Munoz wins amid Lights carnage

Carlos Munoz beat a decimated field to take both the race win and the championship lead in the Long Beach Indy Lights race.

Half of the 10-car field had been eliminated within the first 11 laps, including a three-car accident at the start that accounted for two of Andretti driver Munoz’s main title rivals.

The accident started when previous points leader Jack Hawksworth squeezed Andretti’s Zach Veach into the wall at the start, pitching both cars back across the track where they collected the unfortunate Peter Dempsey.

After the restart, the pursuit of Munoz was led by Juan Pablo Garcia, but his hopes of a good result were squandered when he overcooked it at Turn 1 and spun on lap 11.

Completing Team Moore Racing’s misery, his team-mate Mikael Greiner arrived into the corner a few moments later and had nowhere to go but into Garcia’s car, ending the race for both.

Munoz nailed the second restart and drove off for a comfortable win, finishing two seconds ahead of Gabby Chaves.

Sage Karam delivered the only significant passing move of the race when he took third from Jorge Goncalvez soon after the second restart.

It was a good result for the Schmidt driver after a qualifying crash had left him starting from the rear of the grid.

The two caution periods prompted race control to switch to a timed race, ending it four tours short of its originally-scheduled distance of 45 laps.

Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/real-world-racing/3rdparty/munoz-wins-amid-lights-carnage

Gerino Gerini Peter Gethin Piercarlo Ghinzani Bruno Giacomelli Dick Gibson