PREMA Racing’s drivers Callum Ilott and Robert Shwartzman made up several places from their starting position at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in the first of five weekends in July.
The 90-lap race was run in sweltering conditions, with both Ilott and Shwartzman starting what was set to be a three-stop race on the black-sidewalled Primary tires.
Starting from the back of the field, Ilott was forced off track while avoiding an incident at the start. He opted to go off-strategy, pitting the red-sidewalled Alternate tires under the caution period while Shwartzman made up a few spots.
Restarting from towards the back, the pair started to work their way gradually up the order, including a lengthy battle with Rinus Veekay which was on and off for many laps.
There was a second caution a third of the way into the race, which benefitted the team slightly with regards to how the strategy played out.
However, as the strategies in the final part of the race panned out the drivers found themselves in different parts of the order. The team opted to run with the Alternate tires for much of the race, with only the drivers’ first stints being completed on the Primary tires. Shwartzman made his final stop on lap 67, with Ilott making his final trip to the pits on lap 82.
The pair raced until the chequered flag, with Ilott in 13th for his best result of the season and Shwartzman crossing the line in 21st – both just over a second behind those they were racing.
There is a quick turnaround for the NTT INDYCAR Series paddock as it heads to Iowa on July 12-13 for a doubleheader event around the shortest circuit on the calendar.
#83 ROBERT SHWARTZMAN
"A weekend to forget. All weekend long we just struggled massively with the car. Plus, in the race, I had issues with the radio, so there was no communication and I couldn't understand what was going on strategy-wise. The feeling with the car was just extremely weird, especially on the Alternate stints which we thought was going to be better for us with more grip. Ultimately I leave this weekend disappointed. I will try to do my best in the coming days to analyse everything and work with the guys to see what the thing is we’re missing on the road courses. We now move to Iowa, where we have previously tested and we go there knowing that we have a good feeling on the ovals."
#90 CALLUM ILOTT
"A really strong race. We had a bit of contact at the beginning and we were off track. I was just put in a bad position on the outside. We gambled and did an early stop onto the Reds and the first stint wasn't anything special but once we came in and got going again on the next set of Reds it was it was super fast. The car was really strong. There’s nothing to complain about from there, so I just moved forwards; we overcut some people, undercut some others and unfortunately had to do another stop but I think for us it would have been tough to commit to the effective two-stop strategy. I think we did the best result possible, had some really good pitstops and we maximised everything from P24."