Race Report - Mid-Ohio
 LEXINGTON,
OH July 22, 2007--Darren Manning and the ABC Supply
IndyCar team posted another strong performance in their
first ever start at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington,
Ohio Sunday afternoon under sunny skies.
Manning qualified eighth and finished sixth in the 85-lap
race around the 2.25 mile track. It was his third straight
top-ten finish and fourth top-ten in the last five races.
At the start, Manning moved past seventh place Sam Hornish
in turn one and was alongside Dario Franchitti when a
multi-car wreck occurred ahead of him which resulted in
Marco Andretti flipping upside down. He escaped uninjured.
As cars veered and slowed, Manning slipped through into
third place behind pole sitter Helio Castroneves and sixth
place starter Scott Dixon.
 Manning
ran in third as the top five—Castroneves, Dixon, Manning,
Franchitti and Hornish--were nose to tail until the first
pitstop. He ducked into the pits on lap 28 a lap earlier
than the other leaders. When he returned to action, he was
in sixth, partly due to Tony Kanaan being out of sequence
after being involved in the first lap melee.
“The stop was good but we were conservative on fuel strategy
and it hurt us a little,” said Manning. “We came in a lap
earlier than the others so they had an extra lap to run hard
while I was running a bit slower because of having a full
fuel load and cold tires. When they pitted, they came out
barely ahead of me but with the track being so narrow, I
couldn’t pass them even though I was faster than they were
at that point.”
A spin by Sam Hornish brought out the next yellow on lap 47.
The lap 49 pit stop went off without a hitch but on the
restart, Manning lagged in a rare miscue for the talented
road racer as he was flicking his fuel button when the
leaders took off. He tried to stave off seventh place Danica
Patrick but clipped a curb giving her an opportunity to pass
which she seized.
Manning lost some ground and was seventh but was back on
pace charging into sixth past Scott Sharp who was on an
alternate fuel strategy. Teams’ fuel strategies played with
the order of cars over the final stint with Manning
advancing briefly to fourth before he had to duck in for a
splash of fuel with less than ten laps remaining. As the
fuel stops cycled out, Manning was again in sixth which is
where he finished.
“It was a good race for us,” said Manning afterwards.
“There’s still a lot of potential in the car but it’s good
being so near the pace but still having work to do in the
car handling-wise. We have a good starting point for the
road courses and we can build on that.” Scott Dixon won the
race; second through fifth were: Franchitti, Castroneves,
Kanaan and Patrick.
The next race is the Firestone 400 at Michigan International
Raceway’s two-mile oval. It will be televised live Sunday,
August 5th starting at 12 noon on ESPN2.
Notes & Quotes: Honda 200 at Mid-Ohio Presented by
Westfield Insurance
Darren Manning: No. 14 ABC Supply Dallara/Honda
· Darren Manning on racing at Mid-Ohio: “I’ve got a lot of
laps around Mid-Ohio because I raced there in 2003 [in the
CART Series with Derrick Walker’s team]. But a lot of other
guys have as well. At the test, we were one of the teams
that pounded around there on old tires quite a bit because
we were doing some big changes to our car. Some of the other
teams were able to save their tires and just bang out some
laps after the track rubbered in. When practice rained out
the final half hour, we had a set of new tires left, which,
I think, would have allowed us to be closer to the top five
[Manning was 10th overall]. But we set our fastest lap right
at the end on old tires so I’m confident we have a good
baseline set-up for this weekend.
The track has mostly medium to low speed corners so it’s
more of a technical track which plays into our hands. I
think the guys with the most road course experience will do
well because it’s not just about being brave.”
· The ABC Supply No.14 will carry an in-car camera for the
Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio which will be shown live Sunday,
July 22nd at 1:30 p.m. eastern time on ESPN.
· Nashville performance: Manning gave the team its best
performance ever at Nashville Superspeedway by scoring a
ninth place finish after starting 17th. It was the third
top-ten finish in the last four races for the ABC Supply
team. Currently, Manning’s best finish for the season is
fifth at Iowa Speedway.
· The solid run at Nashville will make the ABC Supply Annual
Company Picnic in Beloit, Wis. this Thursday afternoon a
little more enjoyable for Manning and Foyt. Manning will
arrive in Milwaukee Wednesday night after doing an IndyCar
Series media advance in Michigan Wednesday. Along with team
director Larry Foyt, A.J.’s jet will be carrying his
grandson A.J. IV who flew home with him after Nashville to
visit with some friends outside of Austin. Foyt IV, who
drives for the Vision Racing team, will also attend the
picnic which is being held at the lake house of Company
C.E.O. Ken Hendricks. The Foyts and Manning will then fly to
Mid-Ohio Thursday evening.
· Alumni Roofing of Lexington, OH 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. Bill and
Karen Hope 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.
· Past Performances on road courses in 2007: Manning
qualified fifth for the Honda Grand Prix at St. Petersburg.
He was running third (for all intents and purposes) and
fending off a hard-charging Tony Kanaan when Manning spun on
lap 75. He lost a lap while course workers helped him to get
restarted; he placed 12th. At the Glen, he started ninth and
had moved into sixth before the last pitstop. He was running
eighth (with two cars still needing to pit) but he dropped
to ninth in the final laps. He ran with a bruised rib
(forcing him to run a different seat) which contributed to
his admitted fatigue on the exceptionally physical,
high-speed road course. He has made some changes to the
cockpit to increase comfort for the remaining road racing
events.
· Past performances at Mid-Ohio: The Foyt team competed in
eight CART events at Mid-Ohio in the years 1988-1995. The
team’s best start—14th--came in 1991 with Mike Groff, who
dropped out with electrical problems. Robby Gordon gave the
team its best finish—second--after starting 15th in 1993.
Darren Manning finished eighth at Mid-Ohio in 2003 after
starting 13th in the Walker Racing entry.
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