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Scarallo Comes from 15th to Ninth For RLR/Andersen Racing,
Sunday at St. Petersburg
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04/01/2007
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By Linda Mansfield, Restart Communications
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 ST.
PETERSBURG, Fla., April 1 - Joey Scarallo of
Smithtown, N.Y., avoided penalties and kept out
of trouble on an unforgiving course to advance
six positions and finish ninth in Sunday's Indy
Pro Series race at the Honda Grand Prix of St.
Petersburg. He drove the RLR/Andersen Racing No.
15, which advertises GroupAWheels.com.
His teammate, Andrew Prendeville of Morristown,
N.J., had an incident with Mike Potekhen at the
start and lost two laps in the 40-lap/72-mile
race. Anxious to get more experience on the
temporary, 1.8-mile street course as well as
more points, Prendeville persevered and ended up
17th with his Dallara, which promotes the Best
Friends Animal Society.
Prendeville is now tenth and Scarallo is 14th in
the point standings heading into one of their
biggest races of the year, the Freedom 100 on
Friday, May 25. It is held at a facility some
great drivers never get the chance to race on,
the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Prendeville started 13th and Scarallo started
15th on Sunday for the second half of the
weekend doubleheader at St. Pete.
Scarallo dropped to 18th initially. He got 17th
when Jay Howard crashed in Turn 9 on lap two,
and 16th when Prendeville pitted under that
yellow after his trouble with Potekhen. Scarallo
was sandwiched between Matt Jaskol and Jaime
Camara for the restart on lap nine.
Camara got around him to push him back to 17th
on lap 10 and then Phil Giebler wiggled by him
on lap 11 to relegate him to 18th. He got two
spots back on lap 12 when Sean Guthrie and
Potekhen made contact in Turn 3 to bring out the
second full-course yellow.
That put Scarallo back between Giebler and Ken
Losch in 16th for the restart on lap 18. Camara
took Giebler's spot a bit later but Scarallo was
still in 16th at the halfway point.
Jonathan Klein had to serve a drive-through
penalty for blocking on lap 21, which put
Scarallo up to 15th. Klein got back around him
on lap 24 to push him back to 16th, but he got
15th back two laps later when Stephen Simpson,
who had been fifth, stopped in Turn 11 when he
lost his clutch. Scarallo was still in 15th with
10 laps to go, but he moved up to 13th two laps
later when Brad Jaeger spun and Matt Jaskol fell
back. Klein and Logan Gomez came together in
Turn 8 to bring out the fourth yellow of the
race on lap 36, which moved Scarallo up 11th. He
appeared in the top 10 for the first time on lap
37 when Chris Festa had to serve a penalty for
blocking, and he got ninth when Richard
Antinucci got a similar penalty.
Prendeville and Potekhen tangled at the start in
Turn 1. Although Potekhen got off unscathed,
Prendeville's car had left-front suspension
damage and he was forced to pit for repairs.
Another pit stop to remedy an overheating
condition and a drive-through penalty were too
much to overcome, but he finished the race two
laps down.
Alex Lloyd won both races. On Sunday the other
podium finishers were Wade Cunningham and Bobby
Wilson.
Tape-delayed TV coverage of both races will air
on ESPN2 from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. ET on April
6.
Andersen Racing is the official Indy Pro Series
development team of Rahal Letterman Racing.
Andersen Racing is committed to offering a
program that gives up-and-coming drivers the
proper training to reach open-wheel racing's
major leagues. It fields multiple cars in the
Hankook Tires F2000 Championship, the Star Mazda
Championship presented by Goodyear, and the Indy
Pro Series. More information on the team is
available on its Web site at
andersenracingteam.com.
More information on the Indy Pro Series can be
found at indycar.com/pro.
Driver quotes follow:
Joey Scarallo: "Overall the car wasn't quite as
good as it was yesterday. We made some changes
this morning, and some things were better and
some things weren't as good.
"The brakes were good today. We made some other
adjustments in the morning that didn't work as
well as we thought they would in the race. We
weren't as good in some of the twisty corners.
But we went faster today and we got a better
result, so that was good. We just need to go
faster some more.
"I didn't have any real close calls. The whole
thing was playing with the swaybars and just
trying to finish. It was relatively uneventful.
I was just trying to make the car better.
"But that was my first top-10 in this series, so
we're getting there."
Andrew Prendeville: "I had an incident with Mike Potekhen at the start in Turn 1 that caused
left-front damage. I was trying to pass him. I
don't know what to say about it except that I
did everything I was supposed to do.
"It bent my left-front suspension. I had to make
three pit stops, and I went two laps down. The
first was to repair the damage. The second one
was for an overheating issue; we checked that
and pulled a panel off the sidepod. I've been
told the third was for a stop-and-go penalty for
speeding on pit road, but I don't know about
that.
"After we changed the broken part, the car was
good.
"The bottom line is that we only lost one
position through all of our problems this
weekend, which wasn't bad."
Go to the Photo Gallery for this race
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