekend with no prior experience in Milwaukee, having never raced there in the past, nor having tested with many of the other teams a few weeks ago. That didn't stop him from instantly posting quick times however, as just his sixth timed lap was still good for fourth overall at the end of the first practice. His weekend did take a turn for the worst, however, as just 23 laps into the session he was caught out by a heavy crosswind across Turns One and Two, sending his Allied Building Products #25 car into the Safer Barrier exiting Two. His crew did a fantastic job repairing the damaged racecar, but not without losing an immense amount of tracktime, with Hildebrand only completing a few more laps before qualifying.

"I knew it was loose, but at that point it wasn't uncontrollable and I was still coming to grips with the place," Hildebrand said. "We had already made a setup change and I was getting ready to come back in to make more when the back-end just came unhinged and I couldn't catch it. It really put us behind, but the guys did a great job to get it all back together in time for qualifying, they really earned their pay this weekend!"

As the team thrashed to prepare for qualifying, Hildebrand was unsure what to expect from the track or the car. Fortunately for him, his main rivals in the championship were having problems of their own all weekend, as points leader Richard Antinucci blew his motor at the end of the second practice, and second-place driver Dillon Battistini couldn't get his car started and was relegated to last on the starting grid. Still wary of the conditions but confident in his racecraft, Hildebrand opted to not risk overdriving the two-lap qualifying run, and ended up mid-pack in 14th position in the tight Indy Lights field.

"I felt like I was dealing with an entirely unknown quantity, and really didn't want to make it worse," he related. "I knew in theory what I had to do to put in a couple big laps, but I just hadn't driven around anyplace like it enough and didn't know what to expect from the car. With Antinucci and Battistini having a rough go of it, I figured I would rather race my way out of a bad situation than anything else. I wasn't happy about it, but that's how it goes sometimes."

Hildebrand fared far better once in the race, as he rather immediately came to grips with the difficult track and was the only car to make any headway toward the front of the pack. Trying to plan ahead and be opportunistic about his passes while staying committed to the very end, he squeezed into the top five with just one lap remaining, improving nine positions from start to finish.

"it was a really tough track to work through the field, so I was relieved that I was able to do it here," Hildebrand said. "The car was very good, and the team has done an awesome job all weekend to get us back up there. We probably could have been on the podium if we hadn't gotten behind at the beginning, but we made lemons into lemonade and still grabbed a top five. We sort of dodged a bullet here, so we'll take it and get on with the rest of the season."

With his strong showing, coupled with poor results by points leaders Richard Antinucci and Dillon Battistini, Hildebrand cut his points deficit in half. Antinucci, who finished a lap down in 16th position, still leads with 193, Battistini finished a lap down in 14th and now has 192, and Hildebrand sits third with 178. The Firestone Indy Lights Series has two weekends off before reconvening in Newton, Iowa on the 21st and 22nd of June for its next event. J.R. would like to thank Allied Building Products and his RLR/Andersen Racing crew, along with Doug Mockett and Company and Formotion Products for their support.