Tag: Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach

Endings and Beginnings- Thoughts on Sonoma

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The last race of the season creates a conundrum. There is a race to watch and people want to see a race winner. But there is a season title on the line which creates another layer of watching.  Point scenarios are discussed for a week. Very little attention is on the race itself.

Sonoma itself has unique issues a site for the finale. It’s a beautiful venue in a beautiful setting. Track management does a great job presenting the event as the finale. Yet the race is usually not the type of race a series needs for the one that decides its champion. Passing is at a premium. The cars get strung out. Pit strategy is the way to get by someone. An oval in prime time would make for a better ending to the season and add more drama to the title fight.

The 2017 edition of Sonoma was better than most races thanks to Simon Pagenaud’s four stop strategy. It was clear this was the plan from the start when his first pit stop came two laps before the pit window opened. He continued to build his gap after the other drivers pitted each time by staying on reds until his last stop. Pagenaud’s gap was big enough by the time he made his last stop to beat Josef Newgarden out of the pits. Newgarden tried to pass a couple times, but decided, or actually Tim Cindric did, that second place meant the title.

Newgarden is one of the youngest drivers to win the series championship. He took the lead at Mid Ohio and never looked back. The only hiccup the last two months was his problem leaving the pits at Watkins Glen.  The rest of his final stretch showed first or second place finishes. Newgarden is destined to add a couple more titles to his resume.

While we’re possibly seeing the beginning of a new Indycar star, we may have seen the last of another one full time. Indications are even stronger now that Helio Castroneves will not be a full time driver next year in Indycar. He will run the 500 and possibly the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, but he will be driving for Penske in the IMSA sports car series. I’ve never been a fan of Castroneves, but the last two years he has done the best driving of his career . The paddock will seem empty without him.

The race was the final outing for the manufacturer aerokits. New bodywork for next season should make for better racing since most of the downforce will be on the underside. I will not miss the rear bumpers. I thought they made Indycars look too much like sportscars.

Scott Dixon fought hard for fourth in the race and finished third in the points. The bar Newgarden is shooting for as a career? Dixion has finished in the top 3 in points 11 of the 12 years he’s been in the series.  I hope everyone appreciates that we are watching a legend drive.

Thoughts

I thought the crowd was the biggest I’ve seen at Sonoma in the four years I’ve been there. It was definitely the best Saturday crowd I’ve seen.

Zachary Calaman de Melo did a good job during the weekend. His main job was to get laps and he accomplished that.

I watched Friday’s second practice from the turn 2 and 3 area. It is a great spot to see most of the track. Cars tended to have a bit a back end slide through 3.

Word came yesterday that Ganassi will be a two car team next year. This should not come as a surprise as signs have been there for awhile. I have a couple friends on the 8 and 83 crews. I hope they can land another spot soon.  Brendon Hartley is expected to drive the 10 car.  Nothing against Hartley, a great driver in sports cars, but I’d rather see the opening go to someone who has gone through the Road to Indy.

Will Carlin be full time in Indycar in 2018 with Max Chilton and possibly Charlie Kimball?

Conor Daly ended the season with a couple of top tens and led some laps at Sonoma. Is it enough to save his job? Many of his early season issues were team related.

Silly Season is looking to be very short. Most of the regular seats are filled. We are waiting to see what some possible new teams are planning. I think it’s possible there may be several teams who make select appearances during the year rather than go full time.  The car count may look stable at every race, but some teams will be different.

Thanks to all of you for reading my posts this year. I’ll be back next week with a season review and then I will be posting stories of races past throughout the off season.

 

Sonoma Preview: Cementing a Legend or First Step to a New One??

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This is always the race preview I don’t enjoy writing because it’s the last one of the season. It seems this race always comes too soon. I’m positive it was only two weeks ago that I was standing on pit road at St. Petersburg with my friend Shay Hazen of Live Full Throttle when the engines came to life for the season’s first practice. Now we are at Sonoma for the finale.

Sonoma has never been a great race. The track is narrow and passing is minimal. This year’s event has some intrigue, however, due to the tight points battle. While the track puts on a great event,  this is not the best place to determine a season champion. An oval is better suited for ending the year, especially if Indycar insists on the unnecessary double points ending.

Indycar will tell you that six drivers have a chance at the Astor Cup. two of those drivers are only eligible because of the double points gimmick.  The two ahead of them are a longshot, as I’ll explain. This is really a two driver shootout between Josef Newgarden and Scott Dixon. Newgarden leads Dixon by just 3 points. Dixon is going for his fifth title, while Newgarden looks to continue his quick rise to the top rank of Indycar drivers.

Let’s play along with Indycar for a moment and look at the six drivers and their chances. Alexander Rossi is 84 points behind Newgarden. His title chances depend on his repeating what he did at Watkins Glen, taking the maximum points and Newgarden finishing 21st. Only one of those events is likely. Will Power, 68 points in arrears, needs the grand slam and for Newgarden to finish 13th. Power has had issues at Sonoma. In 2014 he spun while leading in the hairpin, and in 2015 he collided with teammate Juan Pablo Montoya, likely costing Montoya the title.

Defending champion Simon Pagenaud trails Newgarden by 34 points. If   Pagenaud runs the table for 104 points, Newgarden must finish fourth or worse. If Newgarden comes home third, they tie and Newgarden wins with 4 victories to 2 for Pagenaud. Helio Castroneves, like the others, needs to collect the most available points. If he does that,  a second place finish by Newgarden, even if he leads a lap, Castroneves wins the title.

For Newgarden and Dixon, the job is much easier. Whoever finishes ahead of the other is the series champion.  This is one of Dixon’s best tracks. He and Power have won the race three times, with Dixon winning most recently in 2015. The Chevy package will likely have an advantage this weekend, but Dixon just needs to finish ahead of one of them and as far up in the order as he can.

Usually this race comes down to who wins the pole. That single point can be crucial. Saturday’s qualifying will actually eliminate a couple of the drivers with a chance. As we saw in Watkins Glen, however, nothing is certain in Indycar racing. Pit errors may play a role in determining the outcome.

Then there are the spoilers. Rossi played that role at Watkins Glen, taking 11 points that Dixon could have had. Graham Rahal has had a great run the last half of the season, accumulating top 5s and top 10s. Will the extra RLL car for Zachary Claman de Melo be a factor in a point stealing sense? A 22 car field means last place pays16 points, while 21st, the size of most grids this year, is worth 18.

Who will it be? I’m still going with Scott Dixon to be the 2107 champion. He knows how to win championships coming from behind.  Simon Pagenaud will win his second consecutive GoPro Grand Prix, but not from the pole.

Notes

Zach Veach apparently has a 3 year deal with Andretti Autosport. An announcement  should be made this weekend.

Tristan Gommendy and Calmels will drive the 77 car for Schmidt-Peterson Motorsports at next year’s 500. Gommendy rove for KV in CART in 2007.

It looks like Tony Kanaan will drive for A J Foyt next year in the 14. No word on who will be in the 4. I hope it’s still Conor Daly, but I’m not optimistic.

Late news has Brendon Hartley joining Chip Ganassi racing to replace Tony Kanaan. Look for a 2 car effort from Ganassi next year.

My season review and Sonoma post race will be out on September 29. I’m staying in California for a few days after the race. I will try to post Sunday night but it will be brief.

 

The Late Blooming Summer Flower- Rossi Has Arrived

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There is always one flower in the garden that doesn’t bloom until nearly fall. You wait and wait, just knowing that when it blooms it will be amazing. This flower very much parallels the brief Indycar career of Alexander Rossi. before last year’s Indianapolis 500, no one gave him much thought. Following his win in the 100th running he had some very good runs the rest of the season. A likely podium at Pocono was lost when he was involved in a pit road accident. Coming into this year, Rossi was someone to watch. He would surely get at least one victory. The summer of waiting began.

A strong run at Long Beach was thwarted by an engine failure. Pit stop issues cost him positions at other races. Then a bud formed. Rossi began appearing on the podium. Finally,  on Sunday, the blossom opened. Rossi  has an average finish of 4.8 in his last 6 races. Beginning with Toronto, his worst finish is 6th. Sunday was his third podium in that span.

Rossi dominated a good race with lots of passing. His dominant win did not come without drama. A fuel hose problem on his first stop put him back in the field and cause him to need to stop out of sequence on lap 24. It was a long stop since the fuel hose had to be manually opened. He got help from a yellow three laps later and  was able to return to the front of the field as everyone else made their second stop. Rossi had enough of a gap to make his final stop and then blow past everyone else as they pitted. Fuel also played a bit of a role in his second career win again, but in a different way than it did in his first.

I expected the points battle to tighten, but not in such a dramatic way. Scottt Dixon finished second, gaining 28 points on Josef Newgarden, who had a problem on his last pit stop. While there was drama at the front of the field with Rossi’s fueling issues, points battle drama took a huge twist on the last stop. Josef Newgarden slid into the barrier leaving the pits and then was rammed by Sebastien Bourdais. The indcident reminded of Ryan Briscoe at Twin Ring Motegi who had a similar problem leaving the pits. Briscoe also was the points leader with just a couple races to go. He finished third in points.

Next season we could see two Americans, Newgarden and Rossi, fighting for the championship. Andretii Autosport seems to have finally figured something out and with everyone having the same aerokit next year, this team, with Rossi leading will be in the thick of the fight.

Notes:

The Indy Lights finale was one of the best races I have seen this year. The race was run in a heavy rainstorm, but the drivers raced and raced hard. The first five laps had close, intense battles, including a three wide run into turn 1 at the green flag. It was essentially a clean race.It would have been easy to just string out and run single file, yet they were going at it as if the weather were dry.  Hats off to these guys for a great show in difficult conditions. The race will be shown on NBCSN Wednesday evening at 6 pm. It is worth watching.

Congratulations to Mazda Road to Indy champions Oliver Askew, USF2000; Victor Franzoni, Pro Mazda; and Kyle Kaiser, Indy Lights.

Indy lights driver Zachary Claman De Melo will drive a second car for Rahal Letterman Lanigan racing at Sonoma. This could be an audition for a possible third car for the team in 2018.

Attendance at Watkins Glen was down significantly from last year, although there were more fans at the track Sunday than I expected with the weather.  Significantly fewer campsites were occupied.

I will return later in the week to begin discussing some championship scenarios. While there are many possibilities, it is still less complicated than nascar’s playoff format.

 

Saturday at Watkins Glen- Rossi Wins His First Pole

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Maybe Michael Andretti should renew engine, driver, and sponsor agreements every weekend. One day after renewing with NAPA and signing Alexander Rossi to a multi year deal, Rossi won his first Verizon IndyCar Series pole on a chilly day in upstate New York. He bear Scott Dixon on the final lap of the Fast Six. It was one of the best qualifying rounds of the season with P1 constantly changing hands. Rossi used the F1 strategy of being the last car on track.
The significance of this pole victory was not lost on many. It was a very popular win. I think we saw IndyCar’s next big star come to life today. The floodgates are open. I can see a great rivalry developing between Rossi and Josef Newgarden. Now that Rossi knows he can win poles, I think he will begin contending for poles and race wins. He may start with a victory today.
Rossi’s growth since winning the Indianapolis 500 last year is phenomenal. He has improved both on and off the track.
Rossi didn’t sound like he was at all happy or excited to be driving in IndyCar early last season. When he won the 500 things began to change. Rossi slowly began to embrace the series. At the post qualifying press conference we hear a driver who has found a .home.

Rain seems likely tomorrow for the start of the race.
Honda is having a dominant weekend over Chevy.

I had a great evening meeting new IndyCar fans at Seneca Lodge tonight. The racing talk helped the time waiting for a table go by quickly. This is one of the many reasons why I love IndyCar road trips.
Race wrap up and other news Tuesday.

Watkins Glen- The Semi Final

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Hard to believe there are just two races left in the Indycar season.  This weekend’s race at Watkins Glen will tell us what might happen in two weeks at Sonoma. It’s great that IndyCar can race at another historic track this late in the season and that it has meaning in the title pursuit.

The return to Watkins Glen last year as an emergency replacement for the failed Boston Grand Prix was a hit with the fans.  The picturesque setting rivals Road America in natural beauty. The track is fast and provides great viewing spots. Unlike last year, when Simon Pagenaud pretty much had the championship in hand, this year will set the stage for a possible title showdown at Sonoma.

This should be another strong track for Chevy, although Honda will not be at the disadvantage they were at Gateway last week. I think we will have as  good a race here as we did at Road America. Penske cars could dominate qualifying with the Hondas of Scott Dixon and Graham Rahal rounding out the Fast Six.

If Scott Dixon wins this race, as he did last year, the series goes to Sonoma with a major points battle to decide the champion. If Josef Newgarden finishes ahead of Dixon, he will be in very good shape barring a significantly bad finish in California to win his first Indycar title. Just 43 points separate the top four in the standings. Will Power is 83 points behind in fifth. Realistically, this race is between Newgarden and Dixon assuming both finish well this weekend.

Other things to watch this weekend- Will A. J. Foyt racing continue the momentum they gained at Gateway? Will Ganassi park another car? Can Ryan Hunter-Reay get one more good result? Alexander Rossi might be in for a very good weekend. He has shown great growth in driving Indycars and is becoming a fan favorite off the track as well.

How will the swirling rumors surrounding Andretti Autosport affect them this weekend? News reported yesterday I’m leaving in the unconfirmed column for the moment.. I think the only solid part as of now is that Takuma Sato is going to Rahal-Letterman -Lanigan Racing as a teammate to Graham Rahal.

Who shows up in Victory Circle? Scott Dixon will win and  tighten up the points race. The series will go to Sonoma with the championship very much up in the air.

I will be at Watkins Glen this weekend beginning Thursday. I plan to drive the original course on the public roads and will share my experience next week. I’m also planning on going to Ithaca for dinner one night. Hope it’s not too much of an odyssey to get there.

Notes

The Mazda Road to Indy season concludes this weekend. Kyle Kaiser wins the Indy Lights title simply by qualifying. Oliver Askew should win the USF 2000 crown. He has a 13 point lead over Rinus Veekay. The Pro Mazda champion  will be either Victor Franzoni or Anthony Martin. Franzoni leads Martin by just 2 points.

Final attendance figures for Gateway have yet to be announced, but it appears the total will exceed 40, 000.  Gateway is my nomination to host the Indycar season finale in the future. More on this next week.

I’m hopeful Andretti Autosport puts an end to all the speculation this weekend and declares which engine they will use this weekend. Manufacture testing starts soon after the end of the season, and they need to get a handle on the new package quickly.

Jack Harvey will drive the SPM number 7 car this weekend and at Sonoma. The two time Indy lights runner-up is the second driver in the car since Mikhail Aleshin left the program before Pocono. This could be part two of an audition for this car for 2018.

Josef Newgarden has three wins and a second place in the last four races.

 

Teammates Become Arch Rivals- Gateway Recap

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First, congratulations to Curtis Francois and Bommarito Automotive Group for bringing Indycar back to Gateway Motorsports Park and for drawing the biggest oval crowd outside of Indianapolis in many years.  As with any new event, there were issues. My group encountered a couple of issues, but I heard from other fans and media members of significant issues that need to be improved.

Parking was poorly marked and there seemed to be no overall plan for entry or exit. It looks like the track could use a second entry.  Exiting the track we didn’t see anyone directing traffic until we got the exit drive. cars were pointed both east and west waiting to leave.

The track seemed understaffed. On Friday only one person was handling pit/paddock pass redemption. The line wasn’t too long, but it took a while. Two of my friends in the media told me only one person was distributing credentials and it took them nearly an hour to get their cards. Much of the staff didn’t seem to know where things were or what areas fans were or were not allowed into.

I also heard concession stands ran out of bottled water Saturday early evening.  A friend told me she couldn’t find any water Friday afternoon. She was told it wouldn’t be available until 4 pm, two hours after the gates opened, and only certain stands had water available.

These issues can all be fixed with planning, training, and additional staffing. I know the track will be hearing from fans about these and other problems.  I plan to be back next year. I just hope many who came decide not to because of their experience this time.

My first impression of the track was it reminded me of the Milwaukee Mile. It has the look and feel of a traditional short track. I liked it immediately.  This is the type of track Indycar needs to race on a couple more times a year. Two more ovals like this, for a total of five short tracks and the three larger ovals of Indy, Pocono, and Texas would be great.

On my pace car ride Saturday, I noticed turn one is downhill on the approach and the track sweeps uphill into turn two, making the track more like a road course. After riding around the track, the downhill became very noticeable from the stands. Oh yes. There was a race Saturday night. Let’s talk about it.

A rather ordinary race got very interesting the last 50 laps Saturday night at Gateway Motorsports Park. Helio Castroneves had an extended pit stop, dropping him to fourth place after leading with a car good enough to win. Josef Newgarden lost the last pit stop round to teammate Simon Pagenaud, setting up The Pass.

With 30 laps to go Newgarden saw an opening low in turn one and squeezed into it. The slight contact with Pagenaud caused the defending champion to slide up the track, allowing Scott Dixon to grab second place.  Pagenaud was not happy with the move, talking after the race about losing trust and respect for Newgarden. My seat was in turn one, and Ihadve no problem with the move or the pass. It wasn’t a nascar-like move as some have suggested. He didn’t bump him from behind to push him out of the way.  It was a clean move from my vantage point.

The race got off to an awkward start with Tony Kanaan spinning on the pace lap then Will Power spinning on the first attempt to go green following another great pass by Newgarden.  It was his second great pass of Power in three weeks. Ed Carpenter and Takuma Sato also spun, with Carpenter’s landing on top of Power’s.

The race officially went green on lap 18. As I feared, it was a Phoenix type affair for the most part, with passing extremely difficult. The leaders had a tough time getting past the end of the field. Friday’s night practice had given me hope that passing would be easier, but we didn’t see that in the race.

Conor Daly had the best drive of the night, finishing fifth after starting 11th. He challenged Castroneves for fourth but could not get past him. The Foyt team was encouraged after testing here, and their optimism held to a great result.   Carlos Munoz finished tenth giving ABC Supply cars their best finish as a team this year.

Notes

The three wide fan salute on the parade lap was a great gesture for the fans.

Newgarden solidified his lead in the points with two races to go, but Scott Dixon continues to lurk in the shadows. Dixon though this would be a throw  away race with a poor result, but his runner-up finish keeps him within striking distance of the lead with the series finishing on two of his best tracks.

It appears Sato is headed for Rahal Letterman Lanigan racing next year as graham Rahal’s teammate. If true, it likely means Andretti Autosport is switching to Chevy.

What is happening at Ganassi? Saturday was the second consecutive race they parked a car that was capable of continuing. Could Ganassi be a one car team next year?

True Racer- McLaren Movie Review

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Just one more lap before lunch. Bruce McLaren, always looking for more from himself and his car, wanted to try a different downforce level.. He left the pits but didn’t return that day in June 1970, ending a meteoric rise from champion driver to successful car builder. A view of the accident scene comes at the end of the documentary, McLaren, a film making sporadic appearances in the United States. I had the good fortune to see it Thursday night.

The film chronicles McLaren’s life in chronological order from his humble beginnings in New Zealand. Bruce knew he wanted to be a race car driver by the time he was 5 years old. When he was nine, he developed Perthes disease, a disease that causes the head of the femur to lose blood flow and die. As a result his left leg was shorter than his right one. McLaren was bedridden for nearly 2 years as doctors tried to strengthen the hip and lengthen his left  leg.  While the hip got stronger, his leg did not get longer. Mclaren walked with a permanent limp.

He went to Europe to drive F2 in 1958 and won his first Formula 1 race the following year, the U.S. GP at Sebring. At the time McLaren was the youngest F1 winner in history, a distinction he held for 44 years. He drove as a teammate to Jack Brabham for Cooper.  Brabham won the World Championship the following year and McLaren finished second.   Both drivers  left Cooper and eventually each built their own Formula 1 cars.

McLaren’s greatest success came in the Can Am series.  In 1969, McLaren-built cars won every race on the Can Am schedule. The three McLaren  cars swept the podium twice that year.  Dennnis Hulme and Mark Donohue were McLaren’s teammates that year.

The movie contains interviews with many racing greats including Mario Andretti, Dan Gurney, and Chris Amon. McLaren’s family also appears, lending a personal view of the man. We also hear from several engineers and mechanics, mainly Robin Heard, who came to work for McLaren after helping design the Concorde supersonic airplane.  Many of the airplane’s aerodynamic principles, and some of the same materials, were applied to the cars.

My favorite segments were the vintage racing footage. The race films contain shots of Graham Hill, James Hunt, Jack Brabham, and many other drivers of that era.  We see Le Mans in 1966, Monaco in 1958, Sebring in 1959, and Spa in 1968.  Several things in the films stood out. Grand prix races used to start 3 wide and both F1 and F2  raced at the same time just as sports cars race today. It was great to see the traditional Le Mans start again, with drivers sprinting across the track to their cars. How would that work today?

Several McLaren home movies brought a personal touch to McLaren’s life. He would send film of his European races home and the family and their friends gathered to watch. I also enjoyed the movies of Bruce with his wife and young daughter.

McLaren is one of the best documentaries I have seen on any subject. It is a new, important contribution to preserving racing history. I’m hoping the movie returns in general release. Had there been a second showing last night, I might have stayed for it.  Look for its return, and go see it.

Pocono Preview: Honda’s Last Stand?

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The last super speedway of the year, Pocono usually produces one of the best races of the Indycar season.  There is no reason to believe this year’s version will be any different. At least one of the six drivers still in contention for the championship could be eliminated from the title race Sunday. The rest will still be tightly bunched heading to Gateway next weekend.

Like Indianapolis, this is a track where Honda should have a huge advantage. Hondas were very strong here last year only to be taken out by mechanical issues and a pit road incident. Will Power in a Chevy for Team Penske won the 2016 event with some brilliant pit work.  A particular track’s supposed advantage for one engine or the other hasn’t followed form at times this year.  The remaining tracks should favor Chevrolet. This is Honda’s last best chance for a race win in 2017.

Scott Dixon and Graham Rahal are the two Honda drivers in the points battle. Both should be very strong this weekend. Dixon has had some annoying bad luck at times this season, but a second  win this season is not out of the question. Rahal has had a consistent run of top 5 finishes. While he may not win, he will likely finish well enough to keep his title hopes alive.

This is the type of track Andretti Autosport lives for.  The team has won abck to back Indianapolis 500’s and Ryan Hunter-Reay won the race here in 2015. Hunter-Reay appeared to have the race in hand last year until an engine hiccup cut the power for a few seconds.

Of the six title contenders, four are the Team Penske drivers. Josef Newgarden is the only driver to have three wins this year and just one of two drivers to have back to back wins.  A good run Sunday could stretch his points lead.  Teammate Helio Castroneves trails by Newgarden by just seven points, but he is only one ahead of Dixon and ten ahead of Simon Pagenaud. Castroneves has to look both ahead and behind  Rahal and Power, on the other hand, just need to finish as high as they can and ahead of as many of the top four as possible.

I think a Honda car will prevail here and it won’t be someone in the title hunt in Victory Circle. Look for Ryan Hunter-Reay to get his first win since this event in 2015. The fun part of his winning would be an even tighter points battle among the leaders.  Then we look for Gateway to sort things out.

My Pocono recap will be out Tuesday as I am hunting the great eclipse Monday going south and west. I will likely not see the race until Monday night. I will also have  a review of the McLaren documentary, which I saw last night. When it comes to your area, run, don’t walk to see it.

 

News and Notes

Sebastian Saavedra will be in the number7 car for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports this weekend and at Gateway. It sounds like these races may be an audition for 2018.  No word on who will drive the car for Watkins Glen or Sonoma. Robert Wickens is thought to be a strong candidate.

Sebastien Bourdais has been cleared to drive by medical personnel. Bourdais tested at mid-Ohio the day after the Indycar race and reached Fast six speeds. He will probably be back for Sonoma. Watkins Glen is a slim possibility as well.

That is all the Seb news I have.

Gabby Chaves returns to Pocono in the 88 Harding Racing car. Look for him to have another strong finish and possibly steal some points from one or two of the top six.  Chaves has top 10s in both his starts this year.

Your favorite driver is likely in a blue and white car this weekend.  There are 8 cars carrying that color scheme and the AJ Foyt cars also have blue and white with red thrown in.  I pity the media announcers.

It looks like another low attendance weekend for Pocono.  Will 2018 be the last race here?

 

 

Racing and Baseball- Finding the Balance

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One sport is fast and furious. The other is leisurely with quick short bursts of action.  I really enjoy weekends when I can combine a baseball game with a race. While the sports are different in presentation, they have some similarities. The strategists have to think ahead to the end and decide what changes to make and when.  Bringing in a certain relief pitcher is akin to deciding whether the next stint will be on black or red tires; or scuffed or sticker tires for an oval. A pinch hitter or runner  is like adjusting downforce.

The best recent example of the similarity of racing and baseball is the 2016 Indianapolis 500. The strategy calls by Bryan Herta were the same thought process a baseball manager would use. A friend told me the day after the race he didn’t like the 500. I replied if you didn’t like that race, you must not like baseball.  He confirmed that he did not.

I seek balance in life, and a baseball/racing weekend is a way to find that equilibrium. I get the same thrill from a well played ball game as I do from a race won with a great strategy call. It’s really the same thing. In baseball the fan has a lot of time to think ahead. At a race, it’s more difficult to do, unless there is a late yellow.  I like the challenge of trying to figure out race strategy as a race goes on. I really like when a road or street race has some rain and the teams have to decide how soon to switch tires. I think watching baseball most of my life has helped me learn strategy which I have applied to racing.

When a race is near a city with a major league team, I always check their schedule to see if there is a home game that weekend. I usually go to a race weekend the day before the track opens, usually a Thursday. I can usually catch the final game of a home stand.

I highly recommend doing this on your next race weekend. It may give you a new perspective on the race you see that weekend. At the very least you should go into the weekend a bit more relaxed and enjoy your track time more.

 

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Parnelli Jones (L) passes Ebb Rose during the 1963 500. (Photo from 1964 500 Mile Race program)