Hildebrand leads the way in Iowa

With their practice session rained out on Friday night, the guys and gals of the Firestone Indy Lights found their Saturday action packed day at Iowa Speedway. Adding the missed session at the top of the day, the field also had two additional practices as well as qualifying for tonight's Miller Lite 100.

The mostly uneventful qualifying session ended with J.R. Hildebrand earning his third pole of the 2009 season with a two-lap average of 161.183 mph, his first on an oval both for the season and in his lights career.

"I got scared for a second," said Hildebrand, driver of the No. 26 ARPRO car for AFS Racing/Andretti Green Racing. "I was looking up at the scoreboard and I was thinking, 'Oh, man, not again.' (Sebastian Saavedra's) first lap was really quick, but I guess I had a better average. I'm really excited for the ARPRO team. The 26 guys have worked really hard. It's great to come to Iowa and have a great run for them."

Points leader Wade Cunningham, who was the third car on track of 18 qualifiers, was in the pole position until Hildebrand knocked him off, will start on the front row for the third time in four races.

Sebastian Saavedra, the final qualifier of the day, ran an average of 161.191 mph to propel himself to the inside of Row 2, rounding out the top three qualifiers.

Of note:

James Davison was looking to be on pace to challenge for the pole when his car got away from him, leading to a long slide out of Turn 4 through the grass heading towards the pit lane. Mercifully he was able to save the car from any damage, but he will start from the back of the grid.

Davison's former teammate Ana Beatriz makes her return to the Lights line-up following an absence in Milwaukee after her scary off at Indy. Bia is also driving a new car, which was built by Sam Schmidt Motorsports following the Month of May.

"The Sam Schmidt crew did an amazing job building this new car, and I learned a lot by watching every step of it," Beatriz said. "I am very excited to go back to Iowa, the track where I earned my first podium on an oval. I will give my best to reward everybody involved in what has been a very challenging time for us, and I know in the end, we will all be stronger for it."




Starting line up for tonight's Miller Lite 100: (weather permitting)

1 JR Hildebrand 26 161.183
2 Wade Cunningham 11 161.143
3 Sebastian Saavedra 27 161.069
4 Daniel Herrington 28 160.903
5 James Hinchcliffe 7 160.773
6 Ana Beatriz 20 159.966
7 Pippa Mann 16 159.909
8 Charlie Kimball 35 159.801
9 Martin Plowman 15 159.742
10 Brandon Wagner 32 159.381
11 Gustavo Yacaman 44 159.380
12 Andrew Prendeville 2 159.287
13 Mario Romancini 5 159.016
14 Mike Potekhen 24 157.958
15 Pablo Donoso 9 157.915
16 Sergey Mokshantsev 3 151.235
17 James Davison 21 145.833
18 Rodrigo Barbosa 55 144.203

The race is scheduled to get underway at 8pm (local time), but there are two possible impediments to the running of the race. "Weepers" which began appearing near the end of the Firestone Indy Lights qualifying session, and forced the cancellation of the IndyCar qualifying session,("Weepers" is the term used to describe water seeping through seams in the racing surface) and an incoming weather front.

Should the weepers not get controlled or the weather not cooperate, the race will most likely take place on Sunday. We are waiting for confirmation from IndyCar on what time that would take place.

OpenWheelWorld.net will stay on top of this developing story and bring you updates as they become available.

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