Skip Barber: Estrela Sweeps at Homestead-Miami Speedway

Danilo Estrela revived his championship goals with two wins at Homestead-Miami Speedway (Photo: Skip Barber Racing School - Kelly Brouillet)

Flying home last December from California after Rounds Three and Four of the Skip Barber Presents the Mazda Winter Series, MAZDASPEED Motorsports Development driver Danilo Estrela needed two things to happen in order to get back into the championship hunt; he would have to have a perfect weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway, and he would need his rivals to have problems.

He got both.

Taking advantage of his opponent’s miscues, the Goiânia, Brazil, native converted a front-row start into a convincing win on Saturday and backed it up with an even more convincing win on Sunday to take maximum points and to crawl back out of the early hole he dug for himself with unforced errors at Road Atlanta and Mazda Raceway.

With driver coach Jonatan Jorge in his ear for the first time this season, Estrela got an early start to the weekend, lapping on Wednesday to get himself reacquainted to a track he last raced on almost two years ago. By the time practice came around on Friday, Estrela had the track figured out, and had put himself at the top of the time sheets.

“I went to the race weekend much earlier than I normally would,” noted Estrela from his Orlando, Fla. home. “Jonatan and I worked on getting back up to speed on Wednesday and Thursday, so by Friday I was focusing on the little things; making sure my line and my braking points were all correct.”

After the quick times in practice, Estrela took to the track for Saturday morning’s qualifying session with thoughts of a pole position in his head. He had to settle for second, as series newcomer Nicholas Latifi took pole with a 1:33.206 lap that was just under two-tenths ahead of Estrela.

From the drop of the green flag the race became a battle between Estrela and Jack Mitchell, Jr., who came from third on the grid to lead early and led again late before being forced into the pits for a safety check after contact. With his closest pursuer out of the way, Estrela cruised to a relatively comfortable three-second margin of victory over second in points Jake Eidson, with point leader Nick Neri close behind in third. After the race it was determined that Neri had contact with another car late in the run; the resulting 20-second penalty dropped him to fifth in the official results and helped Estrela claw back another four points.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better race. Having Jonatan in my ear, spotting for me and reminding me to drive within myself really helped.”

The win on Saturday meant the pole position for Sunday’s race, so after jumping into JJRD teammate Tristan Nunez’s car for Sunday morning’s Group 1 race (and finishing 12th after dropping out late with a mechanical issue) Estrela turned his focus to the final race of the day and his chance at the sweep.

Leading every lap, Estrela stretched out his advantage to more than eight seconds over Mitchell, Jr. at the finish, with Leonardo Jafet taking third ahead of Eidson, who assumed the championship lead when Neri dropped out early after losing his rear wing.

“The weekend sweep is fantastic. I told Kelly (departing Skip Barber Marketing Coordinator Kelly Brouillet) that I was going to win the race for her and I was happy to do that. But I’m even happier that after a couple unforced errors this season I was able to put together a complete weekend. Bring on Sebring!”

The weekend sweep puts Estrela back into the hunt for the championship. With three wins in six races, he is now unofficially tied for third with Mitchell, Jr. and Greg Strelzoff, 14 points behind Eidson. Using wins as the first tiebreaker, Estrela holds third place by himself heading to Rounds Seven and Eight of the season.

The Skip Barber Presents the Mazda Winter Series returns to action on February 18-19, at Sebring International Raceway for Rounds Seven and Eight of the championship. The weekend kicks off with qualifying on Friday (time TBD). Follow the action live on your smart phone with Race Monitor, available at your phone’s app store, or semi-live at http://www.twitter.com by following either @SkipBarberNatl or @altemus_prime.

Danilo Estrela began racing karts in his native Brazil in 2007. After testing Formula Fords and Touring Cars in Brazil and Europe, Estrela came to the U.S. in 2010, racing in the Skip Barber Regional Series before winning a fully funded ride at the annual Skip Barber Karting Scholarship Shoot-out to race in the 2011 BFGoodrich/Skip Barber National Presented by Mazda. Estrela finished sixth in the Skip Barber National standings with one win and four podium finishes. Estrela’s goal is to progress through the “Mazda Road to Indy” program, culminating in a ride in the IZOD IndyCar Series. Estrela would like to thank MAZDASPEED Motorsports Development, Skip Barber Racing School, GoPro Cameras and Altemus Prime Communications for their support. This season Danilo is working with Jonatan Jorge Racing Development and is looking forward to being coached by Jonatan Jorge.

A native of Goiânia, Brazil, Estrela resides in Orlando, Fla. Learn more about Estrela at http://www.daniloestrela.com and follow him on Twitter @daniloestrela12.

Skip Barber Racing School owns and operates two amateur racing series; the Skip Barber MAZDASPEED Challenge for Mazda MX-5 based race cars and the Skip Barber Race Series for the open-wheel Formula Skip Barber. Both series offer summer and winter racing schedules and the convenience of arrive and drive racing. As an integral step in the MAZDASPEED Motorsports Development Ladder, the winner of the 2012 Skip Barber Champion’s Shoot-out will receive a scholarship to compete in a full season of the 2013 Cooper Tires Presents the USF2000 National Championship Powered by Mazda. The winner of the USF2000 Championship in turn receives scholarships to compete in the Star Mazda Championship Presented by Goodyear, a part of the Mazda Road to Indy. The Skip Barber Race Series also launched the auto racing careers of Ryan Hunter-Reay, Marco Andretti, Scott Speed, A.J. Allmendinger, Raphael Matos and many more. Learn more about the Skip Barber Race Series at http://www.skipbarber.com