He may not have been the first to cross the finish line Saturday night at Richmond, but Oriol Servia definitely turned heads as he brought the #5 KV Racing Technology Dallara home to a fifth place finish.
Servia started the race from tenth place and had a strong run throughout, picking up positions both on track and in the pits. Though the venue is a short oval where drivers find themselves turning 75% of the time, the KV Racing Technology pilot took a liking to the track, noting drivers are “always on the edge,” and he knew right off the bat that the team provided him with a good car for the weekend.
Though the expression “yellows breed yellows” rang true from the very start of the event, Oriol drove a clean race and ran as high as third place in the lengthened 300-lap race. By the mid-way point, half the field had already crashed out or were too many laps down to be true contenders and Servia scored his best finish to date in the IndyCar Series.
I’m sure I’m not the only one here getting dizzy from turning left, and will welcome the second half of the season which ushers with it some more road and street courses [finally]. Let’s hope the IndyCar veterans don’t have too much of a lead for some of the transition drivers to catch up in the points standings!
Check out additional comments from Oriol at IndyCar.com.
Posted by Shelly Paul, Servia Squad Feature Writer
Monday, June 30, 2008
Thursday, June 19, 2008
2008 Most Popular Driver
He may not have won Dancing With the Stars, he may not have posed for Sports Illustrated, but there’s no reason this Spaniard can’t be in the running for the Indy Car 2008 Most Popular Driver contest!
Have all you Indy Downforce Fan Club members been casting your daily votes for Oriol? Members can vote up to 10 times per day so vote often and we’ll get our favorite driver up in the ranks with the likes of the two-stepper and bikini model.
Posted by Shelly Paul, Servia Squad Feature Writer
Have all you Indy Downforce Fan Club members been casting your daily votes for Oriol? Members can vote up to 10 times per day so vote often and we’ll get our favorite driver up in the ranks with the likes of the two-stepper and bikini model.
Posted by Shelly Paul, Servia Squad Feature Writer
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Festival of Yellows
This past weekend the IndyCar Series visited Texas Motor Speedway for the running of the Bombardier Learjet 550, a first for veteran Oriol Servia since 2001 when CART was forced to cancel its race due to loss of driver consciousness and vertigo when speeds topped 240 miles per hour.
Saturday night’s race held promise, however, as the beginning displayed a true festival of speed. Cars ran multiple race lines and squeezed through the corners two and three wide at well over 200 miles per hour. Then the yellow was thrown and the green flag took a hiatus for the remainder of the race.
Unfortunately, Servia was the cause of one of those yellows as the back end of the car got away from him on Lap 49, sending him into the wall and ending his day. And as he was one of the few carrying an on-board camera for the weekend, we were treated to a front-row seat of the incident. It was the first DNF of the season for the driver who is probably best known for his consistency and bringing the car home in one piece.
What I don’t understand, however, is why it takes numerous laps (and two commercial breaks if you’re watching from home) to get back to green flag racing. In some instances, there wasn’t even a crash. The scenario played itself out more than once over the weekend, first with Dominguez’s spin and later after Jamie Camara had made it safely back to his pit after his incident.
For the second week in a row the fans were treated to an exciting finish under yellow in which the pace car was the true race winner, all this on a track where I had high expectations for a photo finish.
Posted by Shelly Paul, Servia Squad Feature Writer
Saturday night’s race held promise, however, as the beginning displayed a true festival of speed. Cars ran multiple race lines and squeezed through the corners two and three wide at well over 200 miles per hour. Then the yellow was thrown and the green flag took a hiatus for the remainder of the race.
Unfortunately, Servia was the cause of one of those yellows as the back end of the car got away from him on Lap 49, sending him into the wall and ending his day. And as he was one of the few carrying an on-board camera for the weekend, we were treated to a front-row seat of the incident. It was the first DNF of the season for the driver who is probably best known for his consistency and bringing the car home in one piece.
What I don’t understand, however, is why it takes numerous laps (and two commercial breaks if you’re watching from home) to get back to green flag racing. In some instances, there wasn’t even a crash. The scenario played itself out more than once over the weekend, first with Dominguez’s spin and later after Jamie Camara had made it safely back to his pit after his incident.
For the second week in a row the fans were treated to an exciting finish under yellow in which the pace car was the true race winner, all this on a track where I had high expectations for a photo finish.
Posted by Shelly Paul, Servia Squad Feature Writer
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
Champ Car Lives
Melancholy settles in. It’s been brewing in me a while now.
Champ Car was sold today, put on the block for the highest bidder. I watched as racecars once filled with fire were stripped of their engines and sold for little more than I paid for my grocery getter. Like a bad accident on the side of the highway, it was hard to turn away. Signage, tools, even the winner’s podium -- no price was too low, no offer denied.
Yet I can’t help but think that Champ Car is not dead; no, Champ Car is alive around me. It lives in my basement, walls spattered with orange and black posters, painted with lithographs and prints. Helmet visors rest atop the television, reminding me that weekends will always be reserved for speed. A table of tires offers a final resting place to yearbooks heralding tales of heroes past.
Champ Car lives in the paddock, in the “transition teams,” the “ex-CART guys” and throughout the “IndyCar rookie class.” “Welcome to the other series” you hear as you traverse the pits.
And most importantly, Champ Car lives in me. While the garages may now lie dark and empty, the series’ biggest asset -- its fans -- cannot be sold. Without us, it would not have been the huge success it was. And through us, its memories will not die.
As the teams and drivers we have come to know and admire are forced to find their footing elsewhere, whether in IndyCar or with another series, remember that it’s the fans who are the true heart and soul of the operation.
If you continue, like me, to search for “another kind of green,” then look for me trackside at Chicago come September 7th.
You know where to find me.
Posted by Shelly Paul, Servia Squad Feature Writer
Champ Car was sold today, put on the block for the highest bidder. I watched as racecars once filled with fire were stripped of their engines and sold for little more than I paid for my grocery getter. Like a bad accident on the side of the highway, it was hard to turn away. Signage, tools, even the winner’s podium -- no price was too low, no offer denied.
Yet I can’t help but think that Champ Car is not dead; no, Champ Car is alive around me. It lives in my basement, walls spattered with orange and black posters, painted with lithographs and prints. Helmet visors rest atop the television, reminding me that weekends will always be reserved for speed. A table of tires offers a final resting place to yearbooks heralding tales of heroes past.
Champ Car lives in the paddock, in the “transition teams,” the “ex-CART guys” and throughout the “IndyCar rookie class.” “Welcome to the other series” you hear as you traverse the pits.
And most importantly, Champ Car lives in me. While the garages may now lie dark and empty, the series’ biggest asset -- its fans -- cannot be sold. Without us, it would not have been the huge success it was. And through us, its memories will not die.
As the teams and drivers we have come to know and admire are forced to find their footing elsewhere, whether in IndyCar or with another series, remember that it’s the fans who are the true heart and soul of the operation.
If you continue, like me, to search for “another kind of green,” then look for me trackside at Chicago come September 7th.
You know where to find me.
Posted by Shelly Paul, Servia Squad Feature Writer
Playing Leapfrog at The Mile
Oriol Servia and the KV Racing Technology #5 crew made significant progress over the weekend in the ABC Supply/AJ Foyt 225 held at the famed Milwaukee Mile. The Servia Squad was on-site, and while the team struggled a bit with handling issues and Oriol complained of “bottoming out” during both Friday’s rookie orientation and Saturday’s practice session, the team borrowed some setup information from Will Power’s #8 entry to get Servia ready for qualifying. And the hard work truly paid off as Servia qualified ninth for Sunday’s race.
However, Servia’s race got off to a bumpy start after contact on the first lap sent him back to the pits for repairs to the front wing. The team employed key strategy in occupying their driver for short stints which allowed them to stay on the lead lap. But the last stop to replace the nose cone saw the leaders pass by just as Servia exited the pits and he was forced to slot in behind race leader Marco Andretti. As soon as the track went green, Oriol made haste to pass the leader, regaining his lap, and from that point on had quite the battle on his hands.
The remainder of Servia’s day would be spent working his way back through the field, again demonstrating one of his chief strengths on track. And the game of leapfrog would not be an easy one as the Spaniard battled back and forth with Menards/Vision Racing driver Ed Carpenter up until the closing laps which saw Carpenter spin, causing the biggest incident of the day and taking out two additional cars.
Servia clinched the sixth position under the yellow, landing himself seventh in the championship standings.
On a personal note, this was probably the most exciting race I have ever attended as the action on track was non-stop from start to finish. And it wasn’t just the leaders who were making the moves, but rather the entire field battling for position.
If you haven’t yet been to IndyCar.com following the race, head on over and cast your vote for Oriol in the Firestone “TIRE”-IFIC MOVE OF THE RACE!
Posted by Shelly Paul, Servia Squad Feature Writer
However, Servia’s race got off to a bumpy start after contact on the first lap sent him back to the pits for repairs to the front wing. The team employed key strategy in occupying their driver for short stints which allowed them to stay on the lead lap. But the last stop to replace the nose cone saw the leaders pass by just as Servia exited the pits and he was forced to slot in behind race leader Marco Andretti. As soon as the track went green, Oriol made haste to pass the leader, regaining his lap, and from that point on had quite the battle on his hands.
The remainder of Servia’s day would be spent working his way back through the field, again demonstrating one of his chief strengths on track. And the game of leapfrog would not be an easy one as the Spaniard battled back and forth with Menards/Vision Racing driver Ed Carpenter up until the closing laps which saw Carpenter spin, causing the biggest incident of the day and taking out two additional cars.
Servia clinched the sixth position under the yellow, landing himself seventh in the championship standings.
On a personal note, this was probably the most exciting race I have ever attended as the action on track was non-stop from start to finish. And it wasn’t just the leaders who were making the moves, but rather the entire field battling for position.
If you haven’t yet been to IndyCar.com following the race, head on over and cast your vote for Oriol in the Firestone “TIRE”-IFIC MOVE OF THE RACE!
Posted by Shelly Paul, Servia Squad Feature Writer
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