Pippa Mann has seen the chequered flag at Indianapolis in 16th position, her best career result at the Speedway.
Pippa Mann earned a 16th place finish in the #39 Clauson-Marshall Racing Driven2SaveLives Chevrolet for the 103rd running of the Indianapolis 500, after a tense but trouble-free race for the British veteran.
In a campaign that started one year ago as a ‘what if’ conversation with Tim Clauson, Sunday’s race marked Pippa’s seventh run in the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.
After a dramatic qualifying weekend one week ago, Pippa started 30th with a plan to safely and methodically work her way up through the field. The British driver executed that plan perfectly through four yellow flags, one red flag and five solid pit stops from the Clauson-Marshall Racing crew.
After 200 laps around the 2.5-mile oval, Pippa finished on the lead lap and ended her 2019 campaign the way she had hoped.
“Our goal coming into this month was to be smart, do the right things and have an error-free month in the #39 Clauson-Marshall Racing Driven2SaveLives Chevrolet,” said Pippa. “Today, I feel like we went out there and we executed that plan.
“This was an entirely new group of people we put together and I’m really proud of how the Driven2SaveLives car ran out there on the racetrack. I also want to thank Chevy again for all of their support this month and Ross Motorsports for partnering with us to make this possible. I feel that finishing sixteenth in our first Indianapolis 500 together is a really strong way to start this partnership.”
Tim Clauson echoed Pippa’s excitement, adding, “Today went really well. I think we knew, coming into the race that we needed to be cautious and kind of let the race play out. To watch Pippa get more and more aggressive, then be able to take advantage of the way things played out with cautions, I just couldn’t be more proud of how this team of misfits came together to help a couple of dirt guys go racing.
“It was a year ago that Pippa and I sat up in the suite and had the ‘what if’ conversation. To see it come to fruition like this is incredible.
“I probably pay attention to social media more than I should. When we announced this, we were hearing things like, ‘Oh, those guys won’t make the show’ or ‘They’ll be ten miles an hour off pace,’ and here we are. What an incredible day. This whole month has probably been the best experience of my life.”
In Pippa's words:
“I continued to do things in the race the same way we had continued to do things all month long. Be smart, don’t worry about anyone else, run our own race, do the right things. ”
Ph credits: Jamey Price