Race Report: Detroit Indy Grand Prix at Belle Isle
 DETROIT, Mich. Sept. 2, 2007--Darren Manning drove
the ABC Supply Dallara/Honda to a fourth place finish in the
Detroit Indy Grand Prix at Belle Isle Sunday afternoon. It
was his best finish of the season, matching his career best
finish at Ganassi Racing. It was also his second top-five
and fifth top-10 finish of the season.
With one race left in the season, Manning is currently 13th
in the standings. He is within two points of 12th place and
18 points out of the top-10.
Starting eighth on the 2.07-mile street course, Manning
passed Sam Hornish for seventh on the opening lap. Ten laps
later he brushed the wall lightly – enough to whitewall the
tires but not hard enough to damage the car. Manning never
dropped below ninth place in the entire race.
He found the luck that eluded him in the other street course
event at St. Petersburg in April. There were numerous close
calls including the restart on lap 30 that involved several
cars including Sam Hornish Jr., Danica Patrick and Manning.
The nose on the No.14 car took a hard hit but Manning could
continue, as did Patrick who merely spun.
Manning avoided much of the trouble that plagued others
including the three-car crash on lap 87 when Buddy Rice ran
out of fuel and was struck by point leader Scott Dixon who
spun blocking the track for Dario Franchitti, also involved
in the accident. Also running out of fuel was A.J. Foyt IV
who was headed for his best finish on a road course—sixth
place—until his tank ran dry.
“The race was looking good at the beginning, but as the
track gripped up we just kept getting looser and looser,”
said Manning afterwards. “When we set up the car, we planned
for more push but that’s not what we got in the race. We
didn’t want to make changes during the race and risk it
getting worse. It was hard to tell in practice what we
really needed to do but we learned in the race what we
really need to improve on.
“During the race it was a little tricky behind the pace
car,” he continued, saying, “because you picked up a lot of
marbles on the tires which made the restarts harder and why
so many people were crashing. I did get in a little tangle
with Danica but it didn’t cause any damage for either of us
which was good and we did end up with a good result in the
end.”
There were six cautions for a total of 19 laps in the 89-lap
race which was shortened by one lap when IRL officials
deemed it a timed event due to the mandated 2 hour, 10
minute time limit for all street/road courses. Tony Kanaan
won the race followed by Danica Patrick, Dan Wheldon,
Manning and Kosuke Matsuura. Franchitti, who earned three
points for leading the most laps, used those bonus points to
reclaim the point lead over Scott Dixon.
The championship will be settled at the final race of the
season, the PEAK Antifreeze Indy 300 at Chicagoland
Speedway. The race will be televised live on ABC-TV this
Sunday, Sept. 9th starting at 3:30 p.m.
Notes & Quotes: Detroit Indy Grand Prix at Belle Isle
Darren Manning: No. 14 ABC Supply Dallara/Honda
· Darren Manning on racing in Detroit (following Friday
practice): “It is an interesting track and I’m learning it
as is everyone else. It’s hard work with how bumpy it is but
it’s like St Pete so hopefully we’ll be more competitive. In
our second session, we kept getting faster even as the tires
were getting older so I think all of the changes we were
making were good ones.” Manning was 10th overall for the
day.
· Street fighter Darren Manning has posted his strongest
performance this season in the other street course race, the
Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg in April. Manning
qualified fifth in that event and was challenging for third
when he spun on lap 75. By the time corner workers got him
restarted, he’d lost a lap and was credited with a 12th
place finish.
· Past performances at Detroit: Darren Manning has never
raced at Detroit. A.J. Foyt’s team raced in four Detroit
Grands Prix at Belle Isle: 1992 - Brian Bonner started 20th,
finished 10th; 1993 – Robby Gordon started 8th, finished
8th; 1994 – Bryan Herta started 18th, finished 9th and in
1995, Eddie Cheever started 20th, finished 25th having made
contact with Alessandro Zampedri on lap 14.
· Burgess Construction, located in Madison Heights, Mich.,
is this weekend’s winner of the ABC Supply Your Name Here
Promotion for its customers. The company name will be put on
the top of the sidepods of the No. 14 ABC Supply Dallara/Honda.
Sandy Burgess will receive selected merchandise, race
tickets, hospitality and garage passes, plus a Meet and
Greet with A.J. Foyt and Darren Manning. The “Your Name
Here” promotion selected winners by random drawing from a
pool of entries sent in by ABC Supply customers earlier this
year.
The Detroit Indy Grand Prix will be shown live at 3:30 p.m.
eastern time Sunday afternoon, Sept 2 on ABC. |
