April is probably my favorite time of year next to December. Why? By the time April rolls around Formula 1 has already gotten off to its start, Indy Car has begun, Formula D kicks off in Long Beach, and the Toyota Grand Prix Of Long Beach kicks off a week after! Granted it is a lot of work to cover it all but I still love it! If you don’t know, the Grand Prix Of Long Beach is a combination of races that take place over three days on the literal streets of Long Beach. The nearly 2 mile course takes the drivers down the scenic Shoreline Drive and through other downtown Long Beach landmarks like the Aquarium of the Pacific and the Long Beach Convention center. There is also a “Lifestyle Expo” inside the convention center put on by AAA that usually has some fun stuff going on.
Since it is a “Grand Prix” event, in just this one weekend you can watch several series go at it on the course including Indy Car (main race, American LeMans, Indy Lights, World Challenge, and even a Formula Drift sanctioned “Team Drift” competition (a crowd favorite).
Friday is one of the best days to go because the tickets are cheap, there is no reserved seating on Friday (sit in any grandstand you want), and the teams from all the series are either practicing or getting ready for the weekend so it is a great time to watch badass race cars get prepped by professionals. So, that’s exactly what I did! Friday I cruised around the Expo, paid a visit to the Indy Car garage, World Challenge garage, and American LeMan’s garage. Then, I shot some practice photos as well as a few candids from the Indy Car autograph session.
You can cruse through all the photos in our Facebook gallery. Stay tuned for more galleries and posts from days 2 and 3!
I waited all year and the time finally came for open wheel racing to come back to town in the form of the IZOD Indy Car Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. Last Sunday was race day and I was parked in my usual spot in grandstand 29 along the main straight of Shoreline Drive and waited for the cars to come blasting by me at 180mph into turn 1. With 2 races in the season already completed (St Petersberg and Alabama) victories were split between the Target Chip Ganassi team and Penske Team with one each so fans were playing the “Ganassi or Penske” game coming into this weekend. With Will Power scoring pole position it was looking like the round would go to Penske but then we were reminded that Long Beach is a street course and street courses almost always equal chaos.
The first bit of anarchy started when Helio Castroneves spun Justin Wilson by making contact with him in the hairpin coming on to Shoreline Drive. That mishap brought out a full course yellow which bunched up the field and destroyed any gap that Will Power had built up on the rest of the field. A double file restart was attempted once Justin was clear but the drivers caught stage fright and for the most part stayed in a single file line when the race went green again. Ryan Hunter-Reay managed to snag the lead from Will Power but just when Ryan was starting to get used to being out front another incident with EJ Viso and Danica Patrick brought out another full course yellow which again bunched the field back up and killed any gap that the front runners put on the pack.
This time race control made sure the Indy Cars really did make a double file restart when the track went green again. The result of which was everything going wrong! Helio Castroneves struck again but this time he got into his own teammate Will Power causing both to spin around which totally screwed up Team Penske’s day. Then inexplicably Takuma Sato got a flat and ran into the tires just past the convention center, and a few other rookies mysteriously spun out in the same area just after Sato came to a stop. It was all absolute madness. With all the carnage another full course yellow came out and once things were cleaned up they went for the double file restart once again. This time things went more cleanly, yet things still kicked off with a surprize as Alex Tagliani, Dario Franchitti, and Mike Conway all put pressure on front runners Ryan Briscoe and Ryan Hunter-Reay on the start. First Tagliani seemed to get the jump on the two Ryans but out of no where Mike Conway makes a move on Dario Franchitti then weaves past Tagliani just as Ryan Hunter-Reay’s car decides to take a dump. Then Conway puts a brilliant move on Briscoe to take the lead in the last 6 laps or so and holds on to take his first ever win in the Indy Car Series! It looks like the rest of the season could turn into a three way battle between Ganassi Racing, Team Penske, and Andretti Autosport!
Scroll down for a few highlights from the race and stay tuned for more Grand Prix posts coming up!
Indy Car made a stop in Alabama this weekend at the famous Barber Motorsports park for the Honda Indy Grand Prix Of Alabama. The track is a favorite among the drivers but most were visibly restless and apprehensive about the start of the race. Many wondered if there would be a repeat of the opening lap pile up that happened at St. Pete with cars flying over each other and folks turning upside down. To help remedy the problem race officials moved the “acceleration line” back an additional 125 feet and during the driver’s meeting the race stewards had a simple message for all the drivers: “grow up”. It was made clear to all the drivers that they should know how to handle the situation without going to pieces, literally.
The message must’ve gotten through because the race started off without a hitch. Especially for Will Power who was the pole sitter for the event in a intense qualifying session the day before. Thanks to his new training regimen he was able to lead the race from flag to flag taking the win with Scott Dixon following behind to take second and Dario Franchitti taking third spot on the podium. A notable result was Marco Andretti who managed a 4th place finish. Now that Alabama is in the books the next race on the schedule is right here in our back yard at the Toyota Grand Prix Of Long Beach. We’ve got our tickets! Get yours!
When Andretti Autosport lost its 7/11 sponsorship at the end of last season many were left wondering if the team would be able to find more money to keep running crowd favorite Tony Kanaan for the next season. It was then shortly announced that Tony would no longer be with the team. That news made for a painful off season for any Kanaan fan, including me! Luckily today we finally got some good news when it was announced via Jimmy Vasser’s and Tony’s Twitteraccounts that TK would be driving for KV Racing Technology-Lotus for 2011. Tony tweeted a picture of his new car and is happy to get some seat time tomorrow at Homestead Raceway in preparation for the Honda GrandPrix of St. Petersberg this weekend. Congrats Tony! Glad to have you back!
At the last press day of the LA Auto Show I was floating around the Mazda Exhibit getting some last minute pictures when I noticed Townsend Bell taking a walk around the exhibit with a buddy. As they were checking out the new Mazda5 I thought I saw the words “KV Racing” on Townsend’s show badge. Could he be part of the three car effort that Lotus announced earlier that day? I wasn’t sure if I really saw what I thought I did so I approached Mr. Bell as a fan (which isn’t a lie) and took a picture of him. Thanks to the almighty “crop” feature in Photoshop I am able to confirm that he was attending the show under KV Racing’s association. He was also wearing a “Herbalife Racing” shirt could they be a new sponsor for the KV Racing team?
So far I haven’t found any official statement to confirm my suspicions but I think it would be awesome to see T. Bell back in Indy Car and driving for a quality team like KV Racing.
I hope everyone enjoyed their Labor Day weekend! I’m sure some of you, like me spent some time on Saturday watching the Kentucky Indy 300. For those who didn’t here is a quick run down of how things played out. Going into the race many were thinking that this was the weekend that Will Power was going to increase his points gap and pretty much lock in his 2010 championship title. However after a near crash due to washing out while trying to pass lapped traffic shook him off the lead and after he recovered the best he was able to muster was an 8th place finish. That didn’t bode well for him as his closest rival Dario Franchitti finished 5th, closing the points gap to just 17 points with two races left.
So who took the win? None other than Will Power’s teammate Helio Castroneves. Yeah, I know we haven’t heard his name in a while have we? Early in the race Helio’s crew botched a pit stop. So his race strategist decided to turn the misfortune into an advantage by going off sequence thus giving Helio more fuel than the rest of the field which enabled him to take the lead late in the race and capture the win. Check out the rest of the race highlights in the video below.
The 2010 Indy Car season is starting to wind down and the points race is starting to get closer and more dicey than it has been all season. On Saturday the Indy Car grid lined up at Chicagoland speedway for an oval battle royal (there are no more road courses for the rest of the season). This race was Will Power’s chance to increase his points lead and give himself a cushion going into the last few races of 2010 but his plans for that were totally dashed when Power was forced to give up fighting at the front to come into the pits for a splash and go since a malfunction in a previous pit stop prevented him from getting the fuel he needed.
It was none other than Dario Franchitti who took advantage of Will Power’s misfortune to take the lead and eventually the win. With Dario’s win and Power finishing 16th Dario was able to shorten his gap to Power by a scant 22 points. This is a dangerous position for Will Power since there are only two races left (Twin Ring Motegi, Japan and Homestead Speedway, Florida). It looks like things have gotten interesting again folks..
So, the Honda Edmonton Indy race was yesterday and with the exception of the last 3 laps or so there wouldn’t have been much to report. Will Power took the pole position on Saturday and for a great majority of the race Will Power was in the lead with teammates Helio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe in tow. For a while it looked like we were going to see a boring Team Penske 1-2-3 finish. However, towards the end of the race a chain of events unfolded which ultimately resulted in a massive explosion of in-field drama. It started with the leaders of the race coming into the pits to get fresh tires and fuel to start off the last stint. While Will Power’s crew put a set of hard compound black tires on his car, Helio’s team decided to go for the red-sidewall soft compound tires. Because of this Helio was able to take the lead from Will just as they were coming up on lapped traffic.
This is where things got interesting…
As Will Power fought his way through lapped traffic to get back behind Helio an incident in the back pack brought out a full course yellow during the last 5 laps of the race. Two laps later all the cars were bunched together for a restart leaving Will Power poised in the perfect position to over take Helio. As the green flag dropped Power attempted to make his move on Castroneves going into turn 1 but was foiled as Helio pushed Will towards the outside. In this skirmish Scott Dixon (who was in 3rd) capitalized on the opportunity and passed Will Power to take the 2nd place position behind Helio.
Just as the cars crossed the line marking just 2 laps to go a message comes down from the race officials to the Team Penske pit that Helio was being issued a drive through penalty for blocking Will Power on the restart! This penalty would essentially hand the win over to Scott Dixon as soon as Helio came in to serve his penalty. Helio did not come in… He decided he would stay out finish the race and raise hell later, and raise Hell he did!
As soon as the race was over he pulled off, got out of his car absolutely livid and looked for anyone he could find wearing an Indy Car “Track Official” uniform and got in their face demanding answers. He even grabbed a security guy twice his size by the collar! It was one of the most magnificent displays of emotions I’ve ever seen from Helio and he has had some doozies. The only difference is that while usually Helio’s emotional demonstrations are of extreme happiness or sadness, this time it was unbridled anger! Don’t worry though, there were still some tears in the end. Oh, Helio…
It was so spectacular that Indy Car didn’t even release they’re usual “race highlights” video. Instead they put a full recap of Helio’s meltdown out on the interwebs for all of us to see. Check it out below!
At first I agreed with Helio’s anger but after the rule for blocking was explained I could see how the race officials came to the decision to penalize Castroneves. However what I do not understand is how Scott Dixon got the win when Will Power was in 2nd place when Helio committed the infraction. Shouldn’t the person who was blocked inherit the position that the blocker would be stripped of because of the penalty? Apparently, the Indy Car officials do not see it that way.
On Sunday the Indy Car series threw an open wheel race party up north in Paul Tracy’s hometown of Toronto. The fans really wantetd Tracy to be there and Tracy really wanted to win there (his last win in Toronto was 2003). For a while it looked like Tracy was about to get what he wanted but because of a miscalculation by his race strategist Tracy had to give up the lead and a shot at the win to re-fuel. This then left the race up to Justin Wilson who inherited the lead that Tracy gave up. However Justin had Will Power (the last of the three Penske cars that were in the running) behind him as well as Dario Franchitti.
The pressure from the two top tier drivers was soon too much for Justin and he spun in a corner from pushing too hard. From that point Will Power and Dario Franchitti had their own battle for the remaining 15 laps of the race but Dario just didn’t have enough for Will Power and Mr. Power went on to take the win. It looks like the streak of Penske and Ganassi wins is going to start all over again! Check out the video below for race highlights and visit the Indy Car website for a full post race report on their end.
Today the Indy Car Series announced which manufacturer won the 2012 chassis battle. It looks like Dallara will once again be the chassis provider with a brand new design. I know what you’re thinking! “That kind of sucks..” However there are some interesting developments that come along with this choice. The first of which is that the new chassis will be lighter and 40% cheaper than the current chassis. Part of making the chassis cheaper comes from the fact that Dallara has committed to building a facility in the states to make it easier to source the chassis to the teams.
The other development is that the new chassis will be somewhat modular. This means other aero manufacturers are open to building their own aerodynamic “add-on” packages for the Dallara chassis. This also gives the teams freedom to experiment with set-ups and put together packages they feel work the best. This means we may finally get away from all the cars looking the same! You can learn about all the other juicy tidbits by watching the replay of the full announcement below.
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