Qualifying Groups
Category: Uncategorized
Herta Quickest in Barber Practice 1
Photo by Kyle McInnes
Colton Herta led the first practice session for the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama. Andretti Autosport put three drivers in the top six. Alexander Rossi finished third and Romain Grosjean was fourth.
Defending race winner and series champion Alex Palou was second and Ganassi teammate Scott Dixon was sixth. Marcus Ericsson put a third Gaanssi car in top ten with the ninth fastest time.
Scott McLaughlin was the only Team Penske car in the top 10 in fifth place.
Pato O’Ward, the 2021 Barber pole sitter was seventh.
Rookie Callum Ilott had the eighth fastest time,
The session ran uninterrupted.
The top 13
Notes
The crowd seemed smaller than atypical Friday Barber crowd. I find that odd since the track declared tomorrow and Sunday sellouts.
The Fan Zone appeared to be the most robust in several years. There are a lot of vendors and expanded food choices.
Danial Frost led the Indy Lights practice session with a time of 1: 12.6511. Matthew Brabham, winner of the first race at St. Pete, was sixth.
A chance of rain looms for qualifying tomorrow and a better chance of precipitation is possible Sunday.
It was nice see flowers in bloom at Barber again.
Morning at Barber
It’s great to be back at Barber Motorsports Park. I don’t know why, but I consider this race the true start of the summer racing season. I assume it is because the race is so close to opening day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Today’s action focuses mainly on the Road to Indy, including USF Juniors, the first step on the ladder. Indycar takes the track at 3 pm Central Time.
Notes
Indycar and IMS announced a multi -year sponsorship with Gallagher, a global insurance company. Gallagher was the sponsor for Carlin Racing and Max Chilton.The agreement includes title sponsorship of the second Indycar road race at IMS. The link to the announcement:
https://go.indianapolismotorspeedway.com/index.php/email/emailWebview?md_id=1746
The 33rd entry for the Indianapolis 500 will be announced next week. I’m hearing it involves Stefan Wilson and Cusick Motorsports.
I’ll be back with some driver quotes in a bit.
New Qualifying Format
Newgarden Leads Day 2
The sun escaped its cloud prison and the Indycar series team got in a four hour practice at IMS today. The session saw cars running in groups and practicing passing. Teams ran together to get a feel for the draft..
Just two caution periods for track inspections interrupted today’s practice period.
Josef Newgarden led today’s session with lap at 229.519 mph. Takuma Sato also had a lap over 229 mph, just 0.0157 seconds slower. The next five drivers had speeds in the 228 mph range.
Newgarden has won the last two races and feels good about his chances in the 500. After the test ended, he told the media<
“I can’t deny things feel really good on the 2 car. They’re just progressing. It’s not like two steps forward, two steps back, or vice versa. I feel like it’s going forward every single time, and we’re just getting better.
We’ve been on a good trajectory at the moment. I don’t want to see it flatten too much; I want to see it go the other way. I feel confident with what we’ve got, feel good at showing up anywhere. Being at Team Penske makes that easier. I always feel confident in our group.”
Unlike Wednesday’s string of yellows for incidents, today was issue free. Drivers completed 3,267 laps. Marcus Ericsson completed he most laps, 148.
The top 10 had three Chevys and seven Hondas. All five cars from Chip Ganassi Racing were in the top 10. Tony Kanaan was the fastest from the team at third place with a lap of 228.767.
Helio Castroneves did not run today. He is uninjured, but his car was not repaired in time from yesterday’s crash.
Notes
Marco Andretti was the only Andretti Autosport driver in the top 15 in sixth place. Romain Grosjean finished 16th. Alexander Rossi was 23rd and Colton Herta was 28th. Puzzling results for a team that used to be really good at IMS.
Sato was not driving the car he will drive in the 500 this week. The team did not want to risk damage to their speedway car.
Santino Ferrucci showed some speed . he finished twelfth today but was in the top 10 for a good chunk of the session. I don’t understand why he doesn’t have a full time ride.
Callum Ilott again led the pure rookies. Keep an eye on him next month.
Will Power pointed out at the end of the day that today’s results mean nothing for qualifying. The cars ran without their qualifying boost, and qualifying is one car on track, not several that can give the trailing car a tow.
“You need (extra boost for qualifying), with everyone going on single runs on exactly the same fuel load with no draft, all that. That’s the only way you’ll know,” Power said.
Thanks for following along these two days. It was great to be back at IMS with cars running on the oval.
Today’s time sheet
Tire Choices for LBGP- Most Starting on Red
Twelve Years of Speed: The Roadster to Rear Engine Transition
Who knew that the tiny green rear engine Cooper Climax was a harbinger of sweeping change when it qualified for the 1961 Indianapolis 500? Jack Brabham drove to a ninth place finish in that race. What followed over the next five to six was a nearly complete switch to rear engine racecars. The transition resulted in a dozen years of record smashing qualifying and race speeds.
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum opened its newest exhibit last week. Races2Records: 12 Years that Revolutionized the Indy 500, 1960-1972. The exhibit features 19 cars, many which are not usually seen on their exhibition floor. The cars include the last roadster to win the race, the last roadster to compete in the 500, and the first winged car to win the 500. Several of the cars on display never made the race, but are there to show some of the innovations and experiments during one of the greatest eras of creativity in Indycar racing.
Roadsters Go Down Swinging
By 1963, the rear engine cars were gaining momentum, but the roadsters still were strong enough to win the pole and the race. Parnelli Jones was the first driver to break the 150 mile per hour barrier in 1962. In 1963 Jones won the pole again and also won the race. Jim Clark finished second in a rear engine car.
In 1964 A. J. Foyt won the 500. The race was marred by second lap accident which took the lives of Eddie Sachs and Dave McDonald. It would be the last victory for a front engine car.
After 1964 roadsters lingered in the race, and 1968 saw the last roadster, driven by Jim Hurtubise, compete in the 500. The car is on display. it is currently being restored.
Innovations
Two innovations in the exhibit that had little success on track are Smoky Yunick’s side car and the Liquid Suspension Special.
Smokey Yunick and George Hurst of Hurst Floor Shift fame collaborated on the design for the 1964 race. Track officials said the car had to do a “rookie test” to prove its safety and speed. The car passed the test, but driver Bobby Johns crashed on his warmup lap prior top a qualifying attempt.
The Liquid Suspension Special entered in 1964 used a hydraulic suspension system. Rubber bladders of hydraulic fluid were connected by a hydraulic line. The concept was to eliminate the need for shck absorbers. Walt Hansgen finished 13th in the race. He had run as high as ourth until a lengthy pit stop took him out of contention. One of the cars was sold to A. J. Foyt, who decided to use his roadster for the race. That turned out to be a pretty good choice.
The 60s saw many innovations from people like Yunick, Dan Gurney, and Andy Granatelli. Some of them like the turbine are not the xcope of this exhibit.
A Well Done Presentation
The Museum has done a great job with their special exhibits. The Unser Family was outstanding. I was very impressed with this display. Maybe because of the era it recalls, which is the one I grew up in. The murals behind the car displays are impressive. This one behind the Jones car (R) and the Jim Rathmann’s 1960 race winner is especially striking.
I also liked the graph showing the increase in speed during the 12 year time frame. The black line is the pole speed and the yellow line is the race average.
The exhibit has some other fun things and also one sobering display which is a tribute to Eddie Sachs. It is nothing gory. Sachs’ car from the 1964 race is completely reconstructed as it was on race morning. I didn’t take a picture of it. The car is a nice tribute, and I paused for a moment of silent reflection.
I will post some more photos on The Pit Window’s Facebook page in the next couple of days.
My Long Beach race coverage begins tomorrow with a bit of history.
Reposted: Test Postponed to Friday, Roster Shrinks
Weather caused the Indycar road test at IMS to move to Friday, April 1. Seven drivers are scheduled Rd filed to test, down from the ten slated to appear Thursday.
Teams and drivers still in:
Andretti Autosport: Devlin DeFrancesco, Romain Grosjean, Colton Herta, Alexander Rossi
Juncos Hollinger Racing: Callum Ilott
Meyer Shank Racing: Helio Castroneves, Simon Pagenaud
Fans may still watch from the turn 2 mounds
Special Session Hopes to Help Top Lane
Greetings from Texas Motor Speedway. This place is huge. More on the facility later.
News came mid- afternoon that a special 30 minute session will take place involving seven cars which will run in the second lane in an effort to put more rubber down and neutralize the effect fo the JP1 compound. The drivers who will participate are Ed Carpenter, Will Power, Helio Castroneves, Pato O’Ward, Grahan Rahal, Takuma Sato, and Felix Rosenqvist. Firestone will have 10 sets of tires availablke for the test.
The practice will be at 4 PM local time. the final practice, which was originally scheduled to begin at that time, will begin at 4:45 and run the full hour allotted. The cars running the high groove time are allowed extra downforce for the 30 minutes only.
Participation in the special session was voluntary, and Andretti, Ganassi, Foyt, and Juncos Hollinger chose not to partake.
I’m not sure how much seven cars for half an hour will help. We should know after the final practice how effective it was.
My understanding is that Peacock will carry the the extra round.
The Pit Window by Mike Silver 