Darren Manning Posts Another Top 10 at Mid-Ohio
LEXINGTON, OH July 20, 2008—Darren Manning and the
ABC Supply team continue to stride towards the top ten in
IndyCar Series points with another solid race performance,
this time in the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio.
Manning finished eighth and moved to 13th in the IndyCar
standings, just 15 points out of the top ten. It was their
third straight top-10 finish, fifth of the season and second
straight at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
“Darren drove a good race, we let him down with that one
stop but overall the team did a good job today. I was proud
of all of them,” said team owner A.J. Foyt.
After struggling with set-up on Saturday, the team found the
answers they were looking for in the race morning warm-up.
However, they were starting 21st so strategy was going to
have to be used to break into the top-10. When rain drenched
the track an hour before the race was set to begin, strategy
came into play and the team made a brilliant decision (along
with Vitor Meira’s team) to pit after the green flag had
waved to change from Firestone wet tires (with grooves in
the tread) to slicks.
“It was a good race for us considering where we started,”
said Manning. “We discussed pitting straightaway before the
race because I don't mind being on the wet with slicks--we
made the right decision, coming out 2nd. Our first stop was
a tad slow and we lost three spots but overall the ABC
Supply crew did a great job for me today."
The two cars were first in and when they rejoined the field
they were four seconds faster than the leaders who began
coming in during the next few laps. After passing Will Power
who was also an early pitter, Manning climbed into second
behind Meira on lap six and the two enjoyed a substantial
lead for several laps before the caution came out on lap
nine for a tangle between Ryan Hunter-Reay and Enrique
Bernoldi.
Manning continued in second place until the second caution
came out on lap 25 for Mario Dominguez's spin. Manning
popped into the pits when they opened, but a problem with a
tire change cost them two seconds and three spots among
those who had pitted with them. They rejoined the field in
10th and climbed up to seventh during another full-course
yellow.
They pitted again under green when they entered their fuel
window around lap 55, dropping to 12th briefly until the
stops cycled out, at which time he was eighth by lap 62. He
held off Tony Kanaan during that entire stint until lap 73
when Kanaan passed him after the keyhole.
“Towards the end when everyone's fuel load got down I was a
bit off-pace,” said Manning. “Kanaan got me when I had to
burp the throttle because it pushed a bit coming off the
hairpin, but it's another top-10 for us. It gives us good
momentum going into Edmonton.”
Manning gained one more position when Bruno Junquiera (who
was on an alternate fuel strategy) had to pit with five laps
to go.
Outside pole sitter Ryan Briscoe won the race while pole
winner Helio Castroneves finished second. Scott Dixon, Will
Power and Oriol Servia rounded out the top five.
The Series heads to Edmonton, Canada for their street race
next Saturday afternoon. It will be televised live on ESPN
starting at 5:00 pm ET.
Notes & Quotes: Honda 200 at Mid-Ohio
Darren Manning: No. 14 ABC Supply Dallara/Honda
· Darren Manning on racing at Mid-Ohio: “It’s a pretty
technical track. There aren’t as many long straights as
Watkins Glen and it’s not as bumpy as the street circuit in
St. Pete. There are a lot of corners leading into more
corners so the car is always in a compromised state because
of the number of low-to-mid-speed corners and relative lack
of straights in between them. You can’t isolate the turns as
much as you can at a track like the Glen where there’s a
turn followed by a straight. But I think that plays into my
hands because it is more challenging and I enjoy those types
of tracks.”
· Manning on continued momentum: “Having momentum going into
Mid-Ohio is an invaluable advantage. Our team’s morale is
high and we have the confidence to know what is working and
not get drastic nor desperate with our set-ups. That is the
advantage that the Big 3 teams have right now; they are just
fine-tuning because they’ve had set-ups that have worked
over the last several years. We are getting to that point
where we can carry over our set-ups from last year for a
good baseline, improve them based on what we’ve learned at
the Glen and St. Pete this season, and be even stronger at
Mid-Ohio than we were last year.”
· Manning Family Visit: Darren’s mother Val and her sister
will be making the trip to Mid-Ohio this weekend for a short
visit (they return home next Wednesday from Indy). However,
they will leave behind Darren’s 18-year-old cousin Christian
Richardson, who will be staying with Manning through the
Chicagoland season finale. “He’s from York, which is the
capital of Yorkshire, but he’s never been to the States
before so it will be a good experience for him,” said
Manning. “It will be nice to have some of my family here and
he can help me with those domestic things like mowing the
lawn. It will be a good education for him on several
levels.”
· Nashville performance: Manning gave the team another
strong performance despite the handicap of not having the
airjack work on the final pitstop. Starting 18th, he gained
four spots on the first lap and moved into the top 10 before
halfway. The airjack problem arose while doing a pre-race
check of pit equipment and the ABC crew created a temporary
fix which held for the first two stops. Fortunately, the
third and last stop was under yellow and he only lost one
spot to Buddy Rice. Manning remained on the lead lap to
finish ninth for his fourth top-10 finish of the season. He
is currently 14th in the standings.
· Aabic Roofing, of Gambier, 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. Isaac White and his
guest 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 2008: Manning
qualified 11th at St. Pete and was challenging for sixth
when the paddle shift mechanism experienced problems,
dropping him to 13th. Earlier this month at Watkins Glen,
Manning posted his career best finish of second after
starting eighth.
· Past performances at Mid-Ohio: Last year, Manning started
eighth and finished sixth after running as high as third in
the first stint. He was running in the top-five for most of
the race, dropping to sixth on a restart snafu and then
popping up to fourth before a dash into the pits for a
splash of fuel dropped him to sixth with 10 laps to go. 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.
· The Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio which will be shown live
Sunday, July 20 at 1:30 p.m. ET on ABC.
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