As the Indy Car series left one street circuit (Long Beach) they arrived at another in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Arriving on the home turf of several Indy Car drivers the stakes were high but it was an American who took first blood as Ryan Hunter-Reay managed to capture the pole position. However, race day was a different story…
SPOILER ALERT BELOW!!!
Ryan hung on to the lead for as long as he could and it became that much harder when Tony Kanaan caught his second wind and hounded the 2012 champion mercilessly. The two drivers traded the lead back and fourth several times, each time Tony would take the lead the crowd roared. However, the hometown celebration was short lived when TK’s engine gave out on him. Ryan lost the lead when the younger drivers came gunning after him from the mid pack.
In the end it was James “Hinchtown” Hincliffe who pulled off a beautiful last lap move on Takuma Sato to take the win. Marco Andretti rounded out the podium with a third place finish (which also now puts him second in the points behind Sato). All the race highlights are below and trust me when I say it definitely worth your time to watch!
Did you happen to miss the Indy Car race as well as the F1 race? With no hope of watching a re-broadcast? Never fear! For I am here to help once again. WARNING: SPOILER ALERT!!
The Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersberg ended with James “Hinchtown” Hinchcliffe getting his first ever Indy Car victory. Hinchtown’s win is the first by a Canadian in Indy Car since Paul Tracy back in 2007. Coming in second behind James Hinchcliffe was Helio Castroneves and Marco Andretti, showing a strong performance landed the third podium spot. Check out the race highlight flick below for all the action.
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.
There was a ton of racing over the Memorial Day weekend but the biggest event was easily the 96th annual Indianapolis 500 on Sunday. This year’s Indy 500 was a year of firsts. It was the first year with the new DW12 Dallara chassis on the famous oval, the first year in a long time that we had multiple engine manufacturers battling it out, and unfortunately the first Indy 500 without Dan Wheldon who won last year’s race before his tragic death. Really the entire event was a massive tribute to Mr. Wheldon and more so than the thrill of victory, the history, and the glory many of the top drivers wanted to win the event just so they could have the honor of their likeness on the Borg Warner trophy next to Dan’s. The new chassis and their freshly tested oval set up provided for tons of excitement as there were 35 total lead changes, smashing the previous record of 29. There were many who were looking like a good bet to take it all. Rookie James “Hinchtown” Hinchcliffe qualified 2nd and held the lead for a significant amount of time. Marco Andretti also looked very strong and lead more laps than most.
Although, in the end it was the familiar sight of the Target Chip Ganassi team taking control of the race. Teammates Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon took turns swapping the lead several times during the last 20 laps although they had serious contention from Tony Kanaan and Takuma Sato. It was Dario who had the lead at the end of the race and despite what can only be described as the ballsy-est oval pass attempt in history by Takuma Sato, Dario managed to hang on to the lead and earned his third Indy 500 victory (under caution). According to Indy Car Dario earned just over 2.4 million dollars for his victory as well as a place in the history books as being among the few drivers to have 3 Indy 500 victories under their belts. To see some of the best race action from the event, scroll down to check out the highlights video.
We all love a good sports rivalry, especially in motorsports. Back in the day it was Bobby Rahal and Michael Andretti who had it out for eachother. Today it looks like their sons are taking up the battle although this time its over twitter instead of in pit lane. It started over the weekend during the Toyota Grand Prix Of Long Beach. During a restart Marco had contact with Graham which sent Marco airborne then sideways into a barrier ripping the front end of his car apart and ending his weekend. You can view the incident for yourself on YouTube HERE.
In a post-incident interview Marco said that he felt like he was “chopped” by Rahal. Later, the Associated Press interviewed Graham Rahal about Marco’s claim that he was chopped. Graham responded “What’s Marco’s last name? I’ve said enough” hinting that the Andretti’s are famous for complaining.
This set off a twitter battle the likes of which have never been seen before among race car drivers.
It started with Marco:
Marco’s tweet was shortly after the incident. Later on when Grandpa Mario Andretti saw Graham’s AP quote he had this to say:
“Surprised” that the response came from Mario and not Marco Graham came back with something of a humble-insult (variation on humble-brag ftw):
Graham, sensing that this could esclate immediately tried to stomp the flames out saying he would not be drawn into a twitter argument:
Grandpa Mario then handedly responds to Grahams first question. Which in essance kind of hints at Graham being a hypocrite (refusing to argue on twitter yet calling out Marco in the press):
Graham then attempts to block Mario’s backhand:
So far neither Bobby Rahal (Graham’s father) or Michael Andretti (Marco’s father) have gotten involved but this little spat could re-spawn the legendary Rahal-Andretti rivalry of old.
What do you guys think? Is Graham a hypocrite for calling out and insulting all Andretti’s in the press but refusing to back up his comments on twitter? Or are the Andretti’s attempting to make a mountain out of a mole-hill?
Furthermore after watching the on-track incident for yourself who do you feel was at fault for the contact? It should be noted that Indy Car officials did not hand down a penalty to Graham or Marco for the dust up.
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