(Michigan, 9th January 2011) - The Michigan INDY 560K kept everything what it promised before the race: with a lot of side-by-side racing, a 128 green flag lap part (which are 248 miles!), just one caution, eleven lead changes and the closest finish in iamINDY.de history are just a few numbers to round this impressive race up. And the race ends with a surprising winner: Calvin Whillier wins, after he was almost lapped when the yellow came out, with a great comeback from the 21st position. Crossing the start finish line after 350 miles he got almost beaten by Daniel Olszewski. What an exciting race!
 

Race Recap
 
After the standard two lap single car qualification it was the last seasons Indy 500 champion Sean Graham who set the fastest lap with an average speed of 225.529 mph (31.925 sec.). On the outside of row one it was Ralph Krause, who won the last race at Sebring two weeks ago, now showing that he also knows what it takes to be fast on a two mile superspeedway. How close it can on such a track show the positions six to twelve when all seven cars qualified within one tenth! Partly the cars were separated by just one thousands of a second as Joey Schmidt and David Johns showed. Reading those qualification results gave already an indication that the race wouldn’t become a boring single file fuel saving contest for 174 laps.

 
On the start Sean Graham kept the nose of his blue and white Dallara in the lead while some of the cars further back soon became problems not to lose the big draft of the lead pack. However, once the cars were up to speed the field still divided into several groups. The early attempts to make the a second line working were mainly pushed by Salvatore Lombardo together with Joey Schmidt which was great luck for the following cars of Mark Schutte, David Johns and Matthew Jessick who already had lost the pull of the draft. They now were able to catch up to the leaders. Beside the great and very entertaining side-by-side racing up on front it was also very action-packed further back in the field when the fastest cars were ‘diced.

With an estimated fuel window of about 42-45 laps it was the leader Graham, who of course burnt the most fuel and Jay McFarland who opened up the first round of pit stops (under green flag conditions) in lap 43. After the pit stop the field shrunk by three cars: Lee Walker took off his gloves as well as his helmet after he had some contact getting too close while running side-by-side and Ralph Krause finished also his Sunday way before the checkered flag dropped as Michael Colombo did due to technical problems. Around lap 50 Joey Schmidt looked for some fresh air and went by Graham to take the lead which Schmidt kept until the next round of pit stops.

No caution in sight and with just four cars out of the race after Jessicks retirement on lap 65 David Spitler was the first driver in lap 81 to make his second pit stop. After all services were finished the championship points leader Henrik Müller now kept the lead which made him to the fifth leader of the race at that time. Despite two green flag pit stops the lead pack still consisted of six cars which were on the way to set a new record race pace.

Just when the first cars were preparing for the third round of pit stops the leaders caught a big pack of lapped cars together with others who were now about to go down their first lap. Ted Severs, Mark Schutte and Calvin Whillier (who started from eleventh) should now hasten their fate to get lapped. The timing and scoring pylon at Michigan International Speedway showed the end of the 129th lap when three cars dropped down to the apron and slowed down to dive into the pits. This started a chain reaction and Sean Graham was one of the first who had no chance to avoid contact as one of the biggest and most spectacular crashes happened at almost 230 mph: six cars were immediately out of the race and several others more or less damaged. The biggest loser of that caution certainly was the current leader: Henrik Müller. Because of a dry tank he had no choice as to serve his pit stop and to take the penalty to go the end of the longest line. Those who got taken out would certainly exchange their fate against a penalty. Sean Graham, Joey Schmidt, Ted Severns, Michael DePuy, David Spitler and David Johns were those unhappy who had to climb out of their wrecks. And the biggest winners? Certainly those who were about to lose a lap.
 
Calvin Whillier now took the lead after the pit stops and defended it well. While Müller lost the connection the lead cars on the restart and tried to gain something with a short plash-and-dash because the fuel was very tight, it was now on Daniel Olszewski, Dan Lee Ensch, Gary Borkenhagen and Mark Schutte who had to the fight leader down in the last laps because there was no way to escape from the field and to pull off a solo show. Daniel Olszewski positioned himself well behind the leader who now tried to close the inside line. For a while it was not certain if all cars could finish without a last short fuel stop but with ten laps to go the strategists were, after they told their drivers laps before to safe as much fuel as they could. On the last lap Daniel Olszewski positioned himself well and tried to just beat Whillier to the line. Coming out of turn four he pulled out of the draft and showed a great run going by on the high side. As they crossed the line everybody was very uncertain who won the race and immediately looked at the scoring boards: Cavin Whillier was now the luckiest man of the day as he won a great race by just 0.003 seconds. The closest finish in iamINDY.de history! If… the line would have been just a few yards further towards turn one, it perhaps would have been a different winner. But that doesn’t matter anymore on the next day because a win, is a win, is a win.

Voices after the race

 
Calvin Whillier (P1): “I will start off and say that there is no way that I should of won that race. My setup sucked big time. It was O.K. to push with, but to lead a pack it just wasn't there. At best I should of been in 10th-15th spot.  But I would like to thank everyone that came out and raced, there was so much give and take on the track today. And to go 130 laps without a caution everyone should get a pat on the back.”
 
Dan Lee Ensch (P3): “This was a great race! Kudos to all for 1 yellow! After starting third I decided to tuck in and conserve fuel as this was a good field, and I guessed there wouldn't be many yellows. I faded to 8th before the first stop, then surprised myself with the best green flag stop I've ever had and jumped to second behind Sean Graham on lap 42. I and Bill Krause were the last to stop, and it paid off. I again went into conservation mode and saved another lap on the rest of the field by the time I took my second stop on lap 88. The stop was not as good as the first however, and I lost the draft and began fading quickly (while staying in 7th. But the two lap advantage on fuel played out on the one and only caution as most others had either pitted or were in the process when the yellow came out. I had time to pit and still come out in the lead once Dan O [Daniel Olszeski] and Gary Borkenhagen decided to top off their tanks. I decided I had fuel but realized I was going to be cutting it very close, so I let Calvin Whillier take the lead on lap 149. I tucked in behind him as three more cars caught up, led by Dan O. It was shaping up to be a great five car battle in the last few laps but a lapped car became a factor and gave Dan O and Calvin some separation. I was shuffled back to 5th with 5 laps to go but managed to battle past Gary, Mark Schutte and the lapper for a podium 3rd place finish.  All in all a fun day and one of the better races I've been a part of!”
 
Joachim Politzer (P8): “Great green flag racing. Thumbs up for this. Congrats to the podium, all finishers, and to all drivers out there for running so long under green conditions. My set should allowed me to qualify with a time good enough for fifth place in the row, but unfortunately I made a little mistake in my second timed lap, so I was "only" 10th. Start was good, but in the middle of the first stint I missed the entry of a corner what took me outside and also I had to go off the throttle not to hit the wall. So I have to let pass all drivers behind me. From position 10 to position 21 in one corner. I’ve decided to stay behind the drivers in front of me, because there still was a long way to go and you never know what will happen.  After my first pit stop I haven’t found a draft partner, so that I lost much time while driving alone. (…) I didn’t really know if I’m good on fuel, so I tried to safe it, driving the whole course only in sixth gear. At the end in the last lap I run out of fuel coming out of turn four. Finished in 8th position, better than my performance in the race was. But also a lot of laps practice for me, preparing for the next season.”
 
Salvatore Lombardo (P10): “Yea that was a lot of fun! I think you need at least 3 committed to the top to make it work on this track. A few stuck with it for a while, but bailed out on me! I wish the spotter was a little more on his game because he said "clear" and I came close to taking out both Daniel Olszewski and myself (and probably half the field) around lap 30. Good thing he made an evasive maneuver to avoid it. Sorry Daniel. (…) All in all it was a good race for me.”
 
Sean Graham (P14): “I knew some cars were pitting, but I'm not quite sure what happened. Cars checked up in front of me and I had nowhere to go. It's a shame because I was saving a ton of fuel and I was all set to just pit 1 more time and I was good on fuel after that. Oh well that's racing.“

 
Chapionship & Outlook
 
With this race are eleven of thirteen races in the iamINDY.de championship now finished. Henrik Müller keeps the lead and also expands his gap to second placed Yang Ou who wasn’t able to participate. Both are now separated by 55 points which is more than a driver can earn on a weekend. If Ou can’t close in to at least 53 points on the next race Müller becomes the next iamINDY.de champion. The rest of the top five also remains unchanged: Dan Lee Ensch keeps third, Daniel Oslzewski fourth and the outgoing champion Tim Doyle fifth together with Andrew Aitken. With his first win in his first iamINDY.de start Calvin Whillier starts from zero up to position 29 out of 79 drivers.

In two weeks the series will make its next stop on the well-known road course of Elkhart Lake: Road America welcomes the iamINDY.de drivers with its very fast and long straightaways and his famous turns like the Canada Corner. Race start will be at 17:30 GMT on 23rd January 2011.
 

Official iRacing session results          Michigan INDY 560K image gallary

 
Race results