Tires replacement bans Ribeiro's victory over Scott Speed

Motivated by security reasons, the race director decided to interrupt the 6^th race of the Russell Racing Series-2001, on lap 6. This happened exactly when the Brazilian race car driver, Fernando Dias Ribeiro, driving car # 6, was leading the race, after leaving behind the US race car driver Scott Speed. It happened after a hard battle on a wet track. As a result of the interruption, the director took in consideration the results of the previous lap when Fernando wasn't leading the race.This race of the USAC/Formula Russell Series happened last weekend on the " Sears Point Raceway" in California.

On the day, the sunrise brought a clear sky, but there was a forecast of a rainy afternoon, exactly the time when the top drivers would by competing for the their best score in the championship. After sorting cars, the drivers went qualifying. Pole-position was posted by Scott Speed, who lapped at 1:48:406, followed by Victor Queiroz with 1:48:883. The 5^th position was Fernando Dias Ribeiro, the current leader of the championship with 1:49:792.

Confirming the forecast, the rain surely came down and forced the drivers to come in to change to special tires for a wet track. Just before the beginning, the sun came out again, but the cars went on with the wet tires for rain, as the track was still wet. When the race started, Scott Speed took the leadership while Steve Hill applied strong pressure on Victor Hugo, competing for the second position. On lap 2, Hill was already 2nd and Fernando Dias Ribeiro approaches Rob Thurman towards the 4^th position. With the track getting dry quickly, Fernando Dias Ribeiro passes Rob Thurman, Victor Hugo and Steve Hill. Now he is approaching the leader of the race Scott Speed who was three seconds ahead of him. In just three laps, Fernando passes Speed, cutting the outside in the curve # 3. A Few seconds later, yellow flags were all over the track signalling the decision of the director to stop the race. The black flag was shown to a couple of drivers including the Brazilian drivers Victor Hugo and Fernando Dias Ribeiro.

Without understanding why the race was interrupted and why he had received the black flag, Fernando Dias Ribeiro takes his car to the boxes where he is informed that the interruption to the race and the black flag are related only to the need to change tires. All the cars go back to the track and Scott Speed takes the pole-position and Fernando is positioned on second. This happens whenever the race is stopped, the valid results are the results from the previous lap to the interruption, as described in the USAC rules.

With the track nearly dry, the driver Scott Speed takes the lead, while Fernando Dias Ribeiro is pressured by Victor Hugo, who took turn # 6 faster, and tries to pass Fernando under breaking at turn # 7, but Victor looses control of his car and spins on the track. In order to avoid a crash, Fernando is forced to pass on the corner from the outside. Thus, the leader Scott Speed increases his advantage over Fernando. The race goes on and Scott Speed wins the first place and Fernando the second. Victor Hugo, demonstrating great abilities still catches up and ends on the 4^th place.

With the final results from the 5^th and 6^th races, Fernando Dias Ribeiro, keeps the championship leadership with a score of 97, 8 points ahead of the second driver, Scott Speed, who has a score of 89.

Here is the result of the 6^th race:

1 Scott Speed - USA

2 Fernando Dias Ribeiro - Brazil

3 Phil Carlson - USA

4 Victor Hugo Queiroz - Brazil

5 Rob Thurman - USA

6 Sergio Sardinha - Portugal

USA/BR Press 04/08/2001