Indy Lights: Geoff Boss Scores Career Best Finish at Long Beach
7 April 1998
Geoff Boss moved into third place in the PPG-Dayton Indy Lights Championship standings with an impressive second place finish at the 1.574-mile Long Beach street circuit. His finish, which was also the first podium performance for Lucas Place Motorsports, bettered his previous best result of third on the streets of Detroit last year.Boss ran competitively from the opening practice session and netted a strong fourth place starting spot in provisional qualifying at 57.548 seconds (98.464 mph). His teammate, Brian Cunningham recorded a 58.258 second (97.264 mph) lap which placed him 17th provisionally. Cunningham lost track time in the opening practice session following a incident that put him into a wall. The lap times turned during the second and final round of qualifying were slowed substantially due to rain showers, which meant drivers would have to start the race from the positions that they had earned the previous day.
Despite the disappointing starting position, Cunningham was hopeful for a good result after posting the fourth fastest time in the morning warm-up session prior to the race. Cunningham quickly moved to 14th inside of the first ten laps, but was eliminated after being hit by another car and finished 22nd.
"The LCI/Exide Electronics car was great today," said a disappointed Cunningham. "We got caught in the back with the unfortunate qualifying and had a good run going until we got caught up in the accident in the hairpin which broke a rear wishbone."
Meanwhile, Boss quickly moved into third place on the first lap and closely shadowed second place Didier Andre who started from pole position. Despite being quicker than the PacWest driver, Andre made it very difficult to pass. Boss ended the 34-lap battle when Andre slid wide entering Turn 6, allowing Boss to pass and set his sights on the leader Christiano da Matta. As the race proceeded, Boss steadily decreased da Matta's lead until a full course caution slowed the field with four laps to go in the 47-lap, 74.542-mile race. The race was restarted on the final lap and Boss challenged da Matta for the lead, but ran out of time to make a move for the win and finished .459 seconds back in second. Boss also set the second fastest lap of the race on lap 25 at 57.727 seconds (98.159).
"We had a great car all day," stated Boss following the race. "Coming up to the final restart, I thought Christiano would get a better jump and I ended up hitting him in the gearbox. It was a pretty good hit and it damaged my wing, but that didn't hurt me too much. My real opportunity might have come if we hadn't had the final yellow. I was closing and I could see that Christiano's car was oversteering. I was trying really hard and I think that we had the fastest car at the end of the race."
The next race in the PPG-Dayton Indy Lights series will take place on the lightning fast 1-mile Nazareth Speedway oval on April 26. Coverage of the event can be seen on April 26 at 6:00 PM Eastern time on ESPN2.
