Tag: Rahal Letterman Lanigan RacingFirestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg

King Joins RLL for the 500

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Photo above: Jordan King at Mid Ohio, 2018

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing announced this morning that Jordan King will drive their third entry in the 103rd running of the Indianapolis 500. King drove for Ed Carpenter Racing in 2018 as the road/street course driver of the number 20 car. He had hoped to put together a full time ride for this season. King joins Graham Rahal and Takuma Sato on the team for the oval portion of May. He will drive the car Oriol Servia used in this year’s 500. Servia led late in the race until he needed a late splash of fuel.

In 2018, King showed good pace in qualifying. He advanced to the second round six times, twice getting into the Fast Six. His best start was fourth at St. Pete. His best race finish was 11th at Toronto.

A lack of funding has prevented King from landing a full time ride. RLL has also been looking to field a third full time car. King hopes to add more Indycar races to his 2019 schedule. RLL is open to that idea.

COTA Tickets on Sale

Tickets for the Circuit of the Americas Indycar Classic went on sale today. There are four plans available. General admission is $85, Premium Grandstand seats begin at $119. Turn 12 bleachers are $119. There is also a Flex Pass, where fans can choose a different seat for each day. The pass is $189. Paddock Passes are $75. Seems a bit pricey to me, but it is a great track. Austin is a fun city as well.  The track is offering a 10% discount on General Admission until January 3.

I’m excited to return. I attended the first two F1 races. The hill in turn 1 was my favorite viewing spot. You can see some other parts of the circuit from there. The turn 12 stands also presents a good view. The cars come downhill to a left hand corner, then go uphill.

Indycar News and Notes

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Programming note- Sunday’s Honda Indy 200 at Mid Ohio will be televised live on CNBC at 3 pm ET and re-aired on NBCSN at 6:30 pm Sunday.

It seems as if Indycar has a news item or two every day lately. Here are a few tidbits.

Mo Nunn

Mo Nunn died last Wednesday after battle with Parkinson’s Disease. Nunn was the engineer who helped Chip Ganassi’s team first taste success with Alex Zanardi and Juan Pablo Montoya. Mike Hul credits Nunn for his current success Ganassi has.

A former Formula 1 driver and team owner, Nunn also owned teams in CART and the IRL. Tony Kanaaan drove for Nunn in CART before going to Andretti Green in 2003.

My friend George Phillips wrote a nice tribute to Nunn on Monday. you can read it here:

https://oilpressure.wordpress.com/

Mid Ohio Features Return of Three Drivers

The Honda Indy 200 at Mid Ohio will see the return of Jack Harvey in the number 60 Meyer-Shank racing entry. This is a home race for Michael Shank, who is looking to eventually become a full time Indycar team.

Pietro Fittipaldi, recovered from fracturing both legs in a practice accident at Spa two months ago, returns to the 19 car for Dale Coyne Racing. His absence allowed Zachary Claman De Melo toget more time in the car. DeMelo did a nice job. I’d like to see him in a full time ride.

Conor Daly will again be driving for Harding Racing. He took Gabby Chaves’ place in Toronto, giving the team its best qualifying and finishing position of the year. Chaves is still under contract with the team through 2019. He will be back in the car at some point. The team is pleased with the technical information Daly is providing. Harding is hopeful of having a two car team next season.

Rahal Says Steak n Shake May Return

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing owner Bobby Rahal said that Steak n Shake may return as a sponsor of Graham Rahal’s car in the future. The company withdrew this year to redirect funds elsewhere. It would be great to see them back. Steak n Shake did a lot of activation with signs and prerace weekend appearances by Rahal at their restaurants.

Wildfire Sports is My Home for Mid Ohio

I will be reporting for Wildfire Sports this weekend Friday through Sunday. You can find my columns at wildfireradiosports.com.

I will post quick thoughts here and live tweet during the weekend. Follow along on the blog’s Twitter account @PitWindow.

Mid Ohio usually produces some big announcements about the next season.  Stay tuned

 

Sebring Recap= Mixed Day for Indycar Drivers; ABC out?

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Cool nights and very hot days made the 66th 12 hour race at Sebring an endurance contest for the fans as well as the drivers. It turned out to be a great race with some late drama as usual. The final two and a half hours had some great battles for the lead. At one point after dark, both the Prototype and GTLM classes had three way fights for the lead. IMSA’s restart procedure in which the cars line up in groups helped. It made for exciting action.

Indycar drivers had a mixed day with a couple class podiums, some major disappointments, and some midpack finishes. Ryan Hunter-Reay was the top finisher with a second place overall in the Wayne Taylor car co-driven by Jordan Taylor and Renger Van Der Zande. Former Indycar driver Mike Conway  joined Hunter-Reay on the podium in the third place entry for Action Express. He teamed with Felipe Nasr and Eric Curran.

Other Indycar related finishes:

The Penske team did not fare well, retiring early in the contest. The car of Juan Pablo Montoya and Simon Pagenaud finished 40th overall. Helio Castroneves and Graham Rahal dropped out first in 41st place. In general, the number 7 of Castroneves, Rahal, and Ricky Taylor has been the faster of the two. Taylor qualified third.

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Ford GTLM machines did slightly better. Scott Dixon, Ryan Briscoe, and Richard Westbrook finished 4th in class and 13th overall. Sebastien Bourdais dropped out in 39th place, last in class.

Car 55 with Spencer Pigot led late and was in contention for the win. On a pit stop with 41 minutes left, the car would not restart. They finished a lap down, 6th overall.

The best story of the weekend was Michael Shank Racing’s car 93. A brake failure and heavy wall contact in Thursday evening practice destroyed the car. The crew worked tirelessly to make repairsr and presented the car for Saturday’s pre-race warmup. From starting in last place the trio of Lawson Aschenbach, Mario Farnbacher, and Justin Marks led some laps and eventually finished seventh in class.

Next year Sebring will be interesting. After IMSA runs the traditional 12 hour race, the WEC will have its own 12 hour race about 90 minutes later, beginning at midnight. This sounds like a logistical nightmare to me. Exchanging pit equipment, podium ceremonies, pre-race for WEC, all in less than 90 minutes might make for a more interesting show than the race. The response from the fans will be interesting as well. I talked to several fans at the track about it. Most are not sure how this will work. There is a lot of skepticism about this idea.

ABC Out of Indycar?

A tweet sent out Saturday by a weatherman in Macon, Georgia, said that 2018 will be ABC’s final year covering the Verizon Indycar Series. The tweet was taken down and Mark Miles said it was a little premature. If true, it means that NBC will be the sole carrier for Indycar next year.

ABC has covered the Indianapolis 500 for 50 years. Since their new deal with Indycar that split the races between ABC and NBCSN, their coverage has been rather weak. There is no chemistry in the booth, they seem to always have the wrong camera shot on screen, and worse, it seems like they care very little about their product. Even their 500 broadcasts, which should be one of their crown jewels, has not been great.

I will have more to say after an official announcement. I’m thinking it will come just before or during the Phoenix race weekend.

Servia Enters the 500

There was an announcement that slipped through the cracks St. Petersburg race weekend. Veteran Oriol Servia will enter the 500 in a car in the Rahal Letterman Lanigan stable run by Scuderia Corsa. Corsa has an association with Ferrari and runs sportscar programs in the US and Europe. I don’t see any interest beyond the 500. It’s nice to have some more international flavor to the race.

A New Car That Works; A Repeat Champion

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The victory may have gone to Sebastien Bourdais for the second year in a row, but the winner at St. Pete was Robert Wickens.  After a brilliant run to grab the pole on Saturday, Wickens drove an excellent race, leading 69 laps and had the race well in hand. Alexander Rossi pursued him relentlessly all day, but couldn’t quite get to him.

Two late cautions put Wickens’ lead in jeopardy. The last one set up a restart with just two laps to go. Oddly, the lights on the pace car did not go out signaling a restart. Was Wickens unaware the green was coming? Rossi pounced at the flag. He pulled alongside Wickens in turn one. Wickens had put his car in a good defensive spot. Rossi going inside but he put his right side wheels on the curb, causing a collision with Wickens. Rossi recovered to finish third, while Wickens could not continue. It was a tough ending to what had been a great day for the rookie.

I don’t blame Rossi for going for the win. That’s what racers do. He did put his car in a bad spot to maintain control and cost another driver the race. No driver had gone on the curb all weekend. A little background, though. In Friday afternoon’s practice Rossi once waited until the apex of the turn to brake and kept the car under control. Perhaps he as trying this move out. However, he didn’t have his wheels on the curb. So I put the blame n Rossi for the incident. He usually doesn’t make mistakes like that.

The race overall was great. After a caution filled first 40 laps, things settled down to some excellent racing. Wickens and Rossi battled for first all day, and there were battles for positions in the top 10 constantly. Sometimes on street course the cars can get strung out so far you never see two cars at once. That wasn’t the case yesterday. It was an outstanding way to start the season.

Notes

I haven’t seen the ABC broadcast yet, but I’m not hearing many compliments about it.

Scott Dixon had an awful weekend with his qualifying mistake and his collision with Sato in the race. His avoidable contact penalty was compounded with a pit violation. Despite all that he still managed a 6th place finish.

One thing I noticed about the new cars- I realize how easy the old cars were to drive. These cars are a handful. We are going to find out who the really skilled drivers are this year. Bring on that extra horsepower.

Last is becoming the place to start at St. Pete. Bourdais won from last place in 2017 and Graham Rahal fought through some early issues to finish second this time around.

It took me awhile to get it through my head that Helio Castroneves wasn’t in the Hitachi car. Then I realized it couldn’t be him because the car had the number 1 on it.

The fans in the turn 1 grandstand rose as one and gave Robert Wickens a long loud ovation when he got out of his car after the incident with Rossi.

Entry to the track was smoother this year. Security has streamlined their procedures. They could use a no bag line, though.

As an event St. Pete continues to grow. There was more signage downtown on the street and in stores. Newspaper advertising was more extensive including front page wrap around on Thursday.

Season Preview Part 3- Big Teams Will Still Contend

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This is likely the group from which your 2018 Indycar champion will emerge. It won’tbe easy. I see as many as seven contenders from this group, with two teams having multiple contenders. Graham Rahal, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Alexander Rossi, Scott Dixon, Josef Newgarden, Will Power, and Simon Pagenaud could stage one of the greatest title fights Indycar has seen. Each team won  at least one race last year. I expect that to be the case again.  A reminder- the order I talk about the teams does not indicate any prediction of season results.

Team Penske

Another year with this team in the championship hunt. Penske drivers should again dominate qualifying on the road/street courses and will probably do well at some ovals, too. Defending champion Josef Newgarden, Simon Pagenaud, and Will Power will  each win races. I don’t think they will win as many combined as they did in 2017, but they should win nearly half of the events. The key is where thel finish in the others that will determine their title hopes.

Newgarden will not relinquish his title willingly. Pagenaud, who had a strong title defense in 2017, will be a threat to win at every road /street course. He showed huge improvement on ovals last year as well, winning Phoenix and nearly winning Gateway. Power lurked near the front all season but early DNFs doomed his chances. He has had to fight back from low finishes at St. Pete the last two years.

The new aero packages should favor the Penske cars. The question is, will the new package allow other teams to catch  them? I think there will be a closing of the gap.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

RLLR has been the best of the smaller teams the last three years. A single car team until now, they usually have one dominant weekend a season and have another race fall their way. In 2015 Rahal left Mid-Ohio just nine points behind leader Juan Pablo Montoya. This year could be even better.

Finally, Graham Rahal gets a teammate to help with setups. Not just any teammate, but defending Indianapolis 500 winner Takuma Sato, who is known to be very good at helping his team in that department. Rahal has been in the top 5 or just outside it for the last three years and has won races for three consecutive seasons.

Sato was fastest at the Phoenix Open test. Rahal also showed speed. The first part of the year is where this team has struggled. If Graham can have success early, he can make a real run toward his first Astor Cup. Sato won the 500 last year and a pole. He still needs to be more consistent and stay out of trouble.

I think Rahal will be in the top four at season’s end. I’m not picking him for fourth.

Chip Ganassi Racing

The addition of sponsor PNC full time on Scott Dixon’s car and downsizing to two cars put the Ganassi team in great shape for another title run. Dixon is the only driver holdover from 2017. Tony Kanaan is now with A. J. Foyt Racing, and Charlie Kimball and Max Chilton now are teammates at Carlin Racing. Ed Jones will be Dixon’s teammate in the NTT Data car.

The contracted operation allows more focus on Dixon and should help Jones as well. The main goal, however is putting the 9 car in victory lane more than once and bringing the title back to CGR. Their chances are good.

Jones will have a steady season and could help his teammate by taking points away from some of Dixon’s chief rivals.

Andretti Autosport

The armada is coming. Look out for these guys. Two strong title contenders, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Alexander Rossi will be frequent visitors to the podium, including the top step. Promising rookie Zach Veach will lead a strong rookie class. Marco Andretti has renewed hope to improve his results with the new aero package.

Hunter-Reay should return to winning after a drought that seemed to begin with the manufacturer’s aerokit.  He is one of the early favorites to win his second Indianapolis 500. Huner-Reay sounds very enthusiastic about the new configuration.

Rossi is on the verge of a very special year. He came on strong at the end of last season, capped by a strong performance at Watkins Glen. He will win well before Labor Day this year, and likely more than once. Fans will need to pay attention to where he will finish at Sonoma. This could be his championship.

Veach has waited a very long time for his chance to be in Indycar, and I expect him to take full advantage of it. He is more ready than any rookie ever has been. Veach should have many top 10s and possibly a couple of top 5s.

Marco and his crew chief Bryan Herta have displayed a lot of excitement about the coming year. We have heard this before from Marco, but the results have never matched his preseason optimism. Will this year be different? I think they might, but what is the bar? What will constitute improvement? I would like to see better qualifying performances- 2nd round on road/street courses consistently with an occasion Fast 6 for starters, and more race presence with results in the top 10 becoming routine.

This will be a very good year for Andretti Autosport. Rossi will rival Josef Newgarden for attention and points.

Tomorrow, a season preview with my rock solid predictions. That means my picks will be dropping like rocks by Long Beach. Thanks for reading this week. Look for my posts on Wildfire Sports in a day or two. I will let you know when they are up.