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IndyCar News
Briscoe claims second IndyCar win
21/07/2008
Australia’s Ryan Briscoe won the Honda Indy 200 on Sunday 20 July with an outstanding performance at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, defeating pole sitter and Team Penske team mate Helio Castroneves.
Briscoe led 43 laps of the 85 lap race taking home his second career victory in the IndyCar Series. Spectators at the Mid-Ohio circuit also witnessed the first one-two finish for Penske Racing since Phoenix in 2005.
New Zealand’s Scott Dixon finished third, with Will Power and Oriol Servia claiming the remaining two spots in the top five.
Firestone brought the same specification dry and wet tyres to the circuit this year as used in 2007. All cars started the race on wet tyres as heavy thunderstorms had moved through the area earlier in the day. As the track dried, all drivers made the switch to slicks. Both specifications tyres performed well, particularly the slicks, as Bruno Junqueira ran an extended stint on one set.
Ryan Briscoe, #6 Team Penske Dallara/Honda/Firestone,said:
"The Team Penske car was just awesome today. Roger [Penske] put us on a great strategy. I was really happy with the Firestone Firehawks. I put the wet ones to the test in dry conditions at the beginning of the race - I probably should have come in for slicks sooner. But I was very happy with the tyres, and they were very consistent all day long."
Joe Barbieri, Manager, Firestone Racing, said:
"We saw huge variations in track conditions and temperatures today, and we saw great moves by drivers on Firestone Firehawk tyres under all circumstances. As a tyre manufacturer, Firestone Racing always likes to demonstrate our tyres' performance capabilities under extreme conditions, and we certainly accomplished that at Mid-Ohio. From the start of the race with the tyres displacing gallons of water from the wet track, to differing strategies of when to switch to slicks under drying conditions, to the final stages of the race where drivers were putting lap after lap on their Firehawks to gain as much of an advantage as possible, our tyres stood up well to just about every challenge you could imagine."
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