Esteban Guerrieri made it three different winners in as many Firestone Indy Lights races to start the 2012 season. Guerrieri got around polesitter Sebastian Saavedra early in the race and maintained the gap to hold Saavedra at bay.
Guerrieri won three times in 2011 for Sam Schmidt Motorsports on three different types of circuits, an oval, airport and street course apiece, with his most recent victory coming on the streets of Trois-Rivieres.
"We couldn't do a great pace from our practice setup, so we changed it for the race," Guerrieri said. "Once I got a run into turn one, I had achieved it. It feels very good."
The same three drivers who finished on the podium in the first two races were the same in Long Beach. Gustavo Yacaman finished third on track, but received a 30-second time penalty after the race, dropping him to 10th. That promoted Tristan Vautier to third for the second race running, after winning the season opener at St. Petersburg.
"We had good speed and a lot of long work to fix our car before today," Vautier said. "I had crashed in qualifying when we had a car for pole. Glad it's us three up here, that seems to be the rule."
Had Yacaman been classified in third, a trio of series veterans would have swept the podium for the first time this season. SSM sophomore Victor Carbone moved from fifth to fourth, with Carlos Munoz completing the top five.
The only incident during the race came when series debutante Alex Jones of Brooks Associates Racing nosed in at turn 9 on lap 20.
Saavedra, Guerrieri and Vautier are all particularly close in the points standings, although Vautier falls from the lead with today's result.
Results to follow