INDYCAR: De Silvestro Happy To Be In Baltimore

IndyCar

INDYCAR: De Silvestro Happy To Be In Baltimore

After being turned away by customs before last weekend's Sonoma IndyCar race, Simona de Silvestro is thankful to be back in her car at Baltimore.

Marshall Pruett | Posted September 02, 2011

Simona de Silvestro's excitement to be back on American soil and in the IndyCar paddock was obvious to see Friday. (Marshall Pruett)

As a world traveler, IZOD IndyCar Series sophomore Simona de Silvestro had one of the more interesting adventures of her young life between the Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma last weekend and the inaugural Baltimore Grand Prix, which kicked off today.

Turned away by a customs agent after landing in the USA last Thursday, de Silvestro was sent back to her native Switzerland before making a second, successful attempt to re-enter the country for the Baltimore street race.

As a wise-beyond-her-years 23-year-old, de Silvestro had a good laugh about the experience that also added to her frequent flyer miles.

"You can't get mad," she told SPEED.com. "The [customs agent] asked why I spent so little time in Switzerland and then thought I should go enjoy some time at home..." she said with a smile.

With her customs problems resolved, de Silvestro says she'll get back to the task at hand--driving the Nuclear Clean Air Energy Indy car.

"It's good it's behind me," she continued. "It was hard not to be in the HVM Racing car at Sonoma, but everybody at the team and our sponsors were so supportive and understanding."

Plenty of de Silvestro's American fans have already apologized for the ridiculous problem she encountered last week, and although she's moved on from the incident, there was one aspect of the ordeal she'll carry around for a while.

"I got the big red [Entry Denied] stamp in my passport...," she said laughing, "I didn't have that one before..."

Marshall Pruett is SPEED.com's Auto Racing Editor, covering IndyCar and sports cars. He also contributes to Road & Track and Racecar Engineering. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.