Brit Mike Conway Takes His First Podium at Monaco of The West.

By Charles Oladeji

From Stevenage to Sevenoaks in the UK, English drivers had a good weekend in international single seater racing. Representing Stevenage, driving superstar Lewis Hamilton gave viewers a credible sample of ultra competitive driving at the Shanghai GP, winning the race and leaving commentators breathless in its wake.

However, in North America's premier open wheel championship, at the Izod Indycar Series' third competitive outing in 2011, a lesser known English driver hailing from the Sevenoaks, Kent,  stunned many in attendance by pulling out a shock win at the  37th Toyota Grand Prix in Long Beach.

Mike Conway (27) had just one Series 3rd place podium to his credit dating back to 2009 before Sunday.  Furthermore, going into this race he'd finished in 23rd and 22nd at St. Petersburg (Florida) and Birmingham (Alabama) respectively.  Yet despite the harsh nature of the street circuit in Long Beach, he won his first race at the Californian street circuit known historically as the 'Monaco of the West'; a creation of another Brit, Chris Pook.

The lush and treacherous 1.97 mile circuit with its 11 turns can be a hazardous place to go for a podium spot. In 1976, the circuit was made globally popular by the antics of posh British F1 champion and commentator, the late James Hunt who stood trackside waving his fist at another driver after being forced off.   Sunday's race was a fitting place to get a surprise win for Conway,  who'd just returned from serious injury, and who had had a frustrating end to his first race at St Pete.

Prior to a podium at Long Beach last weekend, Conway was probably best known for suffering multiple injuries during the 2010 Indianapolis 500.  But, regardless of a broken back suffered  as a result of a massive crash, Conway had expressed his desire to keep racing despite harbouring some well placed self-doubt.

In the aftermath of the 85 lap race on Sunday he told the L.A Times 'after the crash, I wasn't sure I'd get back', further adding the insightful thought 'things like that can definitely stop your career'.  But rather than his career stopping, it's just gone up a notch with Michael Andretti's team.

On his way back to Indycar,  Conway initially indicating a desire to remain with the Dreyer & Reinbold Racing team out of mutual loyalty. However, on his return he decided to switch to Andretti Autosport for the 2011 season  replacing Brazilian driver Tony Kanaan who moved on to KV Racing.   Andretti Autosport is the team that handles the ever so popular Danica Patrick, alongside Ryan Hunter Reay and Marco Andretti.  

Similar to Lewis Hamilton in Shanghai, at Long Beach, Conway had qualified 3rd going into the race.  A badly managed pit stop saw him rejoin the race in the middle of pack. Running on  Firestone Alternate tyres he manoeuvred his nr 27 car to front, eventually passing Ryan Briscoe's nr 6 car with 14 laps to go till the chequered flag. Briscoe driving for Team Penske came in second whilst Target Chip Ganassi driver Dario Franchitti took third spot.

Conway finished the race 6 seconds ahead of Briscoe, but more importantly he moves up to fifth spot for the championship ahead of team mates Danica Patrick (11), Marco Andretti (15) and Ryan Hunter Reay (22). Dario Franchitti leads the way with 155 points.