Best Finish of the Season for Lotus HVM Racing
Detroit, MI (Sunday, June 03, 2012) - Lotus HVM Racing and the #78 Nuclear Clean Air Energy IZOD IndyCar went into today's Indianapolis 500 hoping to run a trouble-free, consistent pace while staying within the league mandated 105 percent of the fastest car on track with a goal of finishing the race. Unfortunately, the race pace was somewhat faster than anticipated and driver Simona De Silvestro found herself being black-flagged early in the day.
"I'm pretty disappointed to get black-flagged after only a few laps," the Swiss driver said. "We were trying to keep up pace, but unfortunately right now we don't have the pace, so now we have to work hard to get to the pace that we need. It's a disappointment because the team worked so hard all month and when you can't fight for anything it's really, really tough. So, we just have to kind of be patient with it and we have to work even harder to mask a little bit the lack of speed we have right now."
The team had over 500 guests for the month, with over 150 of them here today to watch De Silvestro and the team compete. De Silvestro met with guests from Entergy, AREVA, Rev1, TDS, NEI, Enercon and WTS this morning explaining race strategy, signing autographs and posing for photos. While disappointed that the day ended so early, everyone was excited to have had the opportunity to experience the excitement of the day.
Team owner Keith Wiggins had hopes for a longer outing as well. "I expected us to get up to speed a little bit better in the beginning and we didn't so we fell outside their rule," he said. "On the other hand I suspect it was more planned than we knew. We hadn't even been lapped and we weren't in anyone's way. They made a decision and that was that."
"It was disappointing in many ways," Tom Brown, Lotus HVM Racing technical director said. "The car was clearly good. We knew it was good. We knew Simona was on her game. We have issues which we have to resolve and those issues will have to be resolved pretty quickly to get us back and be competitive where we should be."
With the early exit, the team must now look forward to next week's Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix.
"Obviously very disappointing; we were hoping to race for a bit longer," said team manager Shane Seneviratne. "All we can do now is look forward to Detroit. We all know where we stand with our power situation so if we could get a good result out of Detroit that will highlight how good the team is and how good Simona is. We're looking forward to putting the car in the middle of the pack in Detroit."
The Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix airs on ABC June 3, 2012 at 3:30 p.m. ET.
About HVM Racing
HVM Racing was founded by Keith Wiggins and is based in Indianapolis, Indiana. HVM enters 2011 as its tenth year of competition since forming in 2001 and has earned six victories, two pole positions, and an additional 16 podiums. They earned "Indianapolis Rookie of the Year" honors with driver Simona De Silvestro at the 2010 event and since joining the IZOD INDYCAR Series in 2008, the team has earned nine top-10 finishes. HVM finished fourth and third, respectively, in the Champ Car World Series in 2006 and 2007, and earned drivers Mario Dominguez and Robert Doornbos Rookie of the Year honors in 2002 and 2007, respectively. Follow HVM Racing at www.hvmracing.com, on twitter at www.twitter.com/HVMracing, and on facebook at www.facebook.com/HVMRacing.
HVM Racing was founded by Keith Wiggins and is based in Indianapolis, Indiana. HVM enters 2011 as its tenth year of competition since forming in 2001 and has earned six victories, two pole positions, and an additional 16 podiums. They earned "Indianapolis Rookie of the Year" honors with driver Simona De Silvestro at the 2010 event and since joining the IZOD INDYCAR Series in 2008, the team has earned nine top-10 finishes. HVM finished fourth and third, respectively, in the Champ Car World Series in 2006 and 2007, and earned drivers Mario Dominguez and Robert Doornbos Rookie of the Year honors in 2002 and 2007, respectively. Follow HVM Racing at www.hvmracing.com, on twitter at www.twitter.com/HVMracing, and on facebook at www.facebook.com/HVMRacing.
About Lotus
Group Lotus plc, is based in Norfolk, UK, and has three operating divisions: Lotus Cars, Lotus Engineering and Lotus Motorsport.
Group Lotus plc, is based in Norfolk, UK, and has three operating divisions: Lotus Cars, Lotus Engineering and Lotus Motorsport.
Lotus Cars builds world class, high performance sports cars including the award-winning Evora, the iconic Elise and the stunning Exige and the road / track orientated 2-Eleven. Lotus New Era, the future product line-up, was unveiled in Paris on 30th September 2010 featuring the new Esprit, Elan, Elite, Elise and Eterne.
Lotus Engineering provides comprehensive and versatile consultancy services to many of the world's OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers and is an internationally recognised automotive engineering consultancy. Global facilities include those in the US, Malaysia, China and offices in Germany and Japan. Lotus is a global high-tech company, committed to driving forward technology for both Lotus Cars and its Engineering clients, spearheading research into such areas as hybrids, electric vehicles and renewable fuels.
Lotus Motorsport operates the motorsports activities of Lotus and includes the strategy to return the Lotus name to a great number of series including endurance racing with GT2, GT4 and LMP2, single seater racing with GP2, GP3 and IndyCar. Lotus has also returned to F1 with Lotus Renault GP from the start of the 2011 F1 racing season onwards.
For more information about Group Lotus please contact:
PR Department, Group Lotus plc, Potash Lane, Hethel, Norfolk, UK, NR14 8EZ
Tel: +44 (0)1953 608264 Email: pr@lotuscars.com
PR Department, Group Lotus plc, Potash Lane, Hethel, Norfolk, UK, NR14 8EZ
Tel: +44 (0)1953 608264 Email: pr@lotuscars.com
About Entergy
Entergy is the second largest owner and operator of U.S. nuclear energy plants. They operate or provide management services to 12 reactors at 10 sites. Entergy Corporation is an integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations. Entergy owns and operates power plants with approximately 30,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity and delivers electricity to 2.7 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Entergy has annual revenues of more than $11 billion and more than 15,000 employees. Follow at www.NuclearCleanAirEnergy.com and www.entergy-nuclear.com; on Twitter at www.twitter.com/EntergyNuclear and www.twitter/NuclearCleanAir, and on facebook at www.facebook.com/Nuclear Clean Air Energy.
More News
Entergy is the second largest owner and operator of U.S. nuclear energy plants. They operate or provide management services to 12 reactors at 10 sites. Entergy Corporation is an integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations. Entergy owns and operates power plants with approximately 30,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity and delivers electricity to 2.7 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Entergy has annual revenues of more than $11 billion and more than 15,000 employees. Follow at www.NuclearCleanAirEnergy.com and www.entergy-nuclear.com; on Twitter at www.twitter.com/EntergyNuclear and www.twitter/NuclearCleanAir, and on facebook at www.facebook.com/Nuclear Clean Air Energy.