Simona de Silvestro Perseveres to Ninth-Place Finish at Barber 11.04.2011: Coming off a tremendous, fourth-place finish at the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, Simona de Silvestro had her sights set on another strong finish. She delivered on that goal, finishing ninth, after persevering through a trying race.

Coming off a tremendous, fourth-place finish at the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, Simona de Silvestro had her sights set on another strong finish. She delivered on that goal, finishing ninth, after persevering through a trying race.
 

"I'm pretty happy with ninth," she said. "I want to thank Entergy and my team for giving me a strong Nuclear Clean Air Energy car. I definitely think we could have been more up front because we had a good car and a solid run - we were saving fuel nicely."
 

Just before the half-way point, de Silvestro was involved in an incident with E.J. Viso. The contact didn't cause damage, but forced her back through the field.
 

"I think we could have finished in the top five," said de Silvestro. "But unfortunately we got into an incident with E.J., and we kind of got stuck there and moved all the way back."
 

Determined not to let that break her focus, de Silvestro drove smartly through the remainder of the race and finished in a bittersweet ninth place, while maintaining her standing of fourth place in the championship points.
 

"I think we can be happy with coming back to ninth," she said, "but a little bit disappointed because we knew we could've finished way more up front."
 

In one week, the IZOD IndyCar Series moves on to the Long Beach Grand Prix, where Simona de Silvestro aims to keep the positive momentum going.
 



About HVM Racing

HVM Racing was founded by Keith Wiggins and is based in Indianapolis, Indiana. HVM enters 2011 as its tenth year of competition since forming in 2001 and has earned six victories, two pole positions, and an additional 16 podiums. They earned "Indianapolis Rookie of the Year" honors with driver Simona De Silvestro at the 2010 event and since joining the IZOD INDYCAR Series in 2008, the team has earned nine top-10 finishes. HVM finished fourth and third, respectively, in the Champ Car World Series in 2006 and 2007, and earned drivers Mario Dominguez and Robert Doornbos Rookie of the Year honors in 2002 and 2007, respectively. Follow HVM Racing at www.hvmracing.com, on twitter at www.twitter.com/HVMracing, and on facebook at www.facebook.com/HVMRacing.
 

About Entergy

Entergy is the second largest owner and operator of U.S. nuclear energy plants. They operate or provide management services to 12 reactors at 10 sites. Entergy Corporation is an integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations. Entergy owns and operates power plants with approximately 30,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity and delivers electricity to 2.7 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Entergy has annual revenues of more than $11 billion and more than 15,000 employees.www.entergy-nuclear.com
 
 
Monica Hilton - photo Charlie ROEBER automobilsport.com