Just after Formula Drift finished their skirmish in New Jersey, the Indy Car series was getting ready for a night time shootout in Iowa for the Iowa Corn 250. Although, things got off to a late start due to mother nature litterally raining on the parade. After about an hour or so of rainfall the skies over Iowa cleared up and the race was underway as well as the action. Before the green flag had a chance to drop, Dario Franchitti suffered a major engine failure taking him out of the race which severely hurt his shot at the title. Later on around lap 68, points leader Will Power made a mistake and clipped E.J. Viso taking them both out and opening up the points even more for the likes of James Hinchcliffe who was second place in the points due to his consistancy all year.
Marco Andretti made a run for the lead but problems with his car combined with the agressive tactics of his teammates Ryan Hunter-Reay and James Hinchcliffe kept him from making a solid run at the front. When it was all said and done Ryan Hunter-Reay stayed ahead of Marco Andretti and a hard charnging Tony Kanaan to take his second victory in a row. Ryan’s win rockets him to second place in the overall points putting him just 3 points behind Will Power. While James Hinchcliffe falls all the way to fifth in points after suffering an incident which ended his race in 17th place.
With Iowa in the books it marks the last oval race Indy Car will see until September when they return to California Speedway. With a slew of road courses ahead look for Dario Frachitti, Scott Dixon, and Helio Castroneves to put a serious dent in the points battle! In the meantime check out the video below of all the race highlights.
Barely recovered from their stop at Texas, the Indy Car grid came back to the Milwaukee mile after a brief absence for “Indy Fest”. Not sure where the new name comes from but I supposed it does not matter much. What does matter is that Milwaukee is just the same as it has always been: short, flat, fast, and unpredictable! If you walked away from the race after the first half you would swear that Dario Franchitti or Scott Dixon would take the victory. However it certainly did not play out that way! Franchitti actually had his day ended early when he had an unfortunate meeting with the wall and Scott Dixon was penalized for jumping a re-start (that decision was later ruled to be “wrong” but it wont change his finish result much). This may leave you asking who was at the front? Why none other than Ryan Hunter-Reay of Andretti Autosport. Ryan was being chased down by Tony Kannan and James Hinchcliffe respectively. While he faced some tough contention from TK he managed to hold off the Brazilian and take the win which actually brings things full circle for Ryan. Back in 2004 he scored his first win at the Milwaukee mile when he raced for Jimmy Vassar in the Champ Car series. To see all the highlights from the race scroll down for video from Indy Car.
If you missed round 2 of the IZOD Indy Car Series at Barber Motorsports Park yesterday then don’t worry as we have a quick recap for you. Things started off with a bit of controversy as Will Power was deined pole position due to a technicality. He had just barely missed a red flag cut off point as he got onto the track for his fast lap right after Ryan Hunter-Reay suffered an off-track incident. Due to a new rule which prohibits pasing through a yellow zone during a fast lap Will Power’s fast lap was waived off giving pole position to round 1 winner Helio Castroneves and putting Power back in 9th starting position. With Helio starting off at the front it looked like he may secure back to back wins but due to some pitstop mishaps and excellent strategy in Power’s pit the Aussie was able to fight his way back to the front and claim a come-from-behind victory. Scott Dixon, barely missing out on win due to a pit mishap captured 2nd place and Helio Castroneves held on for third. To see some of the best action from the race check out the highlight reel below. Also stay tuned to MotorworldHype.com as we stuff your face full of coverage as the Indy Car Series comes to our home town for the Toyota Grand Prix Of Long Beach in just two weeks!
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!
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