Catchfence

São Paulo, Brazil (May 2, 2011)- The fourth round of the 2011 IZOD IndyCar Series in São Paulo, Brazil proved to be an exciting and eventful race for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing. True to its history, it was a matter of everything that could happen did happen in the Itaipava São Paulo Indy 300, and luckily, DRR pilots Justin Wilson (No. 22 HP) and Ana Beatriz (No. 24 Ipiranga) kept out of the trouble.

The craziness started yesterday when the race was postponed due to heavy rains and standing water on the Parque Anhembi temporary street circuit. Just moments before the green flag dropped, the rain rolled in which made the start of the Itaipava São Paulo Indy 300 an extremely interesting one. In Turn 1 a huge accident occurred involving multiple cars, but fortunately DRR pilots Justin Wilson (No. 22 HP) and Ana Beatriz (No. 24 Ipiranga), managed to steer clear of the carnage. Wilson, who qualified in 8th position moved up to 7th, and his teammate, Beatriz, who started 25th and moved up to 22nd, were able to bypass all of the action happening in front of them. The yellow flag immediately came out on the first lap.

The race re-started on Lap 6, and again, more action would incur. As all the drivers were trying to make it through Turn 1, naturally, there was some mayhem to deal with. Wilson made contact with Sebastien Bourdais on the start causing him to spin out. Luckily, the safety team was able to re-start his car and he filtered back to P18. Ana Beatriz just hung back and stayed out of trouble. She came in on Lap 6 to top off on fuel and she moved her way up to 16th position. On Lap 8, the yellow would come back out and by Lap 9 the race was red-flagged for the first time.

After a 2.5 hour delay, race officials attempted to re-start the race. The 26-car field followed the pace car for five yellow laps in an effort to dry the track and to test out the conditions. Unfortunately, as the rain continued to fall, the visibility was minimal and the race was red-flagged for a second time on Lap 14.

Today, the IZOD IndyCar Series picked up where they left off on Lap 15. As soon as the engines fired for the start of the race the rain began to fall. When the green flag waved, all 26 cars pulled into pit lane to switch from dry to wet tires. Wilson immediately gained positions, moving from 17th up to 11th after the stop for tires and Bia went from 15th position to 16th.

Finally, DRR settled into a groove and everything was going smoothly for the team as both drivers saved fuel and stayed out of trouble. Unfortunately, by Lap 20 the rain became a downpour and on Lap 21 the yellow flag came out. As the race re-started on Lap 25, Wilson moved up to P9 and Bia moved up to P15. On Lap 29 the green flag waved, but unfortunately trouble would set in. For Wilson, due to the wet weather conditions and poor visibility, the Brit spun out in Turn 8. Fortunately he was able to keep going, but would filter back to P17.

It was a similar set of circumstances for Bia as well. The Brazilian ran over the front wing of Rafael Matos, and as a result, the piece of the wing lodged under her car. As she tried to hit a few curbs to get it to fall out, she was unable to brake. By Lap 33, she was in Turn 5 and the car was stuck into gear and the engine died. Unfortunately, the safety crew was unable to get her car started back up, which ended her day early. Bia finished in 24th position

On Lap 35 Wilson came in for fuel, but due to a mishap in the pits with Helio Castroneves, he lost some positions and came out of the pits in 15th position. From that point on it was a matter of staying out of trouble and bringing the car home in the best possible position and that’s exactly what Wilson did. He ended the day with a top-10 finish as he secured a 7th place result.

Dreyer & Reinbold Racing will now head back to their Indianapolis headquarters and prepare the cars for the 100th Anniversary of the Indianapolis 500. For more updates on the team please visit www.dreyerreinboldracing.com.

What they have to say about the Itaipava São Paulo Indy 300…

Justin Wilson, No. 22 HP: “It was a fun race, but it was tough because it was so slick out there. It was really, really hard not to spin out every corner, simple as that. Literally you turn in you don’t think you are going to be able to stop and you don’t think the car is going to turn, then once it does turn you just try to get out of the corner. It was very difficult conditions. I’m glad that we got the race in and I feel like we’ve done something now and that’s good. It’s nice to get a finish, but obviously there’s potential for a lot more, but we will keep building on that. I don’t know what happened when I spun. I went into Turn 8 and I just turned in and as I got to the middle, the front just gripped up and I just couldn’t get the clutch in, in time to stop the slide.

I thought that I caught it once and then it went a second time and then I spun. It was driver error in difficult conditions and we had to wait for the whole pack to get going before we could get going again and we just had to try to survive. That’s the thing was trying to survive through those re-starts. It’s hard enough doing those re-starts side-by-side, but doing them when you can’t see. You can’t see the guy in front of you , behind you or alongside you, everyone has their feelers out trying to guess where we are on the race track. It was tough and we survived that and I think that everyone did a really good job. I know that there were a few incidents, but considering the lack of visibility, I think it was a pretty good day.”

Ana Beatriz, No. 24 Ipiranga: “It was a crazy race because we started yesterday and did 15 laps and had to sleep and re-start again today. We were very tired because you get excited and then there is a re-start and then you have to sleep with it in the middle of the race. The re-start went well for us. I was just hanging out there trying to get in a good position and stay out of the way with the crashes. Unfortunately, I collected a large piece of Matos’ wing and the car became very unstable and as I braked a little bit later the car went straight in Turn 5 and I couldn’t do anything. The engine went dead and we weren’t able to re-start it, which was probably because of all of the water. It was a very frustrating and unfortunate day for us.”

About Dreyer & Reinbold Racing:

Dreyer & Reinbold Racing is entering its 12th season of full-time competition in 2011, making it one of the longest-tenured teams in IZOD IndyCar Series competition. Current Co-Owners, Dennis Reinbold and Robbie Buhl, first teamed in full-time competition at the Walt Disney World Speedway in January of 2000. With Buhl behind the wheel, the two owners tasted victory in their debut race. The 2009 IZOD IndyCar Series season-opener, on the streets of St. Petersburg, marked Dreyer & Reinbold Racing’s 200th series start. DRR now has over 270 starts to tuck under its belt and has qualified a total of 27 cars for the Indianapolis 500. In its history, the team has boasted a championship list of alumni drivers. Besides Buhl, the team has run Indianapolis 500 winners, Al Unser, Jr., Buddy Lazier, and Buddy Rice, along with IZOD IndyCar Series race winner, Ryan Briscoe. The team has one of the longest lines of heritage in American open-wheel racing and the Indianapolis 500 as Dennis Reinbold’s grandfather, “Pop” Dreyer, built leading roadsters that raced at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway during the 30s, 40s, and 50s.

More information on the team can be found at www.dreyerreinboldracing.com.

More information on the IZOD IndyCar Series can be found at www.indycar.com.

- Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Press Release