EDMONTON -- If adversity makes you stronger, then IndyCars Swiss Miss should be able to deadlift a Dallara chassis. Simona De Silvestro and her HVM Racing team are in Edmonton this week hoping to put a slew of problems behind them that have left her buried deep in the driver standings. "Finishing races would be a pretty good first goal. Weve only finished three races this season," said the 23-year-old. "Weve had a really difficult season, but we just have to work through it and try to get the best we can every race weekend." De Silvestros No. 78 Dallara stalled out at the season opener in St. Petersburg, Fla., and its all gone downhill from there: collisions, mechanical problems, engine failures, fuel pump problems and gearbox breakdowns. She was also blackflagged early at the Indianapolis 500 because her Lotus engine was too slow. Lotus has indeed been the locus of HVMs despair. The engine-maker came late to the series in 2012, and its 2.2 litre turbocharged powerplant has been running about 2.5 per cent slower than the Chevy and Honda engines being used by the other teams. The four other teams using Lotus have switched to a rival. Lotus has been allowed to make modifications, and De Silvestro said the 2.5-per cent gap narrowed a bit in Toronto two weeks ago and may close a bit further for Sundays race on the 2.2-mile, 13-turn temporary street course at Edmontons City Centre Airport. "I think we got a little bit closer (to bridging the gap)," she said. "But I think were still outside of that." The woman from Thun, Switzerland -- dubbed the "Iron Maiden" or "Swiss Miss" -- sits a distant 24th in the point standings. She has completed just 598 laps in nine races while all the other full-time drivers in the series are over 1,000. Sebastien Bourdais, by comparison, has 626 laps and hes sharing a ride with Katherine Legge at Dragon Racing. When De Silvestros car holds up, there have been results: a 13th-place finish at Belle Isle, Mich., and 14th at Iowa. The driving skill is there, as she showed last year in St. Petersburg while duelling with Tony Kanaan en route to a 4th place finish -- her best result in three years of driving in IndyCar. But it has been a tough three years. After a promising rookie season in 2010, she has since been burned, bruised, concussed and pinballed between walls at Milwaukee, and spun clockwise on her head down the track in a fiery wreck at Indianapolis. Her hands have been burned twice: in Texas in 2010 she was trapped in her blazing car for a minute while crews worked to unhitch a kinked water hose. A year later at the Indianapolis 500, her rides back end slipped out coming out of a turn in practice, went airborne, caught the catch fence, flipped over, skidded down the track and caught fire. Despite burning her hands again, she was OK. But three races later at Milwaukee, she sustained a concussion when her car lost control out of a turn, spun rear-end first into the outer wall then pinballed, back-end first again, into the concrete inner wall. There are still reminders. "You can see the burns a little bit on the hands, but its all good now," De Silvestro said. She added that the Indianapolis crash led her to question driving for a living, but it ultimately taught her a lot about who she is and what she wants to be. "When I went back in (the car), it just really showed me that thats what I wanted to do," she said. "I wanted to be a race car driver, and that makes me want to work even harder to be successful." That journey continues with Edmonton, focusing only on the car in front of her. "Usually you go into the race and you want to win it, where in our case its not really realistic, so you try to make a better result than you had before," De Silvestro said. "Our best finish is 13th so hopefully we can finish 12th or 11th. "That would be a really good goal for us." Coach Factory Outlet . The talented Portuguese were winless in three warmup matches and then lost 1-0 to Germany in their Euro 2012 opener. But after netting just one goal in four matches, Portugal finally found its scoring touch in a 3-2 win over Denmark. Coach Outlet . The North Vancouver, B.C., native two-hopped the ball into the 18th hole from 133 yards out on Sunday, eagling to beat American Joe Panzeri by a single shot. [url=http://www.official-coach-shop.com/]http://www.official-coach-shop.com/[/ur... . Less than four months after calling it quits, the former Winnipeg Blue Bombers centre returned to the CFL, signing with the Calgary Stampeders on Tuesday.SAN FRANCISCO -- Police are investigating a sexual assault allegation involving 49ers wide receiver Michael Crabtree, authorities said Friday. The alleged assault occurred in a San Francisco hotel room early Sunday, after the 49ers playoff victory over the Green Bay Packers, police said in a written statement. Crabtree has been interviewed with his attorney present and has co-operated with the probe, the statement said. The receiver hasnt been detained or arrested, and he agreed to be available for more questions in the future. The probe is being handled by the departments special victims unit. When the investigation is done, the findings will be forwarded to the district attorneys office, which decides if charges should be filed. Authorities didnt release any further details. 49ers General Manager Trent Baalke said the team is aware of the allegations. "The 49ers take such mmatters very seriously," he said in a statement.dddddddddddd. "We will have no further comment at this time as the legal process is ongoing." San Francisco is preparing to play the Atlanta Falcons in the NFC championship game on Sunday. The winner goes to the Super Bowl. The 49ers said Crabtree made the trip to Atlanta. The team referred all other questions about the matter to Crabtrees attorney, who was not immediately identified. This season, Crabtree became the first San Francisco wide receiver to log more than 1,000 yards in a season since Terrell Owens in 2003. He had a career-best 1,105 yards receiving, including a single-game high 172 yards on eight receptions in a win over Arizona. In Saturdays NFC division matchup against the Packers, Crabtree caught two touchdown passes and wound up with nine receptions and 119 yards for the Niners (12-4-1). ' ' '