Yacaman wins Baltimore 100 on Streets of Baltimore

Gustavo Yacaman won the inaugural Baltimore 100 at the Streets of Baltimore Firestone Indy Lights race, inheriting the race as others in front of him made a series of mistakes. For the first 2/3 of the race, Conor Daly (yes, his dad is Derek) lead the race before Estaban Guerrieri passed for the lead and pulled away. However, Estaban made a mistake on lap 27, putting him into the tires and out of the race, setting up a 5 lap sprint race. Anders Krohn lead at the green flag, but spun a lap later, giving the lead to Yacaman. Josef Newgarden pressured Yacaman, but Yacaman was flawless at the end and won going away. While there were a few spins for the most part is was a clean, fast race.

After Conor clipped the wall on lap 25, his day came to an inglorious end when he clipped the wall and took off the front wing. This is likely his last Indy Lights race, perhaps the last in the IndyCar ladder. Conor has been racing in Europe for some time, and it's no secret that he's hoping for an F1 ride instead of an Indy 500 ride.

**************

Jorge Goncalvez is still using a crutch to recover from his YouTube-legend crash at Indy last May. Goncalvez Crash After his spin his gearbox failed, and he was done for the day. — Tim Wohlford, reporting from Baltimore

GUSTAVO YACAMAN (No. 2 TMR-Tuvacol-Xtreme Coil Drilling): "They've been waiting for 3 years for this, we've worked so hard…it's incredible how hard. I've been training 20 hours a week, this track is the most physical track I've ever driven. It pays off when the most physical fit driver in the series wins the race, here it is, bringing it home P1. I just want to thank my team, it's an amazing, amazing feeling to be able to accomplish this. We did a great job and I just feel amazing."

JOSEF NEWGARDEN (No. 11 Copart/Score Big/Robo-Pong/SSM): " A great race by Gustavo (Yacaman). He showed no mercy and definitely made no mistakes. It's a tribute to their team and to him. I'm very happy for him that he got a win. We're focused on the championship. We always have been. I would like to have another win for us but that is a great way to rebound after having a very tough time on Saturday. I was really disappointed with how qualifying went. To finish off the weekend like this hopefully can help us at the end of the year. I'm elated for the whole Sam Schmidt Motorsports team, especially for Victor Carbone. For him to get a podium is just fantastic. He's a good driver and he's had a lot of bad luck."

MARK MOORE (Team owner, Team Moore Racing): "We had a long discussion when we went back to hotel took a long time to get sorted out and officials did right thing, but it was very hard for everyone. The only thing we could do was come back out here and win the race."

VICTOR CARBONE (No. 3 Nevoni/Sam Schmidt Motorsports): We wanted to be consistent and get up front, and just fight each other. I was able to take advantage of [the others' mistakes], so it's very good, I just want to thank my guys out here working really hard. Now it's back to the ovals.

BRUNO ANDRADE (No. 29 Bryan Herta Autosport): It was very good, I was very anxious before the race, but I was very excited for it. My team did a great job, and I'm so happy.

The track was better than qualifying but very hot, it was hard to hold the race.

ANDERS KROHN (No. 9 Liberty Engineering Racing Special): "It was the biggest mistake of my career in one of the biggest races. I think the only that was bigger was the Freedom 100 at Indianapolis. But this one, with all the crowd that's been here and just the fantastic event that it's been, it's surely the second biggest of the year. It was a totally non-acceptable mistake, nobody to blame but myself so I guess that's a good thing. I'm heartbroken, because my team has been busting their humps all year without any breaks, and when we finally get a break I mess it up. We had it in the bag and I messed it up."

CONOR DALY (No. 77 Mazda Road to Indy/SSM): It was going good, an interesting start. Gus hit me about six or seven times in the back pretty hard, so I basically had to keep the car on track. I was able to do that. I knew he was going to try to pass me going into the hairpin in Turn 3, and sure enough he went for it but braked away too late. I got it back, but he tried again and I got it back again, I knew our car was way fast. The car was great and kept getting better, but all of the sudden, I don't know what happened. Turning around the corner I just got a little bit loose every lap, getting a little worse and Esteban started catching me…In Turn 2, there are four bumps and right at the last bump it just snapped away from me and hooked left and right straight back into the wall. Straight on with the nose and basically that was it. The upper wishbone was snapped in half. There's a lot of variables that could have caused it. Curbs are rough, Gus hit me a lot, I don't know. It's unfortunate for sure, I really wanted to do well here. But I enjoyed the track and enjoyed the weekend so, it's alright.

ESTEBAN GUERRIERI (No. 7 Lucas Oil/Sam Schmidt Motorsports): "For some reason, which is totally personal, I did the stupidest mistake in my career, which is hit in that inside wall in the hairpin. Obviously the track was getting grippier and I realized that, that's why I could push quite hard…When I turned, I realized I was a little close to the wall, but I had done that during the weekend. As soon as I put the power down, I was thinking the rear was going to snap and the opposite happened and it grabbed more grip, and I went to the inside and hit the wall. (About what's going through his mind when he crashes out): "I'm thinking, why didn't I become a tennis player? If I were born again, I would be a tennis player."

Results

Pos	Car	Driver	Diff.	Gap	BL	Start	Status
1	2	Gustavo Yacaman	0.0000	0.0000	1:26.4044	3	Running
2	11	Josef Newgarden	0.4500	0.4500	1:26.3820	14	Running
3	3	Victor Carbone	8.1430	7.6930	1:27.4257	7	Running
4	29	Bruno Andrade	8.6059	0.4629	1:26.7963	12	Running
5	5	Stefan Wilson	8.9459	0.3400	1:27.6900	6	Running
6	9	Anders Krohn	11.8085	2.8626	1:26.8516	5	Running
7	17	Rusty Mitchell	25.7061	13.8976	1:28.9786	13	Running
8	22	Tonis Kasemets	1 LAPS	1 LAPS	1:27.4871	8	Running
9	26	Peter Dempsey	1 LAPS	10.7178	1:27.0684	2	Running
10	28	Duarte Ferreira	3 LAPS	1 LAPS	1:29.4241	15	Mechanical
11	12	Oliver Webb	6 LAPS	3 LAPS	1:28.6290	11	Mechanical
12	7	Esteban Guerrieri	7 LAPS	1 LAPS	1:26.4621	4	Contact
13	32	Willy T Ribbs	7 LAPS	176.7749	1:35.4105	16	Mechanical
14	77	Conor Daly	10 LAPS	3 LAPS	1:26.4635	1	Contact
15	16	David Ostella	15 LAPS	5 LAPS	1:28.5134	10	Mechanical
16	4	Jorge Goncalvez	26 LAPS	11 LAPS	1:28.6269	9	Mechanical

Race Statistics
Winners average speed: 74.778
Time of Race: 00:57:17.3814
Margin of victory: .4500 of a second
Cautions: 3 for 6 laps
Lead changes: 3 among 4 drivers
Lap Leaders: Daly 1 – 22, Guerrieri 23 – 28, Krohn 29 – 31, Yacaman 32 – 35
Point Standings: Newgarden 489, Guerrieri 399, Wilson 373, Yacaman 352, Goncalvez 301, Krohn 285, Carbone 280, Ferreira, 276, Ostella 269, Dempsey 254.