Dana, Hemelgarn Skip St. Petersburg Event
Written by Douglas Brown · March 30, 2005
Ethanol Hemelgarn Racing and driver Paul Dana will sit out the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
The decision to take this weekend off allows the team to focus on its oval program and be as prepared as possible for the Indianapolis 500 in May.
“We are going to do a few days of oval testing to try to get our program sorted out, and since the other two road course events aren’t until later in the year, hopefully we’ll have some time to get our road-course car put together and tested before then,‰ said Dana, who is tied for 12th in points and leads the Bombardier Rookie of the Year standings.
“I started out in road racing up in Canada so I’m really excited that the series is going in this direction. It’s frustrating to have to sit out one of the early events, but we’ve gotten such a late start to the season we’ve got to pick our battles a little bit.”
Ethanol Hemelgarn Racing will next race at the Indy Japan 300 at Twin Ring Motegi on April 30.
The first and probably not the last casualty of the IRL’s move away from an Oval-only race calendar. It will be interesting to watch and see how much damage gets done to other teams and cars this weekend. This is a very smart move for this driver and this team right now—DB
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