Ostella Records Best Oval Finish for the Season in New Hampshire
Finishes sixth at New Hampshire Motor Speedway Debut
Loudon, NH, August 14, 2011-Dark clouds and the impending threat of rain hung low over the New Hampshire Motor Speedway for the start of the Firestone Indy Lights 100 Lap debut today, but 19 year-old David Ostella didn’t let the low pressure system stand in his way. The young Canadian dug deep and battled his way through lapped cars to improve two positions and finish in sixth–his best oval finish of the year.
With significantly cooler track temperatures and an intense battle for position mid-pack throughout the race, the rookie performed admirably on Round #11 of the Firestone Indy Lights calendar, despite a limited career history on ovals.
An early battle with Rusty Mitchell led to a clean pass on lap 18 to improve his qualifying position and move the No. 16 Global Precast car up to seventh. From there, the Jensen Motorsport team dug in and began a steady fight to make up ground and reel in the competition.
A pass on Anders Krohn on lap 62 pushed Ostella further up the timing grid to sixth, and from there, driver and crew began a long and intense fight with Duarte Ferriera for fifth position. As the two headed toward the checkered flag, lapped traffic on a late restart thwarted his charge under Ferriera, and a pass by Guerrieri pushed him up the track surface to tap the wall and lose some momentum on lap 86. The 16 car continued on comfortably, but out of the fight.
“I am just so disappointed,” said the Maple, Ontario native. “The car was great, and while passing was really tricky with the cooler temperatures, we were running a really tight line and having some great battles for position. Our last charge was on dirty tires and I was making a hard push-so I have to blame myself for getting caught up and hitting the wall-but the lapped traffic really blocked what could have been a great drive to the finish and a potential podium. While I am really happy that this is our best oval finish this year-I feel for the team-they did a great job and gave me a great car today and I truly think we could have had a better result if we hadn’t gotten caught up by lapped cars.”
Today’s finish continues the team’s record of all top ten finishes on the ovals thus far this season.
The next race on the Firestone Indy Lights Calendar is the inaugural Baltimore Grand Prix–a two mile jaunt around the Inner Harbor and Camden Yards in downtown Baltimore for a 36 lap, one hour feature on Labor Day weekend. For more information go to www.baltimoregrandprix.com.
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.