Press Releases - American Rookie Holds Off Cheever in Santa Fe

American Rookie Holds Off Cheever in Santa Fe

When Eddie Cheever finishes, he finishes in front of Americans. At least most of the time. In a season that has seen a new American #1 emerge in Ryan Hunt, a promising up-and-comer burst on to the main stage in Santa Fe this morning. American rookie, Nick Wheeler held Cheever off in the final scramble after a late safety car appearance to grab the 3rd podium of his young career.

Prior to Santa Fe the feat of beating Cheever had only been achieved by 3 Americans in Season 9. Clyde Springer, Ryan Hunt, and Arnold Justasarni the 27th, 1st, and 4th ranked Americans in MRC.

The Santa Fe single race saw 4 safety cars, which led to some interesting pit strategy. Wheeler's crew took advantage of a mid-race safety car, pitting with about 6 other drivers (including Cheever) which launched him through the field landing him at P8 after a round of green flag stops from the rest of the field.

Wheeler marked Cheever all day in strategy and on the track. After the pit stop, Cheever and Wheeler worked through the field until 10 to go when the race's 4th safety car interrupted the action with Wheeler in P5 and Cheever in P3. The re-start at 5 to go was clean and it looked like Cheever was going to hold a podium position until Hungarian #4 Sandor Torghelle attacked and passed Cheever, leaving him on Wheeler's nose.

Wheeler, who was in the midst of fending off Spanish #5 Brais Prado as Cheever dropped back, looked out of place surrounded by 6 drivers ranked in the top 5 in their countries. The rookie drove hard despite the constant pressure from behind and with 4 to go drove deep into turn 7 to drive under Cheever opening the door for Prado to follow. This just after Finnish #1 Kaius Kauria blew an engine driving in P1. Thanks to the engine failure, one move allowed Wheeler to jump from P5 to P3 and left Cheever to deal with Prado.

Not to be left out without a fight, Cheever battled past Prado with 2 to go but left it too late to catch Wheeler as he drove away on the white flag lap to capture the podium position with 1.5 seconds of daylight between himself and Cheever.

Is this the future of American Formula racing? Wheeler continues to dominate in Rookie Series racing with 2 wins, 2 poles, and is heavily the favorite to take 2 more victories in Week 6 at Phillip Island in Australia. He also earned a solid result in Tour de France, taking 5th overall in a field that featured Sergey Osmolovsky, Marcin Lupa, Boaz Kolbasz, and Lubos Kubka. He will compete in the Vuelta Espana next week which again features Kubka as well as Hungarian #1 Ivaan Szabo.