David Ostella was poised for a podium finish but settled for fourth place in the Prototype Challenge class Friday in the Brickyard Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Ostella, from Maple, Ontario, qualified the No. 38 Dash Neighborhood/Phillips 66 car fourth Thursday after a strong last-lap effort. Due to a penalty assessed to another team, Ostella's co-driver, James French, started the two-hour, 45-minute TUDOR United SportsCar Championship race in third position.
"I have to work on getting quick times earlier, but I'm on pace with (pole sitter) Colin (Braun) both in qualifying, and then in the race we were right there," Ostella said.
French took the lead early in the race. After a quick pit stop for fuel, he re-entered the race in fourth and fought back to second before handing the car to Ostella. French was thrilled with his first performance with the team.
"Honestly, the moment I heard I was in the lead position I had a little celebration, but I still had a lot of pressure on me this race," French said. "There was a lot of pressure from the guy behind me, and I could tell he had more pace than I did. I was trying to hold him off the best I could. Then the long yellow flag came out, and David did an awesome job. It was an awesome first stint for me. Honestly, it was a lot of fun."
After the stop, Ostella returned to the track in fifth place. He then began what has become his trademark methodical climb through the field on the 14-turn, 2.435-mile road course that incorporates part of the famous IMS oval.
With no yellow flag in sight, the team went into fuel conservation mode to make it to the end of the race. Team officials thought rivals ahead on the track would need to make a late dash to the pits for fuel, enabling Ostella to drive past and deliver Performance Tech its second podium finish of the season. But all of those rival teams made it to the finish without stopping.
"We didn't really have any mistakes on track," Ostella said. "A few little ones, but qualifying was great, and I had no issues there. We're getting there, slowly but surely. By the end of the year, we should have a really good result."
The fourth-place finish was a better result than the last time Ostella ran at IMS during his Indy Lights career, when he crashed out of the 2012 Firestone Freedom 100 in a multi-car accident, suffering the hardest hit of his racing career.
"It's definitely a better memory from the last time I was here," Ostella said. "But I think it goes back to the beginning of the year. I think I put too much pressure on myself to do well, and I had a few mistakes at Sebring and Laguna. Working with Jonatan to get everything organized for myself and stay on pace has helped, and it's definitely starting to show. It showed at Watkins Glen and now here."
Team Principal Brent O'Neill was gutted the team strategy encountered a flaw but still was impressed with the effort of his team and drivers Ostella and newcomer James French.
"It was an awesome run by both of them," O'Neill said. "James' first time in the car, did a great job, kept us out front and led some of the race. We put David in, and he did a great job. We put ourselves in the position to be on the top step.
"We ran in conservation mode at the end because we thought two of the cars in front would have to stop for fuel. I guess we were wrong. We look forward to Road America and bringing James with us. It will be a good time."
Ostella and his Performance Tech crew will race next August 8-10 at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, for the next round of TUDOR Championship competition.
