- Camara finishes 14th while contact with Hunter-Reay takes Bernoldi out of race -
It was a rather satisfying day for Conquest Racing today as Jaime Camara equaled his best finish of the season with a strong performance at the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio. The drivers 14th place finish was also his best finish on a road course. On the other hand, while Camara completed the entire 85-lap race, teammate Enrique Bernoldi’s race was short-lived when contact with Ryan Hunter-Reay took him out on lap nine.
With rain falling about one hour before the start of the race, all drivers had to take the green flag with Firestone threaded tires on, despite mostly dry conditions on the 2.258-mile road course. It didn’t take very long for all the cars to head down pit lane for a set of Firestone ‘slicks’. Bernoldi and Camara came in on lap 3 and once everyone had cycled through both of them had managed to make up some positions.
It was only five laps after Bernoldi’s stop that the Brazilian was heading into Turn Four when Ryan Hunter-Reay jumped on the inside of the #36 Sangari car and contact ensued with both cars heading off-track. The contact between the cars caused damage to Bernoldi’s car and put an end to his race.
In the meantime, Camara had made his way to 19th and continued to progress throughout the race. Camara’s crew chose to not come in for fuel and tires on lap 27 when the leaders came in to pit under yellow. The move took Camara to third place. A few laps later, he lost a position to eventual race winner Ryan Briscoe and finally fell to fifth before having to pit on lap 39. With a very close field, the Conquest rookie fell back to 18th after his pit stop but slowly continued to make his way forward, ending the race in 14th place. The result equaled his best result this season.
With this result in the books, the Conquest Team will now try to build on this performance at the Rexall Edmonton Indy at a track that it knows very well having competed there since its inception in 2005. The Edmonton Indy takes place Saturday, July 26 and will be broadcast live on ESPN at 5 p.m. eastern time.
Conquest Racing Quoteboard
14th - Jaime Camara #34 Sangari Dallara/Honda/Firestone
"It feels good to finish a race, especially on a road course. It helps us build momentum and helps me gain a bit more experience. I still need to test more to get ready for the next races but we’re pretty limited to testing during race weekends with a schedule tight like this so we’re doing the best with what we have. (About missing the four-car crash) I was lucky to not hit anything!
I couldn’t see a thing but I went into the grass and I made it through. Now we’ll focus on the next race in Edmonton . I hope to keep on gaining momentum there, as well as until the end of the year."
26th - Enrique Bernoldi #36 Sangari Dallara/Honda/Firestone
"The race was going fine until (Ryan) Hunter-Reay tried to do a stupid move. He was never in a position to pass me. He just dived on the inside of my car but he never showed that he was on the inside he just came and hit my back wheel and that took me out of the race."
- Karina Redmond -
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