De Silvestro Becomes Winningest Woman in Atlantic Championship History at Lime Rock
LAKEVILLE, Conn. (July 18, 2009) - 2009 Cooper Tires Presents The Atlantic Championship Powered by Mazda points leader Simona De Silvestro became the winningest woman driver in the 36-year of the series with another dominating performance at Lime Rock Park.
Driving the No. 78 Stargate Worlds/Maakoa/Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment/FireSky/Cardinal Technologies machine for Team Stargate Worlds, De Silvestro started from the pole position and led every lap en route to a 10.004-second victory over John Edwards. It was the third victory of the season for De Silvestro and the fourth of her career, moving her one win ahead of Katherine Legge, who won three races in her lone Atlantic season of 2005. The win also enabled De Silvestro to extend her lead in the championship standings to 17 points, 89-72, over a second-place tie between Edwards and Jonathan Summerton after five of 12 races.
"I had a good qualifying in the rain (on Friday), so I started on pole," De Silvestro said. "I think pole is a big advantage at pretty much every track we go to. The race was good. Borja (Garcia), in the beginning, put a little bit of pressure on me, because he was right behind me and he was, I think, a little bit quicker in the beginning. Then, I could settle in. I think the first lapped cars I got, I got through cleaner than he did, so that gave me a little bit of a gap and then I just concentrated on my race. I went through traffic really well. Then, I heard that John was passing Borja for P2, but my lead was pretty extensive. It looked easy, but it was pretty hard to keep the concentration up because I was kind of on my own out there. It was fun. It’s always fun to win like this with such an advantage. My team did a great job. They give me a car every weekend that I can win with, so I hope we can keep it up like this."
Courtesy: atlantic-championship.com.
