Tag: Sonoma Raceway

A New Look for Indycar Weekends; P2P Revised; Reds GetMore Track Time

thepitwindow

Yesterday Indycar announced format changes for race weekends. Most of the new procedures affect road and street course events.  The oval  races at Phoenix and Gateway will have a new prerace look also. Some of the changes affect certain tracks only. Here are the changes, followed by my thoughts. Thanks to Eric Smith of Race Review Online for providing the list.

• Phoenix and Gateway qualifications: Qualifying at two oval tracks – Phoenix Raceway and Gateway Motorsports Park – will be held on the same day as those Saturday night races. The first day of those two-day event weekends will focus on a pair of practice sessions, the latter falling within the same evening time slot as the race.

• Firestone alternate tires: At road and street courses, each car will receive an additional set of Firestone’s red-sidewall alternate tires, bringing the total to four sets of the softer-compound Firehawks available for the weekend and allowing teams to better gauge performance characteristics of the alternate tires in comparison to Firestone’s more-durable, black-sidewall, primary-compound tires prior to qualifications. Each entry must return one set of tires – either primary or alternate – following the first practice session of a weekend and another set – the opposite compound from the first returned set – following the second practice session.

• Overtake assist time allotment: Push-to-pass overtake assist in road and street races will be based on a maximum time allotment for each car instead of the number of uses. The events at the streets of St. Petersburg, Raceway at Belle Isle Park and Sonoma Raceway will have a total overtake time allotment of 150 seconds for each race, with the other road/street races set for 200 seconds. When a driver engages the overtake via a button on the steering wheel, it increases engine turbocharger boost pressure by 15 kilopascals (kPa) to 165 kPa – good for about 60 added horsepower. Once engaged, push-to-pass will run for a pre-established duration equivalent to approximately the time needed to drive the length of the track’s main straightaway (15-20 seconds). Drivers will now have the ability to disengage an overtake activation midway through its use to save time for a later use. In addition, push-to-pass will not be available at the start of a race or for any restarts, with the exception of a restart commencing with two laps remaining in the race.

• INDYCAR Grand Prix schedule: Verizon IndyCar Series on-track action at the INDYCAR Grand Prix on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course will consist of two days, Friday and Saturday, May 12-13, to create a more action-packed event. All three levels of the Mazda Road to Indy development ladder will still have track activity on Thursday, May 11.

• Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix qualifications: For the Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix doubleheader in June, qualifying sessions for each race will see the field divided into two groups based on practice times, with 12 minutes of track time allotted for each qualifying group (with five minutes of guaranteed green-flag time). Previously, qualifying for the first race followed the advancement round format used at other road/street events. Qualifying groups for Belle Isle will be based on best lap times from the practice session immediately preceding Race 1 qualifications. If a car causes a red-flag situation during a qualifying session, its best two timed laps will be disallowed and it will not be permitted to continue in the session. One driver and entrant championship point will be awarded to the fastest car in each qualifying group on both days.

• Standardized road/street practice times: Practice sessions on the first day of most road/street course event weekends will have standardized start times of 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. local. Each session will be 45 minutes in duration.

 My thoughts:

I love same day qualifying. It is hectic for the teams, but it really provides value for the fans. I have been to many races where the race starts in late afternoon and there are no support events.  A night practice for a night race makes sense, especially in the same time slot as the race. Indycars under the lights are an amazing sight. Unless there is a drastic change in weather in 24 hours, this will help teams know what to expect.

About time drivers are allowed to practice on the alternate reds during practice. I’ve always thought it was silly to not be able to practice on what you would use in qualifying. Another step helping the teams put on a better qualifying show. Thanks to Firestone for the extra work this involves making the extra sets available.

The push to pass change will make starts and restarts fairer and possibly safer.  I really like that a driver can decide not to use a full burst and save time for later. This is essentially is the same amount of time as before, but a driver could get more uses from it.  I wonder if all teams and the fans will be made aware of how much time other drivers have left. Indycar attempted to keep that information hidden for awhile last year, but that policy seemed to fade away.

Compressing the Indycar Grand Prix of Indianapolis schedule is a good idea. Thursday was mainly just let’s get the dust off the track day.  I like the idea of the three Mazda Road to Indy series getting the entire Thursday to themselves.  Anytime the future stars can get a showcase can only help Indycar in the long run.

The Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix qualifying format makes sense for a couple reasons. The schedule at Belle Isle is really packed. It will free up 30-45 minutes of track time.  This is the procedure used for race 2 qualifying, so it standardizes the weekend’s qualifying procedure. One thing I would change is have the groups on Sunday based on Saturday’s starting positions rather than have the same groups both days.

I will like going to a track on the first event day knowing when the practice sessions are. I always take a copy of the schedule with me, but it will be nice to know the first session is at 11 and the second one is at 3.   Shortening the practice sessions to 45 minutes and allowing practice on the reds should make for more on track action during the sessions.

These are great changes for the Verizon Indycar Series. I like that they are trying to have practice sessions simulate qualifying and race conditions while providing more on track running.  Adapting procedures to the situations of different tracks is helpful as well.

Notes:

Schmidt Peterson Motorsports announced Copper Moon Coffee will be the team’s official coffee supplier through 2018. Will the steering wheels have an espresso button?

Zachary Claman DeMelo signed with Carlin for his second Indy Lights season.  I thought he showed steady improvement during the year. It appears there will be 12-14 cars on the Indy Lights grid. Considering that Schmidt is not entering the series this year, that is a nice number.

We are just 32 days away from the first practice day at St. Pete. I’m ready.

I’m working on my season preview, which I plan to publish March 1. I will be back before then.  You can’t get rid of me that easily.

 

 

Indycar Season Review- A Penske Walk in the Park

thepitwindow

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.

 

Simonized-Simon Waxes the Field

thepitwindow

Simon Pagenaud cruised to another dominating victory Sunday afternoon in Sonoma to earn his first IndyCar series championship. The title had pretty much been a foregone conclusion for weeks despite a little closing of the gap by Will Power at Pocono. All doubt was erased after qualifying Saturday when Pagenaud took the pole on his last lap.

Will Power’s last hope ended on lap 36 with a clutch issue.  He stalled on the backstretch causing the day’s only yellow.  He finished eight laps behind.  Power did not  have a bad season. Four victories and two second place finishes will usually win a title. Missing the St. Pete race cost him this Astor Cup.

The interesting part of the race was the battle for third place in the standings between Helios Castroneves and Josef Newgarden.  Newgarden finished sixth Sunday and Castroneves was seventh. Helio ended the season third by two points.

Roger Penske celebrated his fiftieth year in motorsports capturing the top three spots in the championship.

Notes:

We now enter Silly Season. According to all sources every driver seems headed for a new seat next year.  A slight exaggeration perhaps, but there will be a lot of movement.   The number of Indy Lights drivers able to move up is another unknown.

Will there be fewer teams? Team consolidation is possible. Has Ed Jones winning the Lights title accelerated Carlin’s jump to IndyCar?

Josef Newgarden has eight days to respond to his offer from Ed Carpenter Racing.

The event. The staff at Sonoma Raceway did a great job this weekend. You could tell they had done their homework. Saturday and Sunday had the biggest crowds I’ve seen here in the three years I’ve gone.  It ok s also a fan friendly track. After parking, fans receive a card with the lot number and shuttle color to take when they leave. Sunday as we stood in line,  workers passed out water bottles.

Next  Monday I will have my season review and more about next season. I will also  have some Sonoma photos.

 

Update: It appears Newgarden and Rossi are now off the table. Josef moving on to Penske and Rossi staying with Andretti/Herta.

Sonoma Practice Day-Nothing Learned

thepitwindow

The last weekend of the IndyCar season is off to a slow start. The first practice session mainly featured cars sitting on pit road.  Helios  Castroneves led the session, running only 4 laps. Scott Dixon was near the bottom, doing a few very slow laps early, then going out near the end but only getting to eighteenth place.

The second round of practice had more action.  It was another clean session until Conor Daly lost an engine with about ten minutes to go heading toward the hairpin. After a brief halt practice resumed but ended quickly when Alexander Rossi suddenly stopped just past the start/finish line. Castroneves again led the session, followed by his Penske teammates who are fighting for the title.

While Hondas were strong in the morning, Ryan Hunter-Reay was the only one in the top five in the afternoon.

I don’t think much was learned today about how the weekend will go. Tomorrow morning’s practice should tell us a lot. Someone other than Power or Pagenaud winning the pole is in Pagenaud’s favor.  Power needs every point he can get.

Notes:

The new scoring pylon, a four sided digital screen, is great. Much more readable than the old pylon.

It was a decent Friday crowd, maybe slightly better than last year.

I was thinking today that a spotter guide will be a required item at St. Pete next March. There are almost as many possible combinations for 2017 as there scenarios f o r who will. win the championship.

I had a great day seeing friends, some who I will not see again until next year.

S

Sonoma Preview- Simon has a Simple Task

thepitwindow

 

The IndyCar season closes Sunday at Sonoma Raceway with a two man race for the Series title.  Simon Pagenaud has a pretty easy job to win the championship- just stay close to Will Power all day.  Power has been very quick here winning the pole the last two years. In -race issues, a self inflicted spin in 2014 and contact with Juan Pablo Montoya last year took him out of contention for the win.

After spotting the field a race, Power has scored the most points in the races he has started. I don’t think he will be able to get enough points to beat Pagenaud, assuming both drivers run their usual race.  Power will probably lose the title by fewer than the 43 points he trails by now though.

Scott Dixon, while too far back to win his fifth title, could factor into who wins the Astor Cup. Dixon has won the last two races here with great pit strategy.  If he takes the lead,  Pagenaud simply has to follow one spot behind Power the rest of the race.

I think it’s great when the points I reader wins the last race. It puts an exclamation mark  on the season.  We could be in for an interesting game of who chases who on Sunday.

Notes:

Sonoma Raceway has a new four-sided scoring tower and video board to enjoy g dance viewing and tracking the race.

First points as they prepare for practice- Power -43.

While I’m sad to see the season end, I am grateful I attended a personal record number of races and am very excited for next year.

My race and season reviews will probably come out late next week. I am spending extended time in California visiting family.  As always, thanks for  reading.

King of the Mountain- Dixon Rules at Watkins Glen- Part 1

thepitwindow4 Comments

After a frustrating stretch of races, Scott Dixon returned to form this weekend with a completely dominating performance. He led all but one practice/qualifying session, sat on the pole, and controlled the race from start to finish. Dixon’s lead grew to the point that he was exiting turn 11 as Max Chilton, in second at the time, was entering turn 9. The win is a bit of a consolation prize for him. Dixon is tied with Helio Castroneves for third in points, but cannot catch leader Simon Pagenaud  for the title.

The entire weekend was better than I expected it to be.  So much was against this event.  Indycar did not announce it until May when the Boston street race was cancelled leaving a huge hole in the schedule. Thanks to the efforts of Jay Frye and Watkins Glen president Michael Printup,  a deal came together rather quickly.  Would any fans show up? Would the race be any good? Fans were excited to have Watkins Glen back on the schedule, but it was Labor Day weekend. Many people probably had some type of plan already moving forward.

Attendance both Saturday and Sunday exceeded my expectations.  Granted, it was still a small crowd, but given the circumstances, a very respectable turnout both days. It is a good baseline to grow the event from. Some  grandstands had quite a few people in them. I heard 600 campsites were sold. There were plenty left. I did notice as I left the track that the parking are behind the Argetsinger Grandstand, outside the esses, was full.

The race was better than anticipated as well. I thought we might see two full course cautions widely spaced.  There were two very close together and another one near but not close enough to the final pit window. This made the end a fuel saving race. No one is better at winning that game than Scott Dixon. As for the fuel gamblers, Conor Daly just made it to the finish for fourth place,  James Hinchcliffe could not finish the final lap, dropping from second to eighteenth. What a rough ten days it’s been for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports.

The Track and Its Surroundings

Watkins Glen International sits atop a mountain. The views are stunning.  Mountains dressed in greenery are visible for miles.  The track itself has deep drop-offs and and tree lined sections. Somehow, Indycar has managed to add the two most beautiful tracks, Road America and Watkins Glen, to the schedule in the same year.

Getting around the track was fairly simple.The infield is mostly flat. Roads are clearly marked and they all have names. I either walked or drove my car to a new spot if my destination was a really far walk. Some campers brought their bicycles to use. The track provided golf cart shuttles, some for fans with mobility challenges.  Several times as I was walking to the paddock, a golf cart  driver would stop and ask if I would like a ride.

Food choices were fairly standard track fare.  I thought the prices were reasonable.  There seemed to be enough stands open to accommodate the crowd.

I visited with a friend who was camping for the weekend.  I had heard from some other people that the camping prices were a bit high. I have never camped at a track, so, I have no way to compare. One person said $480, another said $600.  The camp sites are clearly marked in several ways.  There are street signs with a range of sites along the road, E200-220, example. There is a laminate placard with the site number at the spot. Some site had the number burned out of the grass. My friend told me the number of her campsite. I found it easily. Each campsite had a small firepit available.

The Season Finale

After a week off, Indycar goes to Sonoma for The GoPro GRAND Prix to end the season.  it will take a full catastrophe for Pagenaud to lose the title. There is now the uncertainty of Will Power’s ability to race.  He has another concussion evaluation this week. He might miss this week’s test at Sonoma. If he can’t race,  the championship goes to Simon before the race.

I will end with some more photos from the weekend. The shots of the cars going through turn 5 does not do justice to the speed they carried through here. The other pictures are of the view from the track.

 

Watkins Glen Day Two-More Exploring, Messy Qualifying, and a Hot Lap Ride

thepitwindow

A. chilly foggy morning slowly became a warm sunny day. I arrived at the track in time for Indy Lights qualifying.  I watched from the Jackie Stewart stand, which is becoming my viewing spot of choice. When IndyCar practice began, I ventured to some other spots. I started at the bus stop then walked to the Carousel, turn 5. This is a very fast corner. The cars scream around it and head to the descent to turn 6.  I decided to watch the Indy Lights race from the Argestener stand outside the track at the beginning of the esses. It gives a view of turn 1 and turns 2 and 3, but that is all. Very limited viewing. I went back to the Stewart stand for IndyCar qualifying.

What a messy situation. There were four penalties called, changing those who advanced.  The penalty on Mikhail Aleshin seemed a bit marginal to be generous. Both Schmidt cars were penalized. Schmidt’s Indy Lights entry was also penalized in qualifying earlier in the day.  Scott Di x on won the pole, obliterating the track record.

Then it was time for my hot lap ride. My two favorite rides to date have been Sonoma and Road America. Add this one to that list. The elevation changes were steeper and deeper than I expected.  I felt a pull in my stomach climbing the hill in the esses. I felt the car write the letter S.  The drop from turn 5 to 6 was a huge descent. The corners of the boot had us straining our seat belts. It was a great ride.

Tomorrow I think the winner comes from the first row. I see the field getting strung out quickly. I think there will w two full course cautions that will make things interesting.

As an added service, I’ll be tweeting out points as they run every lap and a half.  I’m kidding of course. Tuesday morning will be my weekend wrap up. Have a great evening.