Gutierrez leads start to finish at Road America
Tambay, a Formula BMW Germany Junior and Rookie, finished third in yesterday's Round 11 race, both weekend podium finishes coming from the outside front row starting spot. Tambay was also credited with the fastest lap of the race, 2:18.321 minutes on the final lap.
Eurointernational teammate and Overall point standings leader Daniel Morad (Eurointernational) finished third. This is the 17-year old Canadian's ninth podium of the year that includes five wins, three seconds and one third.
Philip Major (Autotecnica) and Robert Thorne (Team Apex Racing USA) finished fourth and fifth respectively.
Gutierrez and Tambay quickly established a gap on the first lap. Behind them the racing behind was very close with Ricardo Favoretto (HBR Motorsport Team USA) in third, strongly challenged by Round 11 winner Alexander Rossi (Team Apex Racing). Rossi spun off the track and rejoined the race at the back of the field. Favoretto was assessed a drive through penalty for avoidable contact and after failing to report to pit lane for the penalty, he was not scored for the final three laps.
The top-finishing Rookie drivers were Gutierrez (P1), Tambay (P2), Eric Morrow (P10), Timothy Hollowell (P12) and Favoretto (P16).
Winner Gutierrez said, "My job was to get a gap on the first lap. Yesterday I was passing cars and today was very different. It was a nice change to not have cars in front of me and to focus on consistent lapping and not make mistakes. It was a good race."
Tambay added, "Perhaps I woke up too late. I made a charge in the last two laps with the draft, but Esteban was really fast. I was closing in the final laps and I am not sure I could win, but it was a very good result to come here and get two podiums. Thank you to my team Eurointernational for a great car."
Morad commented, "Coming into this race, I knew I had to score points for the championship and by finishing third it will be up to me to finish more than 51% of the next race. After yesterday, the team really got behind me and motivated me to focus. I owe this finish to my team who stayed very late to give me a great car. I drove more conservatively today and fell back at the start but I thought I could get third so I tried and managed to get it on the last lap"
Morad still leads the Overall point standings over Gutierrez, Rossi, Pelletier and Guerrero.
The final two rounds of the championship will be held at Mosport International Raceway in support of ALMS on August 24-26, 2007.
Round 12 – Results (10 laps)
1 Esteban Gutierrez (R) Autotecnica 23:13.881
2 Adrien Tambay (R) EUROINTERNATIONAL 23:14.283
3 Daniel Morad EUROINTERNATIONAL 23:22.292
4 Philip Major Autotecnica 23:22.749
5 Robert Thorne Team Apex Racing USA 23:29.036
6 Yannick Hofman EUROINTERNATIONAL 23:29.962
7 Steven Guerrero HBR Motorsport Team USA 23:31.503
8 Julia Landauer Team KMA Racing 23:34.547
9 Alexander Rossi Team Apex Racing USA 23:36.818
10 Eric Morrow (R) Hearn Motorsports 23:37.788
11 Mike Hill Team KMA Racing 23:40.058
12 Timothy Hollowell (R) Team KMA Racing 23:41.976
13 Jordan Dick JD Racing 23:43.461
14 Maxime Pelletier HBR Motorsport Team USA 23:53.568
15 Jordan Lynch Hearn Motorsport 23:53.660
16 Ricardo Favoretto (R)* HBR Motorsport Team USA 16:22.762 Not Running
*Car 34 not scored for laps 8-10 for failure to obey black flag
Championship points after 12 of 14 races:
1. Daniel Morad (EUROINTERNATIONAL, 444), 2. Esteban Gutierrez (Team Autotecnica, 377), 3. Alexander Rossi (Team Apex Racing USA, 335) 4. Maxime Pelletier (HBR Motorsport Team USA, 321), 5. Steven Guerrero (HBR Motorsport Team USA, 320), 6. Robert Thorne (Team Apex Racing USA, 301) 7. Yannick Hofman (EUROINTERNATIONAL, 298), , 8. Jordan Dick (JD Racing, 288) 9. Ricardo Favoretto (HBR Motorsport Team USA, 283), 10. Sebastian Saavedra (EUROINTERNATIONAL, 258) 11. Philip Major (Team Autotecnica, 246)