This year is going by incredibly quickly; I can't believe we are already down to our last two Indy Lights races. It has all been a bit of a blur recently, especially coming back and forth from England a few times in between events.

Straight after the race in Mid-Ohio I went to England for another Formula E test, which was very interesting and a lot of fun. I am very grateful for Andretti Autosport letting me drive their Formula E car (LEFT), and hopefully my input was helpful to them. Then after only a few days in the UK, I was on my way back to America and heading to Milwaukee. As I write this currently I'm traveling to our next race in Sonoma.

These last few weeks have been incredibly busy! But my focus was squarely on Milwaukee, and I was determined to come back strong from our misfortune in Mid-Ohio. I'm just focusing on race wins, as I'm not in a position to challenge for the championship anymore.

Milwaukee is an event I had been looking forward to, and to get on track again felt great. I did well there last year winning the Pro Mazda race, and I was feeling confident that I could repeat my success again this year. The first few practice sessions went well; I ended up second and third, but I wanted to be the quickest in both. However it was a good base to start on heading into the weekend.

Saturday was our busiest day with two practice sessions and also qualifying. Unfortunately, practice didn't go so well leading into qualifying which was a little discouraging. I was only fifth quickest and that was with new tires, so we really put our thinking hats on afterwards and changed the setup for qualifying. We definitely found something as I ended up qualifying third and my teammate Zach Veach qualified on pole.

I knew we had a relatively strong car for the race, but I was still a little unsure about our pace compared to others seeing as practice had been so up and down for us. I was happily surprised with the speed both Zach and myself had at the start of the race – we both got good starts and pulled away from the rest of the field really quickly.

As the race went on, my car started to come in and handle quite well; it was a bit loose off Turn 4, but everyone was struggling with the same problem due to wind, I think. I caught Zach and passed him, and through the whole middle to end phase of the race I was a lot quicker than everyone else. I pulled out an eight-second gap, and I wasn't really pushing hard either as I was mindful of my tires the whole time making sure I didn't slide or break traction in anyway. The Cooper tires felt good and stayed consistent the whole way.

With only seven laps remaining in the race, a caution came out after a car spun and hit the wall. My lead evaporated into thin air and we had a short sprint race to the finish. I didn't get a great restart and lost the lead to my teammate; I didn't carry the right speed into the first bend and lost my momentum. I wasn't able to come back and make another pass for the lead before the end of the race. It was really quite devastating to lose the race after being so far ahead previously.

I will learn from my mistakes and bring this to Sonoma. It has made me even more determined to get another race win after what happened in Milwaukee. The racetrack at Sonoma is awesome, a very challenging and fun track. I'm sad that we are already on our last weekend of Indy Lights racing for this year, but I will make the most of the weekend and enjoy myself. If I win, of course!

-Matty

Share

Send

Print

Decrease Increase TEXT