Loudon, NH, August 13, 2011-19 year-old Canadian David Ostella rebounded from a “bumpy” start earlier this week in testing at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway with a smooth and consistent qualifying run to settle into the outside of row four, and eighth position for the debut of the Firestone Indy Lights Series . A rookie this season, he posted two lap speed average of 141.155 mph which puts him mid-pack for the start of tomorrow’s 100 lap race.
After suffering a minor incident with a bump to the wall in Turn 3 on Wednesday, Ostella and the Jensen Motorsport team re-dialed the No. #16 Global Precast car back to baseline, and began to work their way back into a set-up that was a better fit for his driving style and overall experience.
“This is only the second short oval David (Ostella) has driven this year,” said Engineer Remi Lanteigne. “The track is much different in terms of set-up than Milwaukee, based on many factors-including banking and the radius of the corners. We had a learning curve in testing and the track surface is bumpy-so the car just got away from him. So today, we concentrated on changing our approach and brought the car back to zero to get him back into a comfort level where he could trust himself.”
“Today was a great run,” he continued. “We have great position and now we just need to go back and analyze the data and find out how much more the car can give him. He had a big out lap in qualifying-one of the fastest of the day-so we are confident that he has what he needs to push to the front.”
Ostella, who has a history of making a quick charge to the front in the early stages of a race, is confident in his current set-up and his ability to handle “The Magic Mile” as the Speedway is dubbed.
“We were fighting some understeer in testing,” the Maple, Ontario native said. “But we took our time and worked our way through the set-up and now the car is great. It’s really comfortable, so we opted for a steady run in quals without pushing the car too hard. Remi (Lanteigne) and I will go back and look at the data this afternoon and see what we have to work with to get us back up to the front of the field.”
And based on their track record, the Jensen team has had solid success on ovals in 2011. The team has recorded top ten finishes in all three ovals this season.
The New Hampshire Motor Speedway is a relatively flat, 1.058 mile oval-which most closely resembles the Milwaukee Mile, where Ostella recently finished in seventh place.
A final 20 minute warm-up session is scheduled for 9:40 AM Eastern tomorrow morning, followed by the 100 lap Firestone Indy Lights debut feature at 1:15 PM.
For more information regarding Ostella and Jensen MotorSport, visit them at their official websites www.davidostella.com and www.jensenmotorsport.com or on Facebook and Twitter.
Please click here to contact GRand Solutions for Media Availability.