Pipo Derani will start on pole for the 69th running of the Sebring 12 hour race tomorrow morning. His number 31 Cadillac edged the Acura of Ricky Taylor 0.09 seconds. in LMP1 qualifying. Jimmie Johnson spun in turn 16 coming to the checkered flag of the session. Johnson was not hurt, but the car suffered damage.
In GTLM Antonio Garcia put the number 3 Corvette on the pole. The Corvettes sport shades of silver this weekend. It will be strange not seeing a yellow Corvette in an endurance race.
Antonio Garcia takes the GTLM pole
Indycar Drivers Tune Up for Season
The race will feature a smattering of Indycar drivers. The shrinking IMSA fields mean fewer Indycar drivers than in past years. Ryan Hunter-Reay, who was with the number 55 Mazda last season, does not have a ride since the team cut back to one car for 2021.
Indycar drivers participating are mainly in the DPi class. They are:
01 Cadillac- Scott Dixon
5 Cadillac- Sebastien Bourdais
10 Acura- Alexander Rossi
48 Cadillac- Simon Pagenaud; Jimmie Johnson
60 Acura- Juan Pablo Montoya
The 01 is Chip Ganassi’s entry and the 60 is a Meyer Shank entry.
Former Indycar drivers Oliver Askew and Spencer Pigot are running cars in the LMP3 class.
Indy Lights driver Kyle Kirkwood will drive the number 14 Vasser-Sullivan Lexus in GTD.
TV Schedule: Fire Up Track Pass
While the race begins and ends on NBCSN the middle seven hours are on NBC Track Pass. You can also watch on IMSA TV and I highly recommend listening to Radio LeMans. The broadcast time, all Eastern:
.I hope that unlike the Rolex 24 Hour coverage we don’t have to sit through a Jimmie Johnson interview every 10 minutes. I’d rather watch the racing.
Portland International Raceway announced a fan limit of 25% for all their events this season. This is great news. It means that the Indycar race scheduled for September 12 is a go. Fans who had tickets for the cancelled 2020 race had the option to defer tickets to 2021. Portland is the third track to announce a track spectator limit.
Barber Motorsports Park didn’t set a specific limit, but will only admit fans who park inside the facility. St. Pete has a 20,000 fan limit per day. Mid Ohio is limited by the state of Ohio to 30% of capacity. That should be around 20,000 or so fans.
Still waiting for a figure from Indianapolis Motor Speedway about the fan limit for the Indianapolis 500.
All announced limits are subject to change as the COVID situation changes. Let’s hope all changes point in the direction of more fans allowed.
Indycar iRacing Tonight
The first of three Indycar iracing events takes place tonight at 6:30 pm Eastern time. Tonight’s track is Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal. this should be a fun track for Indycar. The live stream is on Indycar.com/iRacing.
Sebring Broadcast Times
Broadcast times and channels for the 12 Hours of Sebring Saturday:
I’m disappointed at the small amount of over the air television time, but that is less time to hear about Jimmie Johnson. At least the final three hours is on. After sunset is when this race gets crazy. More on Sebring tomorrow.
Green Savoree promotions announced that tickets for the Firestone GP of St. Petersburg go on sale tomorrow, March 18 for the April 23-25 race weekend. The promoter also said that Robby Gordon’s Super trucks will return to the weekend.. The event earlier announced that attendance is limited to 20,000 spectators each day. the number of tickets available depends on the number of tickets sold during the ticket renewal period which just ended. The release:
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (March 17, 2021) –Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg 3-Day Reserved Grandstand and General Admission tickets go on sale to the public starting tomorrow (March 18) at 2 p.m. ET. The 17th annual event is set for April 23-25, in downtown St. Petersburg racing on the picturesque 1.8-mile, 14-turn temporary waterfront street circuit. Tickets are available online at gpstpete.com with pricing starting at $115 for 3-Day Reserved Grandstand seats and $60 for 3-Day General Admission tickets. Junior pricing is also available for those fans ages 12 and under. Based on remaining availability in order to maintain social distancing measures on site, a limited number of Single-Day tickets will be released for sale on Thursday, April 1. Green Savoree St. Petersburg (GSSP), organizers of the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, are also announcing today the much-anticipated return of a fan favorite to the weekend schedule. The SPEED Energy Stadium SUPER Trucks will be a part of the on track action again. These high-flying trucks will showcase doubleheader races jumping across ramps, rumbling and rolling through the corners. Eleven races in total across six different racing series will hit the track for race fans. “We’re really excited to feature Robby Gordon’s Stadium SUPER Trucks series again for our fans. They asked for them, so they are back to provide even more thrills to a great Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg weekend,” said Kim Green, co-owner, chairman and CEO of GSSP. “We also thank our race fans for their continued support and cooperation in following all the necessary protocols again as we run a safe, fun weekend during this pandemic doing so the ‘St. Pete Way’.” Alongside the headlining NTT INDYCAR SERIES race on Sunday and the SPEED Energy Stadium SUPER Trucks, the additional racing series featured during the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg are all three open-wheel development levels of the Road to Indy Presented by Cooper Tires, which includes the return of Indy Lights this year, and the Idemitsu Mazda MX-5 Cup presented by BFGoodrich adding some fender-to-fender, showroom stock racing thrills. Each of these four series will also hold doubleheader races. As announced earlier this month, City of St. Petersburg Council approved a resolution for 20,000 spectators to attend per day. Using an approved event plan built in collaboration with local health officials and INDYCAR, GSSP will operate the event with specific health and safety protocols for COVID-19. Fans should visit gpstpete.com/covid19 before attending to review all these protocols. Competitors, spectators and all associated with the event will be subject to a health screening and temperature check before entry is permitted. All attendees will be required to wear masks or facial coverings at all times unless when eating or drinking with the “No Mask, No Entry” plan. Those who don’t have one will be issued a mask at the entry gates. Hand sanitizer and hand washing stations will be prevalent across the venue. For complete ticket pricing and customer FAQs, visit gpstpete.com. Also, follow the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on social media using #FirestoneGP for additional updates and news. The complete weekend schedule will also be posted next week on the event website.
About Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg:The 17th annual Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg is a race event held during Florida’s spring break season each March. Traditionally the site of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES’ season-opening race, St. Pete is a destination city hosting this annual motorsports tradition and offering a festival atmosphere with its downtown location. The temporary circuit is a 1.8-mile, 14-turn configuration using the streets circling Pioneer Park, the Duke Energy Center for the Arts, The Dali Museum and extending onto the runways at Albert Whitted Airport, which overlooks the waterfront of Tampa Bay and picturesque St. Petersburg Harbor and Marina. Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg is owned and operated by Green Savoree St. Petersburg, LLC. Green Savoree St. Petersburg, LLC is owned by Green Savoree Racing Promotions 2, LLC whose other subsidiaries also promote three additional INDYCAR races, The Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio (July 2-4, 2021), Honda Indy Toronto (July 9-11, 2021), and Grand Prix of Portland (Sept. 10-12, 2021). For more information, visit gpstpete.com, ‘like’ its Facebook page at@GPSTPETE or follow the event on Twitter@GPSTPETEand Instagram@GPSTPETE using #FirestoneGP.
Mid Ohio Sports car Course announced today that ticket sales will begin next week for their racing season, which includes the July 4 NTT Indycar Series Honda Indy 200. season renewals begin next Tuesday and two weeks later sales to the general public start. The release did not state spectator limits for any events. Last year the Indycar weekend was limited to 6,00 fans per day. I hope that limit can be raised a bit for this year.
The release:
Ticket sales dates announced for 60th season of racing at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course
The Mid-Ohio School opens 2021 course enrollments today
LEXINGTON, Ohio (March 16, 2021) – The 60th season of racing at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course will feature its five traditional events in 2021. The legendary road course in Lexington, Ohio, will showcase some of the premier series in all of motorsports for fans as it returns to a full slate of racing starting in May. On Tuesday, March 23, the renewal period begins for Mid-Ohio Season Race Pass and Season Motorhome spaces for 2020 customers. Then, on Tuesday, April 6, event tickets will go on sale at advance pricing at a savings before standard pricing begins on Tuesday, April 27. Renewal customers on file will be notified directly with further details. “We sincerely thank our fans for their patience and understanding as our team worked tirelessly during the 2020 season to host as many events as possible,” said Craig Rust, president of Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. “Now with the 2021 season and our 60th season of racing upon us, we are looking forward to getting back to a full schedule of racing and look forward to seeing the fans back at the track. “Things will kick off in April with The Mid-Ohio School as today we open enrollments for our 2021 classes for teenage drivers, racers and our sportbike enthusiasts,” Rust continued. Starting in 1993 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, The Mid-Ohio School offers defensive driving, high performance, racing, and corporate entertainment programs plus performance track riding for motorcyclists. Its range of course dates and pricing are posted at midohioschool.com. The Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course schedule for its 60th season follows: May 14-16 – Acura Sports Car Challenge (IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship event) June 4-5 – B&L Transport 170 at Mid-Ohio (NASCAR Xfinity Series / ARCA Menards Series) June 25-27 – Vintage Grand Prix of Mid-Ohio (Sportscar Vintage Racing Association / Trans Am) July 2-4 – The Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio (NTT INDYCAR SERIES event) July 23-25 – AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days (AMA’s annual motorcycling celebration) All courses and events will continue to be held based on the ongoing guidance of the CDC and mandates of national, state and local authorities regarding public gatherings surrounding COVID-19. All the necessary protocols for race fans and course participants can be found at midohio.com/covid19. Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course offers one of the best family values in all of live sports and entertainment. Children 12 and under always receive free general admission when accompanied by a ticketed adult. All the ticket options and pricing are posted online at midohio.com.
Will Power and Ryan Hunter-Reay are beginning contract years in the NTT Indycar Series. Simon Pagenaud may be in a contract year, but he side-stepped the question last week. All three drivers plan to keep driving the way they always have and not worry about 2022. The consensus is that there is always pressure to perform, regardless of their contract status.
Ryan Hunter-Reay Photo by Chris Owens, Indycar
Hunter-Reay had a frustrating year in 2020. It began with a car that wouldn’t fire on the grid at the opening race in Texas. The Andretti Autosport driver did manage a 10th place finish in the season standings, however. Hunter-Reay usually finds a way into the top 10 despite problems during a race. Last year was a bit more of a struggle than most years.
Looking ahead to 2021 Hunter-Reay said, “Yeah, definitely I’m looking forward to that kind of makeup,what feels like a makeup season almost. Hopefully we can do that, barring any variants of COVID that might derail that.”
As for extra pressure coming from a one year deal, Hunter-Reay said that he approaches every race as if it could be his last in the car.
“My whole career has been that way. It’s been, Hey, here is your opportunity. Get in the car, we’ll let you know if you’re going to be in the car the next race. That’s how it always has been for me. That’s why I’ve always had that grab-it-by-the-neck mentality. Even when I had a three-year deal, if I had a bad weekend, it was the end of the year. I have to make sure I’m performing next weekend, otherwise somebody with a big smile is getting ready to jump into my seat. It’s just part of my mentality, part of my makeup. No, that’s how I’ve been operating for 20 years, man. Right at home for me.”
Hunter-Reay has stiff competition from his own team. Alexander Rossi and Colton Herta should be fighting for the championship and possibly a win at the Indianapolis 500.
Power Hopes for Better Start
Will Power feels the need to have a better start to the season. 2019 and 2020 both began with a series of issues that hampered his run for the title. He has still managed to win twice in each of the past two years and add to his career pole mark. He is inching closer to Mario Andretti’s career pole total. Power goes into 2021 with same attitude he does every year.
“…same effort that I put in because I had put so much effort in every time. I so badly want to win. Yep, same fire, internal fire burning. Just do as I do, do obviously my best.”
Any extra pressure seems to come from the poor starts of the last two years.
“It actually does feel a little bit that way, youknow, considering we’ve started the last four seasons in a really bad way. It certainly isn’t speed that’s the issue. It’s our bad days are just too bad. Our bad days are DNFs and multiple laps down. They’re not like a 10th place or a seventh place, and that’s our problem. The speed is certainly not. Winning is certainly not. Consistently,whether it’s mistakes on pit lane or mistakes by me, you just — we have to have a solid beginning to the season.”
Like Hunter-Reay, Power will compete with Team Penske teammates-Josef Newgarden, Scott McLaughlin, and Simon Pagenaud for points and podiums.
Pagenaud Looks for Better Qualifying, Race Results
Simon Pagenaud Photo by Chris Owens, Indycar
Simon Pagenaud had a frustrating season in 2020. Poor qualifying forced him to play catch up during races. he did get a victory in Iowa race 1 after starting last, and his eighth place final standing seems like a decent year. It was not good enough for Pagenaud. What went wrong?
“…a combination of things that didn’t work out the way I wanted. Obviously the car change made a big difference. The lack of testing made a big impact on my season.”
Team Penske has been able to test this pre-season and that should make a big difference in Pagenaud’s year. As for pressure to keep his job in 2022?
“…my personal opinion is just go out there and do the best you can, race hard and be in the moment. The contracts will take care of themselves when they do.It’s too early to tell anyway. But yeah, I always race as hard as I can. My motto is having no regrets ever, so I work hard, and I want to have no regrets. So if I have no regrets, there’s no reason it shouldn’t continue.”
Don’t get Josef Newgarden wrong. He is focusing on winning the Indianapolis 500 this year. That doesn’t mean he is putting his desire for a third NTT Indycar series title aside. He would gladly take both in 2021. Since 2017, Newgarden’s titles have come every other year. This is one of those years. About his plans for the upcoming season, Newgarden says,
“Well, it’s definitely the same. It’s a little boring, but it doesn’t change. We want to win an Indy500. For me specifically, that’s a big goal. I’ve not won that race. Obviously as a team, we’ve had a lot of success there. They’d like to add to that.For me, I’d like to get my first. Then the championship as well, yeah, we’re looking for another one. Obviously I was hoping we were going to win our third championship last year and we could be working on the fourth. We’re going to have to go back to square one and try to knock the third off this season.”
Winning the 500 takes a lot of time and effort. Newgarden explains,
“Indy is a really tough track, not only because it’s the most important race but I think because it’s all about very small details, and those little details take a tremendous amount of time and effort to move the needle. It’s all these little things that add up at the end of the day when you show up in the month of May . It takes a tremendous amount of time to make large progress at Indianapolis, whereas at another track you may find a small difference or small change with something that you found that didn’t take nearly as much energy or money or resources.
We didn’t perform like we wanted to at the 500 from a qualifying standpoint and race standpoint. I think that’s why we’ve heavily leaned to get that right in the off-season.We haven’t left anything else behind. We’re still pushing forward on all the other fronts because we need to be strong across the season.”
Newgarden’s Team Penske crew was was not as strong at Indy as they have been in the past.
“Last year our qualifying form was not strong. We were all disappointed with our speed. That was first and foremost. How do we fix the speed of the cars from last season? There’s been a tremendous amount of work that’s been put in. We have the best of the best in my opinion when it comes to talent and personnel. There’s been no shortage of effort and time to make these Penske race cars as fast as possible. That was first and foremost.”
Newgarden shares many other drivers’ optimisim that Roger Penske is the right man to leading Indycar during these difficult times.
“I think this year has strong potential to really go to the next phase of where we’re at in this pandemic, hopefully back to a newer normal and working towards what we love, and that’s having people at the track, putting on great shows,providing great entertainment.I’m really excited. As we get to this next phase, I think the best is still yet to come from Roger Penske and the entire organization. I think, like I said, we’re all very thankful that he’s in charge and that we’ve got a good direction in front of us.”
Newgarden summed up his 2020 season as one where the breaks didn’t fall his way.
“I feel like last year was one of those years. We were just inthe wrong place, wrong time, a little too often. You have that happen just one too many times, basically what happened to us is the result of it. I felt like our momentum was quite consistent throughout the year, at least from a performance standpoint. We could just not seem to catch enough breaks. That’s the nature of the beast.”
It’s back for a three week run. Indycar will present a 3 week series of iRacing to end the month of March and begin April. The news release with the details:
Season 2 of INDYCAR iRacing Challenge to Take Green Flag March 18
INDIANAPOLIS (Thursday, March 11, 2021) – A packed lineup of NTT INDYCAR SERIES stars will return to compete in Season 2 of the popular INDYCAR iRacing Challenge, which starts Thursday, March 18. The virtual series involving NTT INDYCAR SERIES drivers made its debut last spring to the enjoyment of race fans across the globe during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. This year, it’s set to build up to the series’ 2021 opener Sunday, April 18 at Barber Motorsports Park. Each race will be streamed live on INDYCAR.com, along with INDYCAR’s YouTube channel and Facebook page, and iRacing’s YouTube channel. Secondary channels also will be available from NTT INDYCAR SERIES drivers’ personal accounts. “The first season of the INDYCAR iRacing Challenge definitely filled a competitive void that our drivers were missing last spring,” INDYCAR Vice President of Marketing SJ Luedtke said. “It captured many entertaining moments and helped set the stage for the return to competition on the track in real life. Season 2 will undoubtedly double down on those fun, colorful moments highlighting the personalities of our athletes and get our fans ready for the green flag on our 2021 season in Birmingham, Alabama.” The three-race series will feature virtual races Thursday, March 18 at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve road course in Montreal; Thursday, March 25 on the Homestead-Miami Speedway oval; and Thursday, April 1 on a fan-voted track. Fans can vote March 12-15 for the site of the INDYCAR iRacing Challenge season finale via INDYCAR’s social channels. Season 2 will feature a stellar lineup of NTT INDYCAR SERIES drivers, including two-time series champion Josef Newgarden and series champions and Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge winners Ryan Hunter-Reay, Simon Pagenaud and Will Power. Also planning to compete are two-time and reigning Indy 500 champion Takuma Sato, 2019 series Rookie of the Year Felix Rosenqvist, race winners Graham Rahal and Ed Carpenter, young stars Pato O’Ward and Alex Palou, and colorful and popular Conor Daly. Other notable participants include three-time Australian V8 Supercars champion Scott McLaughlin and Formula One veteran Romain Grosjean, both racing this season in INDYCAR. One entry each week also will feature a driver from the Road to Indy Presented by Cooper Tires INDYCAR ladder system. Live streaming of each INDYCAR iRacing Challenge Season 2 event will begin at 6:30 p.m. (ET). Teams can design car liveries to match their 2021 NTT INDYCAR SERIES paint schemes. Team strategists and engineers also may participate in support of their driver. An entry list of the drivers participating in each event will be announced each week.
No one on the Indycar Content day zoom conference was surprised to hear Colton Herta make his intentions to be in position to win the series championship this year.
“I wouldn’t be in INDYCAR if I didn’t have the confidence in myself to perform. Yes, I believe I can. I think we showed it last year of what could have been. If I didn’t have that slip up at Iowa, mess that up for us, we could have been really good in the championship hunt going into the last round,” he responded when asked if he could win the championship this season.
Herta exuded his usual confidence during the conference. He seemed more focused and calmer than he has the last two years. . He knows he has the driving talent to win and the team to help him get there. What does he need to go from third to first in the title chase?
“… cutting out the mistakes, changing kind of those top fives, fourth and fifth places that we had last year, we had a bunch of them, into podiums, and some of those podiums we had into wins. We need to win a little bit more and we need a little bit more podiums, a tiny bit more consistency to really make a true championship run.”
One thing that will change on Herta’s team will be his race strategist. Bryan Herta, Colton’s father, will be in his ear during races. The elder Herta is one of the best strategists in the paddock. He managed fuel strategy for Alexander Rossi in the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500. Fathers as their son’s strategist has not worked well in the past. Michael Andretti was Marco’s strategist, which didn’t pan out. Bobby Rahal was on the radio for Graham one year. That was not a good situation Why will this arrangement work out better than the previous ones?
Colton explained, “I think you can tell by now that we’re both pretty mellow. We don’t get excited and we don’t get upset or very sad. We stay pretty even. Our emotions don’t really get the better of us. I think in that aspect, I think the other personalities will get heated at each other, where I don’t think it would happen with us because of how mellow we are.”
Winning more races and eliminating mistakes are what Herta believes will bring him the championship. He hopes he can bring his dad along for the ride to the top.
Alexander Rossi will tell you exactly what he thinks.
“No, I just think we sucked globally. Like there wasn’t anything we were doing right, whether itwas qualifying performance, whether it was race performance, pit stops, my driving. None of it was good…Last year just sucked. It sucked on track, it sucked off track. It was a terrible year for everyone except for Scott and Takuma, so good for them.”
The Andretti Autosport driver did see a reason for optimisim toward the end of the season with four podiums and a strong performance at St. Pete, where he was ina position to win until a late crash ended his race and frustrating season. he takes the blame for the incident.
“..the end of the year went really well for us for the most part,minus St. Pete, which is on me.There you go. I’m not going to get into the details of it because it’s not necessary, but I think we’re operating at a really high level right now, and I’m excited to get on track in Barber.”
Rossi said that the team’s testing has gone quite well, and that they are ready to come out of the gate strong. He believes the schedule with fewer short ovals plays to the strength of the Andretti team overall.
” I think street courses followed by the superspeedways followed by road courses are Andretti Autosport’s strong suits and we only had one of those last year which we did not capitalize on whatsoever…Fortunately short ovals really aren’t a huge factor anymore, so yay for that.”
Rossi believes a lot of the issues in 2020 revolved around the condensed track time at races, and not getting to where they needed to be quickly enough.
“…at the end of the day as much as we as a team struggled with the minimal practice time, I did, as well. Like I wasn’t doing a good enough job getting up to speed quick enough, which was putting us on the back foot and having to take pretty big risks in qualifying. Sometimes it was okay, sometimes we qualified — quite honestly we qualified all right all throughout the beginning of the year. We were just never kind of in the top three, which is where you’ve got to be these days. It’s where you’ve got to be to go out and win races.”
Rossi is excited for the 2021 season to begin. he is very about the way preseason testing has gone, and believes he and team can put 2020 in the past. I thought last year was an aberration for Rossi. I look for a strong year from him, and he will be contending for the title all season.
The Pit Window by Mike Silver 