Sage and Nate at Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach

Long Beach, CA (April 29,2013) The Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach was an exciting weekend for race fans with a festive and energetic atmosphere. One of those fans was treated to a special behind the racing scenes look, as a guest to Sage Karam. A young Californian named Nate Pecaitis, a 15 year-old, earned the respect and admiration of Sage, with the story of his valiant fight to overcome stage IV cancer. Sage immediately felt compelled to reach out to Nate and see what he could do.

“I have always enjoyed cars and racing. When I was diagnosed with Stage IV cancer at age 11, I was out of school a lot. During my time recovering at home, I would read about different cars like Lamborghini’s and Ferraris. It was fun playing racing games like Grand Turismo on my playstation. I liked going to auto shows and dealers to see the cars close up.  I even had the once in a lifetime adventure of touring the Lamborghini factory in Italy thanks to Make-A-Wish.  Today, I am cancer free and looking forward to getting my drivers license next year”, commented Nate.

“I really enjoyed seeing Sage race at the Long Beach Grand Prix! It was really nice meeting him too. It was very cool to see the cars and the trailers these guys use on the road”. Sage treated Nate to a tour of the Schmidt Peterson Motorsports transporter and engineering room while spending time talking racing with Nate.

“From the first day I was involved in formula racing, I saw the impact that my racing had on people. My manager, Mr. Michael Fux, made it clear to me the importance of reaching out to others whenever possible. The thrill of wining a race may last a few days, but, the relationships we develop on race weekends last forever. Meeting Nate was an opportunity that had to happen and I certainly wasn’t going to miss it. I am glad my team could make it happen”, Sage added.

April 21 – (Long Beach, CA) Sage Karam will leave the Long Beach event as the top American and ranked 3^rd in the Firestone Indy Lights series standings. Karam landed a 3^rd place finish in the race after starting 10^th. “There was no doubt in my mind that I was going to move the Comfort Revolution machine through the field, I just didn’t know how far up I could get?” said Sage. It was Karam’s 2nd podium in the past three races; the other finish was a 4th place at Barber.

“It’s only my third race in the Lights car, and I’ve gained a lot of confidence already, but I think 10^th to first may have been too much at this point. But, I have to say that winning was certainly a thought that crossed my mind once I got up to third place.”

Sage had the Schmidt Peterson Motorsports #8 at or near the top of the charts for most of the practice sessions. “I think we had a large gap on the field for practice session 2, then everybody went to new tires and surpassed my times. We stayed on used tires and were saving the news tires for a different qualifying and race program. It would have worked, but during qualifications, I thought I had more grip than I actually did and clipped a tire barrier. My team made an amazing effort to get me back out, but the repairs were extensive and cost us too much time.”

Qualifying at the back of the field may have actually saved the day for Sage. On the opening lap, there was a massive crash before Turn 1 amongst the lead pack. Karam was able to avoid the wreckage and the misdirected cars. “I saw cars darting in all the wrong directions and a bunch of carbon fiber flying across the track. The white smoke was my sign that there was wall contact, so I stayed towards the middle of the track. It worked out and I got lucky I guess. There wasn’t even a scratch on the Body Fuel Elite or EPN sponsor decals on the nose of my car.”

After the initial melee of the opening lap, Sage made the only race pass of the event. “It’s one more example of where I reached back into my cadet karting days, and remained patient, set the pass up, and made it stick. Once I got past my opponent and realized I was on the podium, I saw the next car was too far out to catch with what we had left. My engineer, Geoff Fickling, radioed to keep it in the 1:15’s and bring it home. It was certainly the best advice and the only shot we had at improving was a yellow – which never happened”.

April 7th (2013) Birmingham, AL – “I don’t think I ever had that much contact in a single race in my entire career!”, explained Sage Karam when recapping the Birmingham event. “Things could have gone better, but they certainly could have gone a whole lot worse, when I looked back at what transpired during the race”.

Karam qualified 3rd but was unable to hold that position on the start. ” I dropped back a spot and it seems that was the actually the calmest the race was. After that I was constantly trying to keep ahead of somebody, and it seems that somebody was always knocking on my door, literally, almost every lap.”

The Comfort Revolution #8 will certainly need some TLC after this race. Three of the four wheels had damage of some degree prevalent on them. “The Schmidt Peterson Motorsports crew will get this machine back on it’s “A” game sure enough. We gathered decent points and at least provided the fans some intense and entertaining racing.”

The Firestone Indy Lights series will head to race in the streets of Long Beach in two weeks. “The championship points we earned were respectable and obviously Long Beach is a place that we want to continue to score points.”