Less than 24 hours after Atlantic Championship graduate Danica Patrick earned her first career Indy Racing League IndyCar Series victory in Japan, second-year Swiss driver Simona De Silvestro became the second woman in the 34-year history of the Atlantic Championship to win a race with her victory in the Grand Prix of Long Beach.
After starting from the front row for the first time in her Atlantic career, De Silvestro took the lead from pole sitter Jonathan Bomarito on Lap 24 of what would be a 38-lap race when gearbox issues forced Bomarito into an off-course excursion in Turn 1 at the end of the Shoreline Drive straightaway. The race's only full-course caution period for debris set the stage for second-place running Alan Sciuto to challenge for the lead on the restart, but De Silvestro pulled confidently away at the drop of the green flag and went on to win by 1.285 seconds.De Silvestro joins Katherine Legge as the only women to win races in Atlantic Championship competition. Legge owns a total of three Atlantic victories picking up her first career Atlantic victory at Long Beach in 2005.
photo: WRI2