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DISHEARTENING DAY FOR DAVID OSTELLA IN THE FIRESTONE FREEDOM 100

Posted on: May 26th, 2012 | No Comments

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind.–  After a career best starting position at the Firestone Indy Lights Freedom 100 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Canadian David Ostella had his day cut short as unavoidable contact on lap four removed the No. 22 Global PreCast/LiUNA/Xtreme Coil drilling car from contention, earning him an 18th place finishing position despite his qualifying efforts.

A two-car collision early on in the 40-lap, 100-mile feature race, involving the No. 17 of Brandon Wagner and Sam Schmidt Motorsports driver Oliver Webb, collected the 20-year-old and ended his day in the wall along with Emerson Newton-John and Darryl Willis.  The five car incident caused a red flag to fly over the Miller Lite Carb Day festivities as safety workers diligently cleaned up the aftermath in order to resume safe racing.

“I feel really bad for the team,” he said as he shook his head.   “They’ve worked so hard this month and we did so well in testing and practice.  This is the greatest qualifying effort I’ve had so far in my career, which makes it even tougher. Without backing from my family and my sponsors and crew, I wouldn’t be here today and today’s result is so disappointing for all of us.”

Once racing resumed, teammate Gustavo Yacaman, who started the race from the pole position which was a first for Team Moore at Indianapolis, battled it out with Victor Carbone, Tristian Vautier, and Esteban Guerrieri for the lead, ultimately conceding to Guerrieri who took over on lap 38 to take the checkered flag.  Yacaman ultimately finished in fourth place.

Despite having to settle for an 18th place finish, the Maple, Ont., resident is already looking toward the next event, and improving his performance.

“All we can do now is get the car back together and look forward to the next weekend in Detroit to see what we can do,” he said.  “This is not how I wanted to end my day, but racing incidents happen and you just have to keep looking forward.

The Firestone Indy Lights Series will be back on track on the streets of Belle Isle for the Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix on Saturday, June 2, 2012.  The 45-lap feature are will take place at 1:30 pm on Saturday afternoon (local) with live coverage on NBC Sports and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network.