MID-OHIO SPORTS CAR COURSE RACE ONE REPORT
SHELBY BLACKSTOCK
NO. 51 STARSTRUCK MAZDA
American racer rolled off the grid in the fifth position for today’s 30-lap Race One
Indy Lights Championship rookie captured his first podium finish of the 2015 season with a third-place finish on the 2.258-mile circuit
“It absolutely feels like a win today. From where we’ve come since the beginning of the season to this podium finish today, it’s a huge, massive team progression over the past couple of weeks. Thanks to Andretti Autosport and everyone involved, I just need to go back out there and win Race Two! We’ll definitely be going for it tomorrow. The team did an awesome job – we rolled off the truck in a setup that was quick straight away and it just kept getting better.”
WEIRON TAN
NO. 22 WEIRON TAN
ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT MAZDA
Secured a top-10 finish in the sixth position for the first of two races this weekend at the Lexington, OH permanent road course
Third in the championship points fight (unofficial) the Malaysian will roll off the grid for Race Two from P5
“Race One was quite interesting… I mean, I gave it all the car had and I’m quite pleased with that – obviously it wasn’t the result we wanted. We’re still fighting and we’ll still fight tomorrow to produce a much better car and hopefully we can fight in the front. Today was really a struggle – just keeping within the train of cars ahead of us was a challenge as well. So hopefully we’ll do much better tomorrow.”
DALTON KELLETT
NO. 28 K-LINE INSULATORS USA, INC.
ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT MAZDA
21-year-old clinched another top-10 finish in ninth place after starting Race One from P11
Canadian racer will start Sunday’s Race Two from the 11th position
“We made improvements on the No. 28 K-Line Insulators USA Mazda today, so that’s a positive thing to take away from Race One. Finishing ninth is obviously not where we want to be, regardless, we’re still working away and have a good direction to go tomorrow, so we should be able to be competitive. Today we were struggling with a couple minor issues, so once we get those sorted we should be okay! These races definitely highlight the importance of qualifying here at Mid-Ohio; trying to set up for passes and trying to make a move once the race gets into a rhythm is so difficult.”