WEST ALLIS, Wis. (Saturday, June 15, 2013) – Ryan Hunter-Reay, whose victory in the Milwaukee IndyFest last June was the springboard to claiming the IZOD IndyCar Series championship, repeated the achievement at the historic Milwaukee Mile.
The 32-year-old Fort Lauderdale, Fla., resident overtook race leader Takuma Sato on Lap 198 of 250 and went on to win by 4.809 seconds over Helio Castroneves.
Will Power finished third for his first podium of the season. E.J. Viso and James Hinchcliffe — Andretti Autosport teammates to Hunter-Reay — also were in the top five.
The last back-to-back winner at Milwaukee was Tony Kanaan in 2006-07, when he was driving for the Andretti team. It was the 47th IZOD IndyCar Series victory for the team and the fifth at Milwaukee.
Third in the standings entering this Father’s Day weekend race, Hunter-Reay heads into the June 23 Iowa Corn Indy 250 presented by DEKALB 16 points behind the front-running Castroneves. Hunter-Reay won at Iowa Speedway last year, and made it three victories in a row at Toronto two weeks later.
An electrical issue on the No. 25 RC Cola car ruined the day for pole sitter Marco Andretti, who entered the race second in the standings and led 61 laps early on. Following repairs, Andretti re-entered the race on Lap 137 and soldiered on to not lose any additional points. He is third in the championship (50 points behind) after placing 20th.
Also on June 15, Sage Karam overtook Zach Veach on Lap 57 of the Milwaukee 100 and went on to become the third first-time winner and fourth in five Firestone Indy Lights races this season.
Karam, 18, of Nazareth, Pa., led Carlos Munoz across the start-finish line by 1.0808 seconds. Veach earned his first podium finish.
“The first one is always big. Star Mazda, my first win was Milwaukee also,” said Karam, the pole sitter who drove the No. 8 Schmidt Peterson with Curb-Agajanian car. “I had to stay mentally strong and that’s what we did. I saved my tires pretty well in the beginning and ran him down and made a good move.”
Karam closed to 18 points of Munoz in the standings with the series heading to Iowa Speedway next week and then to Pocono Raceway on July 7.
