Tag: Detroit GP

Indycar Season Review- A Penske Walk in the Park

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Dominance returned to Indycar this season. Chevrolet dominated the engine battle. Drivers dominated races. Penske cars dominated the standings. Simon Pagenaud dominated the championship. Pagenaud had an early run of three straight wins and a couple second places. Will Power had a mid-season run of four wins and two second places. The difference? Power had to sit out the first race of the year due to medical issues.

While Chevrolet won more races and fourteen poles, Honda did show slight gains with two poles and more Fast Six qualifying rounds this year than last.Their two victories were well short of the six wins of 2015. With the aero-kit freeze in place for next year, Honda will focus on engine development to offset the aero disadvantage. It would be nice if the teams could work on the aerokits themselves next year.

There were several dominating drives this year. Pagenaud was clearly the class of the field at Long Beach, the Indy Grand Prix, and Sonoma. Josef Newgarden beat up on the field at Iowa. It appeared James Hinchcliffe had everyone covered at Texas, but he was nosed out at the line by Graham Rahal.  Will Powqer led virtually the entire way at road America.

Team Penske won ten of the sixteen races.  Pagenaud won half of those. His late season wins at Mid-Ohio and Sonoma were something we hadn’t seen from a series champion in a while. The last few years, the points leader won races early then hung on desperately to either win the title in the last race or lose it there.

Three classic venues returned to the schedule this year- Phoenix, Road America, and Watkins Glen. Watkins Glen was a mid-season replacement for the cancelled Boston race. It was a great upgrade from a street race. I was fortunate to be at all three. It was very exciting to have these three tracks back.

Opinion section

The best races this year, always subjective were Barber, the Indianapolis 500, Pocono, and Texas.  There is also something beautiful in the way Newgarden crushed Iowa.

The worst races- Phoenix and Sonoma.

Worst luck driver- Helio Castroneves.  He “earns” this honor with the following resume:

Indianapolis- Hit exiting the pits by Townsend Bell, then rear-ended by JR Hildebrand while he had the strongest contending car. Detroit- leading  Race 2 but waited too long to pit and was caught by a yellow. Twice at Iowa a yellow came out while he was in the pits for his scheduled stop.  At Pocono he was an innocent bystander in the Rossi/Kimball pit incident.  In spite of all this, Castroneves still managed to finish third in the standings, but not without a fight from Newgarden.

Runner-up for this category- Scott Dixon.

What broken clavicle? Josef Newgarden somehow escaped a horrific crash at Texas in the first attempt to race, ending up with a hand and clavicle fracture. He was expected to miss at least one race. Amazingly, he was back int he car at the next event at Road America. Two weeks after that came his perfect game at Iowa. The points he lost by crashing at Texas probably cost him third place. He finished two points behind in fourth.

On Wednesday, I hope to have some silly season updates and more thoughts on next year. Overall, it was a great year for Indycar’s image.

 

Dual in Detroit- Racing on the River

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The French had their best weekend in Detroit in almost 300 years.  Two poles and a second place for Simon Pagenaud and a victory by Sebastien Bourdais in Race 1 made this a great weekend for the drivers from France. The racing was decent, not always the case here, and this event has grown and improved each of the three years I have been there. Before my first visit, I didn’t think much of the racing or the event here. Detroit did not seem like a place I cared to go to.

This past weekend I saw one really good race on Saturday and a decent race on Sunday. Both were fuel strategy races. Saturday featured great pit calls by Bourdais and Conor Daly. Daly’s call for fuel only on his last race nearly got him the win. Bourdais’s early pit stop and then exiting the pits ahead of everyone on his last stop sealed the win for him.  Conor Daly’s second place was the highlight of the day for many fans. He could possibly win in Toronto if that race plays out in a similar fashion to this one.

Sunday’s race was more processional, probably due to the threat of rain ending before the start. Teams still employed different pit strategies, but the race didn’t allow them to work. it came down to pit cycles. An untimely yellow cost Helio Castroneves a victory as he had to pit during the caution. It’s the same thing that cost the Penske team a win at mid-Ohio last year.  Not pitting when the pit window opens is a risky move. Will Power won with a great pass of Simon Pagenaud.

As for the Detroit event, It has the ingredients that make a city street race successful: first, buy-in not only from the city, but from the people who live and work there. The shuttle bus to the track on Friday was filled with people who were given the afternoon off by their employers to go out to the island. Many had chalet and suite passes.

Second, an army of friendly, welcoming volunteers. Detroit has the friendliest, most helpful volunteers of any track I go to.  Fans receive a greeting when they arrive and a thank you when they leave. The volunteers are an important part of the buy-in from the community.

Another element that makes this event so much fun is the food court. Every year I have attended, the food choices have improved tremendously. This year offered many healthy choices, including fruit bowls, Greek food, and  vegetable bowls.  It was an upgrade from last year, which I thought was the best I’d ever seen at a track.

Notes:

I was disappointed to not see any Alexander Rossi shirts in the Indycar merchandise tents. I don’t know if this is a league or team responsibility, but he was signed early enough to have shirts made. I would think Indycar would want some souvenirs with the Indy 500 winner’s name on it.

If you go to Detroit next year, Grandstand 2 is the place to be. Great view of the pits, the front straight, and turn 1.

Leaving after the race was greatly improved this year. Every bus in the state of Michigan was pressed into duty to get fans back to their cars downtown. Two years ago I stood in line for more than 90 minutes just to get on the bus. This year I was on a bus and headed downtown in about 40 minutes after leaving my seat.

I will watch the Texas race from home this weekend, but I will be at road America in just 17 days. RA is one of my bucket list tracks.  To prevent total race car withdrawal, I will be going to IMS for the vintage racing meet Father’s day weekend. Pictures aplenty from there.  Hopoe to have another post up by Friday at the latest.