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Beatriz was gridded 2nd and was running fifth
when JR Hildebrand drove her off the track.
She finished in 16th at Kentucky Speedway. Next
race at Infenion, Sears Point.
One of Auto Week's "Five
of the fastest women you will ever
meet"
Bio
See also Bia
Figueiredo
Results
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Women
Contact: www.biafigueiredo.com
(Portuguese)
or www.torcidabiafigueiredo.com.br
(English)
or E-Mail
Bio
Name: Ana Beatriz Caselato
Gomes de Figueiredo
Age: 23
Date of Birth: Maarch 18, 1985
Nationality: Brazilian
Home Town: São Paulo
Height: 1,70m
Weight: 60 kg
Idol: Ayrton Senna
Favourite Track: Londrina - Brazil
Favourite Food: Italian and Japanese
Music: Rock and Pop
Others Sports: Football and Tennis
Ana Beatriz Caselato Gomes
de Figueiredo (born on March 18, 1985, in
São Paulo) is a Brazilian female racing
driver.
She started her career in
karting races.
After an outstanding
season in Brazilian Formula Renault championship,
she started competing in Formula Three Sudamericana
in 2006 driving for the well-established Cesario
Formula team.
In 2006 she also drove a
Red Bull Volkswagen Touareg for PPD Sports (owned
by Pedro Diniz) who hosted events of the Brazilian
Formula Renault championships, Renault Speed
Show.
In 2008 she began racing
in the American Firestone Indy Lights Series for
defending championship-winning team Sam Schmidt
Motorsports[1]. She placed fifth in the
Firestone Freedom 100 at Indianapolis, the highest
finishing position by a female driver in that
race.[2] She has begun using the name Ana
Beatriz in the United States.
with top Brazilian female
racer Ana Beatriz impressing with the third
quickest lap time in qualifying, third in the first
race and what was shaping up to be a breakthrough
win in the second race........until she was tagged
by teammate and eventual race winner Antinucci then
hit by Pablo Donoso as she was trying to get back
onto the track....
Results
2008
Indy Lights
4 podiums - St Peterburg (3), Iowa Speedway (3),
Watkins Glen (3), Nashville (1)
Car No C/E/T S F Qual Speed Laps XL LL Status
Pts
Sat, 29 Mar 2008 - Homestead-Miami Speedway 6 7
185.802 67 0 0 Running 26
Sat, 05 Apr 2008 - Streets of St. Petersburg 3 3
95.969 40 0 0 Running 35
Sun, 06 Apr 2008 - Streets of St. Petersburg 2
16 95.969 32 1 7 Accident 14
Sun, 27 Apr 2008 - Kansas Speedway 5 14 0.000 67
0 0 Running 16
Sat, 24 May 2008 - Indianapolis Motor Speedway 4
5 0.000 40 0 0 Running 30
Sun, 01 Jun 2008 - The Milwaukee Mile 21 19
0.000 78 0 0 Running 11
Sat, 21 Jun 2008 - Iowa Speedway 6 3 159.548 115
0 0 Running 35
Sat, 05 Jul 2008 - Watkins Glen International 6
4 122.746 28 0 0 Running 32
Sat, 05 Jul 2008 - Watkins Glen International 3
3 0.000 29 1 9 Running 35
Sat, 12 Jul 2008 - Nashville Superspeedway 2 1
180.368 77 1 45 Running 52
Sat, 23 Aug 2008 - Infineon Raceway 3 0.000 30 0
0 Running
Key: No: Car Number
C/E/T: Chassis/Engine/Tire S: Starting Position F:
Finishing Position XL: Times Led LL: Laps Led Pts:
Points
2007 - A1 GP
2006 - South American Formula 3
5th place - 5 podiums and one pole position
Award: São Paulo Citizen Driver
2005 - Formula Renault Brazil
3rd place - won 3 races: Campo Grande,
Vitória and Tarumã
Pole Position in 4 races, Campo Grande,
Vitória, Interlagos (twice)
Gold Helmet Award - Winner
2004 - Formula Renault Brazil
5th place
2003 - Karting
Rookie of the year - Brazilian Formula
Renault
Best lap - Londrina
Best lap - Campo Grande
Champion - Sorriso Petrobrás Kart Cup
Runner-up - Petrobrás Karting Selective
2002 - Karting
Gold Helmet Award - Best Brazilian Driver
Runner-up - Brazilian Championship
3rd place - São Paulo Championship of
karting cat. A
2001 - Karting
Gold Helmet Award - Best Brazilian Driver
Runner-up of Brazil Kart Cup
News
Beatriz becomes first female
winner in Firestone Indy Lights
Beatriz was gridded 2nd and was running fifth when
JR Hildebrand drove her off the track. She
finished in 16th at Kentucky Speedway. Next race at
Infenion, Sears Point.
* * *
First Danica Patrick. Then Simona de Silvestro.
Now Ana Beatriz in 2008.
Video
Search for "Ana Beatriz wins in Nashville"
Shorter
video
* * *
Beatriz became the first female winner of a
Firestone Indy Lights race, overtaking pole sitter
and Sam Schmidt Motorsports teammate James Davison
on Lap 33 of 77 and holding on in the Sunbelt
Rentals 100 at Nashville Superspeedway.
Four other females have competed in the series,
including Cyndie Allemann with American Spirit
Racing this season. Sarah McCune (Chicagoland 2005)
was the first female pole sitter in the series -
the same year that Patrick started from the pole in
three races during her IndyCar Series rookie
season.
In April at Twin Ring Motegi, Patrick became the
first woman to win a major closed-course auto
race.
"I just can't be more thankful for Healthy
Choice/Sam Schmidt Motorsports for bringing me to
the U.S. (from Brazil)," said Beatriz, whose
previous best finish was third (last week in the
second race at Watkins Glen International, at Iowa
and the first St. Petersburg street race). "I
thought I would win at St. Pete; we were almost
there.
"I'm with the best team and they have so much
information on oval. I won my first race on an
oval. It's amazing."
Bobby Wilson finished 1.2392 second behind in
the No. 17 Team E Patriot Bank car, advancing six
positions from his starting spot. Arie Luyendyk
finished third and J.R. Hildebrand fourth.
The race was delayed 105 minutes because of a
thunderstorm.
"We had the rain in the afternoon and that
surprised everybody, so the track was green again,"
Beatriz said. "At the beginning, I wanted to make
sure that the car would be fine, and it was OK. But
I got passed by two cars."
After a Lap 14 restart, she settled in and
caught Davison on the low side in Turn 3. She led a
field-high 45 laps.
Beatriz, competing in her 10th race, said the
victory - the 25th for Sam Schmidt Motorsports,
including four at Nashville Superspeedway - is a
tribute to her abilities.
"I'm really, really happy to win as a driver, a
driver that came from Brazil and is a rookie in the
series," she said. "I'm really happy to be a winner
as a driver, no matter of the gender."
The series moves to the Mid-Ohio Sports Car
Course for a doubleheader July 19-20.
Source: www.indycar.com/pro/news/story.php?story_id=11980
Brazil's Beatriz 1st woman
to win Indy Lights race
Ana Beatriz of Brazil became the first woman to win
on the Firestone Indy Lights Series, taking the
rain-delayed Sunbelt Rentals 100 on Saturday at the
Nashville Superspeedway.
Beatriz is one of five women who have taken part
in the series, that started in 2002, to help
develop drivers for the Indy Racing League's
IndyCar series. She had finished as high as third
three times previously this year.
She started on the front row beside James
Davison, the pole-sitter and her Sam Schmidt
Motorsports teammate, after a thunderstorm forced a
nearly two-hour delay. But Beatriz dipped inside
Davison going into Turn 3 on lap 33 and took the
lead. Beatriz held onto that for the rest of the
77-lap, 100-mile race, winning by 1.2392 seconds
ahead of Bobby Wilson.
"Our car was the best one today, and we did it,"
Beatriz said.
Mishael Abbott, Sarah McCune, Veronica McCann
and Cyndie Allerman also had competed on this
level. Beatriz said she thought she would prevail
in St. Petersburg.
"I'm really, really happy to win as a driver, a
driver that came from Brazil as a rookie in the
series and really happy to be a winner as a
driver," she said. "I don't know about gender."
Source: ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jA6LnE4vDmuG9Fz-uKBfJnkVRGqwD91SK3F00
* * *
Sam Schmidt Motorsports
Ana Beatriz brought home a third-place result on
the 7/8th mile oval matching her season's best
finish at St. Petersburg.
"I was confident, but
starting from sixth had me a little bit worried
because it is so hard to pass here," she
said.
"I'm happy, I'm proud with
a third-place result under the
circumstances."
Beatriz too was a victim
of "traffic", herself penalized in-race for
blocking at one point. "I'm not certain where it
happened, and will have to go back and look at the
tape, but I'm sure that race control was on top of
the situation if they felt it happened."
With
victory in books, Beatriz looking to challenge for
title
Ana Beatriz grinned when a
spectator at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course displayed a
USA Today article that featured the Firestone Indy
Lights driver.
Beatriz, who July 12 at
Nashville Superspeedway became the first female to
win in the series, was accepting congratulations in
the paddock at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. The
victory lifted Beatriz into championship
contention. She's 49 points behind leader Richard
Antinucci heading in to the doubleheader race
weekend.
"It was something huge in
a Brazil, like I was really, really excited that I
could say that for one week we were more famous
than Tony (Kanaan), Helio (Castroneves) because all
the newspapers were talking about it," the driver
of the No. 20 Healthy Choice/Sam Schmidt
Motorsports car said. "And I'm really glad that all
the press that are in Brazil did that. That's
really, really nice."
Beatriz and Cyndie
Allemann (No. 18 American Spirit Racing car), both
first-year drivers in the series, are looked at as
competitors and not by their gender. That wasn't
the case in Beatriz's formative years.
"It was hard work,
especially in the beginning," she said. "The boys
were dominant, and I really had to do a lot of bad
things to get their respect. I used to drive with
Nelson Piquet Jr. in go-karting when we were 8
years old. And one day Nelson Piquet couldn't pass
me, and then the session was over and Nelson
Piquet's father was fighting with him because he
couldn't pass me. What's that, you know? What's the
problem? So it was really hard to get the
respect.
"But by the time that I
could win, start to win races, people just got used
to me in Brazil so I didn't have many problems
anymore and all the drivers started to respect me.
Americans, they are really more acceptable about
women racing than in Brazil and Europe."
Beatriz was 17th overall
(1 minute, 15.7588 seconds; 107.298 mph) on the
combined practice chart on the 2.258-mile, 13-turn
Mid-Ohio circuit. Allemann was 15th quick
(1:15.7323; 107.336).
"I think we improved from
the first session to the second," Beatriz said.
"The track changed a lot. I just had to adapt. I'm
happy with the Healthy Choice/Sam Schmidt car, and
I'm looking forward to a good rest of the
weekend."
Source: By
Dave Lewandowski,
www.indycar.com/pro/news/story.php?story_id=12043
Snippets
Beatriz was gridded in the 14th spot of 22 cars for
Race 2 of the Indy Lights series at the Mid-Ohio
circuit. She finish 5th place, behind Cyndie
Allemann, who finished in 4th. Ana Beatriz is 3rd
of 34 drivers in the series point standings, only
44 points behind the leader. The next race will be
Kentucky Speedway on August 8.
One of Auto Week's "Five
of the fastest women you will ever
meet"
* * *
Beatriz was 17th overall (1 minute, 15.7588
seconds; 107.298 mph) on the combined practice
chart on the 2.258-mile, 13-turn Mid-Ohio circuit
and started in the 19th position and finished 14th
in Race 1. She will therefore be gridded 14th for
the second race.
* * *
Beatriz was 17th overall (1 minute, 15.7588
seconds; 107.298 mph) on the combined practice
chart on the 2.258-mile, 13-turn Mid-Ohio circuit
and started in the 19th position. Allemann was 15th
quickest (1:15.7323; 107.336) and will start
18th..
* * *
Beatriz becomes first female winner in Firestone
Indy Lights. This occurred on July 12, 2008 at the
Sunbelt Rentals 100 at the Nashville Superspeedway.
This puts her 3rd in series points. 
* * *
23-year-old Indy Pro Series racer Ana Beatriz is
6th of 34 racers in the series standings (only 73
points behind the leader) and has 5 top 5, 6 top
10, has lead for 16 laps and finished in 8 of her 9
races as of 7/5/08.
* * *
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