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2013 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach – IndyCar

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Grand Prix of Long Beach

The IZOD IndyCar Series took to the most famous street course in the US for the 39th Grand Prix of Long Beach on a perfect California day.  The IndyCar series comes to the Monaco of North America with some new faces at or near the top of the standings with James Hinchcliffe having won the season opener at St. Petersburg and favorites like Will Power and Dario Franchitti having difficulties in both the opener and the second race at Barber Motorsports Park.

Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach – Qualifying

An event filled qualifying session left the Target Ganassi racers split with Dario Franchitti on pole and Scott Dixon next to last on the grid due to a penalty.  Second was reigning champion Ryan Hunter-Reay of Andretti Autosport, and third was Team Penske’s Will Power.

The first five rows at the start of the Grand Prix of Long Beach were:

  1. Dario Franchitti
  2. Ryan Hunter-Reay
  3. Will Power
  4. Takuma Sato
  5. Mike Conway
  6. Helio Castroneves
  7. James Hinchcliffe
  8. Tony Kanaan
  9. Charlie Kimball
  10. E.J. Viso

Grand Prix of Long Beach - Dario Franchitti

Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach – The Race

On lap 1,Tristan Vautier clipped Scott Dixon approaching Turn 5 spinning Dixon, damaging his wing, and flattening his right rear tire.  On the second lap, Sebastian Saavedra brought out a full course caution when he slammed into the wall at the exit of Turn 9 after passing Simona de Silvestro and carrying far too much speed into the turn.  For much of the early part of the race, Franchitti lead from Hunter-Reay, Sato, Power, and Hinchcliffe.  Charlie Kimball and Alex Tagliani tangled going into Turn 7 while drivers were making their first green lap pit stops, bringing out a full course yellow on lap 31.  Kimball was on cold tires and overshot the corner on the inside carrying both cars into the tire barriers on the exit.

The lap 34 restart was messy from the start with the running order Sato, Power, Franchitti, Conway, and Rahal.  James Hinchcliffe had the door to Turn 1 slammed shut by Tony Kanaan bringing out another caution and taking Hinchcliffe out of the race and also damaging E.J. Viso’s car.  Green flag racing resumed on lap 39 with Sato leading from Franchitti, Rahal, Power, and Kanaan.  Will Power struggled mightily throughout the middle part of the race, steadily dropping back into the middle of the pack while Takuma Sato built up a big gap.

On lap 50, Ryan Hunter-Reay carried too much speed into Turn 7 and buried it in the tire barriers bringing out another full course yellow.  During the caution period pit stops, Vautier was released into Power, damaging Power’s right rear, extending his pit stop, and necessitating a second stop as his day went from bad to worse.

With 25 of 80 laps to go at the restart they were running Sato, Rahal, Franchitti, Wilson, and Kanaan with the top four on softer red tires and Kanaan on more durable blacks.  Takuma Sato, who really had the pace all day long, ran easily to victory.  Graham Rahal who also ran a solid race took the second spot on the podium with Justin Wilson climbing from a 24th place start to finish third.

Grand Prix of Long Beach - Takuma Sato

The win at the Grand Prix of Long Beach was Takuma Sato’s first in 52 attempts, and it was the first win for A.J. Foyt Enterprises since July 7, 2002.

Top ten finishers:

Position Driver Car No. Start Laps Led Points
1 Takuma Sato 14 4 50 53
2 Graham Rahal 15 11 40
3 Justin Wilson 19 24 35
4 Dario Franchitti 10 1 27 34
5 JR Hildebrand 4 12 30
6 Oriol Servia 22 18 28
7 Marco Andretti 25 25 26
8 Simon Pagenaud 77 17 24
9 Simona de Silvestro 78 19 22
10 Helio Castroneves 3 6 20

Grand Prix of Long Beach - Graham Rahal

Ryan Hunter-Reay Is 2012 IndyCar Champion

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IndyCar Champion

Early in the MAVTV 500 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana

Gripping Fontana Race

After an exciting and surprising 500 mile race at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Ryan Hunter-Reay is the 2012 IndyCar Champion, and Ed Carpenter won his second ever IndyCar race.  Hunter-Reay entered the race 17 points adrift of leader Will Power.  When Power spun and crashed at Turn 2 on lap 55, Hunter-Reay had his opening – he needed to finish sixth or better to overtake Power and become the first American IndyCar Champion in 6 years.

Power Somehow Rejoins Race

After a simply amazing effort by the Team Penske Crew, Will Power returned to the track on lap 123.  The #12 Verizon car was severely damaged by the lap 55 crash, and the team had to replace the entire rear end plus many other parts to make the car track ready.  Other crews were ‘high-fiving’ the Penske crew members in a mix of awe, amazement, and respect.  I’ve never seen a car so badly damaged return to a race.  Power was able to turn a dozen laps before retiring, and this was enough to move him ahead of E.J. Viso.  Now Hunter-Reay needed to finish fifth or better to be the IndyCar Champion.

 Battle for MAVTV 500 Win and IndyCar 2012 Championship

After Will Power retired, there were two races ongoing – one for the MAVTV 500 win and one to become IndyCar Champion.  In the former, there were 24 lead changes after Power’s crash.  JR Hildebrand ran really well on the high part of the track early in the race.  Unfortunately he had a brush with the wall, which necessitated a repair that put him several laps down and out of contention.  In the middle part of the race, the lead was exchanged multiple times between the likes of Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan, Alex Tagliani, and Ed Carpenter.  As the race wore on, it was apparent that nobody was clearly dominant, and that promised an interesting finish.

IndyCar Champion

Beautiful Sunset at MAVTV 500 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana

Carpenter Wins With Gutsy Drive

Ed Carpenter was competitive throughout, led the most laps overall, and drove a great race to win the MAVTV 500.  The victory was the second of his IndyCar career.  Tony Kanaan spun into the Turn 4 wall bringing out a red flag on lap 242 to preclude a parade finish under yellow.  Dario Franchitti who had taken the lead from Carpenter on lap 237 would lead from the restart and take the white flag, but Carpenter had a strong run thru Turn 2 from high on the track and passed Franchitti down the backstretch just as Takuma Sato crashed out bringing out a yellow flag for the last half lap.  What a finish!

Hunter-Reay A Worthy IndyCar Champion

Ryan Hunter-Reay is certainly a deserving IndyCar Champion, winning more races than anyone including three in a row during the summer stretch and a win in the penultimate race in Baltimore setting up the showdown in Fontana.  In the run up to the finale, Hunter-Reay also turned down a deal to race with Team Penske and signed a new contract with Andretti Autosport.  For Will Power, this makes the third year in a row that he finished second while going into the final race with a strong chance to win.  It was also the third year in a row that a crash in that final race ruined his chances to win.  Congratulations to Ryan Hunter-Reay, IndyCar Champion for 2012.

IndyCar Auto Club Speedway Qualifying

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IndyCar Auto Club Speedway

Will Power on qualifying lap at Auto Club Speedway

In the IndyCar Auto Club Speedway qualifying session, Marco Andretti took the pole for the MAVTV 500 with an average speed of 216.069 MPH.  Will Power, series leader and favorite for the Championship going into the final race of 2012 qualified third at 215.940 MPH.  His Team Penske teammate Ryan Briscoe was second with a speed of 215.058 MPH.  Power’s closest competitor for the series title, Ryan Hunter-Reay of Andretti Autosport qualified seventeenth at 212.773 MPH.  Hunter-Reay comes into the race seventeen points behind Power and must have a strong finish combined with Power misfortune in order to take the series crown.  Rookie Josef Newgarden qualified fourth at 215.919 MPH.

IndyCar Auto Club Speedway

James Hinchcliffe burns some rubber heading out to qualify at Auto Club Speedway

IndyCar Auto Club Speedway

Simon Pagenaud on a qualifying lap at Auto Club Speedway

Brutally Hot Conditions At Auto Club Speedway

Qualifying was tough on the hot day in Fontana with air temperatures over 100 degrees and track temperature reaching over 140 degrees.  Similarly hot weather is forecast for race day on Saturday.  With the IndyCar Auto Club Speedway race being a grueling 500 miles under difficult conditions, many teams opted to change engines while accepting a 10 place grid penalty.  Troubles also forced some drivers into an unplanned engine change.

IndyCar Auto Club Speedway

James Jakes heads out for qualifying at Auto Club Speedway

Final Starting Grid

After engine change penalties are factored in, the starting grid looks like this:

  1. Marco Andretti, #26
  2. Ryan Brisco, #2
  3. Tony Kanaan, #11
  4. JR Hildebrand, #4
  5. Ed Carpenter, #20
  6. Rubens Barrichello, #8
  7. Katherine Legge, #6
  8. Oriol Servia, #22
  9. Dario Franchitti, #10
  10. Sebastian Saavedra, #17
  11. EJ Viso, #5
  12. James Jakes, #19
  13. Will Power, #12
  14. Josef Newgarden, #67
  15. Scott Dixon, #9
  16. Alex Tagliani, #98
  17. Helio Castroneves, #3
  18. Graham Rahal, #38
  19. James Hinchcliffe, #27
  20. Simon Pagenaud, #77
  21. Takuma Sato, #15
  22. Ryan Hunter-Reay, #28
  23. Charlie Kimball, #83
  24. Wade Cunningham, #14
  25. Justin Wilson, #18
  26. Simona de Silvestro, #78
IndyCar Auto Club Speedway

Helio Castroneves on qualifying lap at Auto Club Speedway

 

IndyCar Auto Club Speedway

JR Hildebrand on qualifying lap at Auto Club Speedway

More pictures are posted in a gallery here.

 

Hunter-Reay Win In Baltimore Sets Up Fabulous Fontana IndyCar Finale

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Ryan Hunter-Reay’s late race restart ambush of Ryan Briscoe secured a come-from-behind win at the Grand Prix of Baltimore and set up an exciting IndyCar finale at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana in two weeks.

Ryan Hunter-Reay #28 Andretti Autosport - Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach

With his win, Hunter-Reay now trails IndyCar series leader Will Power by 17 points going into the final race of the season at SoCal’s Auto Club Speedway on September 15th.  With the race winner collecting 50 points, if Hunter-Reay also wins at Fontana, Will Power must finish second or third to take the IndyCar series title – fourth or worse, and Hunter-Reay takes the crown.

WIll Power #12 Team Penske - Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach

Will Power, who has been at the top of the series standings most of the season and was on fire early in the season with three consecutive victories, has not won since Sao Paolo Indy 300 in April.  Meanwhile, Ryan Hunter-Reay has gotten hot, winning three in a row himself and four of the last seven races, including Baltimore.

The Auto Club Speedway showdown was set up by Hunter-Reay’s fabulous timing of a restart after a late race caution at Baltimore when he accelerated from second place into the lead past Power’s teammate Ryan Briscoe into Turn 1.  Team Penske and Briscoe complained bitterly that  Hunter-Reay jumped the start, but IndyCar race control maintained that Hunter-Reay began the charge after the green flag was waved – a legal restart.  No other drivers are close enough to Power to have a chance to win the championship.  Sure is strange not to have a Target Ganassi driver in contention!

On to the IndyCar finale in Fontana…

Interestingly, SpeedTV has reported that Team Penske is courting Hunter-Reay as a replacement for Briscoe in their third car for next year.  For their part, Andretti Autosport maintains that they intend to have Hunter-Reay resigned for two years by the Fontana finale.  Briscoe’s management has also been aggressively shopping his services to other IndyCar teams as his seat at Penske has been in question for some time.  Sure makes for an interesting build up to Fontana.  Stay tuned…

UPDATE (090712): 

Autosport is reporting here that Hunter-Reay will be staying at Andretti Autosport.

Dario Franchitti & Scott Dixon at Auto Club Speedway

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Auto Club Speedway (ACS) in Fontana will be hosting the IZOD IndyCar finale under the lights in September when the series returns to SoCal, and today, Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon came to ACS to treat a small group of fans to a lunchtime visit that included interviews, Q&A, a photo session, and a sampling of their signature cuisine.

Dario Franchitti

Scott Dixon

Gillian Zucker, President of Auto Club Speedway was the event host, and she did a nice job of interviewing and engaging the drivers with audience submitted questions. Both of these guys quickly make connections to a crowd and are approachable good sports.

Scott Dixon is currently 4th in the standings and 28 points behind IndyCar series leader Will Power with three races to go.  He has a chance of winning the Championship if he has a couple of good races at Sonoma and Baltimore heading into the finale – especially if Power (1st), Ryan Hunter-Reay (2nd), and Helio Castroneves (3rd) founder.  Dario Franchitti is currently 8th with no realistic chance of defending his Champion status.  Aside from a fabulous month of May that saw him win his third Indy 500, Dario has had a tough year in which just about anything that could go wrong, did.  Aside from trying to take wins, his main role for the rest of the season will be supporting Dixon, his Target Ganassi teammate.

Dario & Scott were having fun!

During the interview we learned that Dario’s family fled Mussolini’s Italy for the ‘place with the worst weather.’  His maternal grandmother is, in fact, Scottish.  Scott Dixon’s wife Emma was a former top middle distance runner for Great Britain.  Dario favors street courses, while Scott favors road courses.

Dario and Scott are both lukewarm on the push-to-pass. In the recent race, the 5 second push-to-pass delay made it confusing and difficult to use it properly at the start. How do you time the boost that will happen 5 seconds in the future when you don’t know exactly when the green flag will drop?  Everybody got it wrong.  Supposedly the delay is going away.

Both of them felt the finale will be an interesting race with changing conditions as the sun goes down – compromising vision – and the track cools off.  500 miles around the Auto Club Speedway will be exciting and tough.

After the interview and a picture session, fans were invited to sample Scott Tots and Franchitti Ziti – really.

The guys with Scott Tots and Franchitti Ziti

Both of these guys are passionate racers, and the fans love them.  They’re great ambassadors for the sport, and I wish them well for the rest of the season.

Scott Dixon & Dario Franchitti

Power Takes Grand Prix of Long Beach

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The set up for the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach IndyCar race – ultimately won by Will Power – promised something interesting.  All Chevy-powered cars were penalized 10 spots from qualifying due to unauthorized – but evidently necessary – engine changes.  IndyCar rules mandate a 10 spot penalty for an unauthorized engine swap.  Chevrolet’s decision was prompted by the failure of James Hinchcliffe’s engine during a practice session at Infineon prior to the start of Long Beach festivities.  Apparently, the replacement engines are the same spec, and there has been speculation that fuel detonation (AKA knocking) was the problem.

With that backdrop, Parnelli Jones gave that famous command for the drivers to start their engines.  The excitement started shortly after the green flag as Josef Newgarden attempted an outside pass on pole-sitter Dario Franchitti at Turn 1, clipped Dario’s right front, and slid into the tire barriers.  Full course yellow before lap 1 complete!  On the restart, Justin Wilson made a successful Turn 1 pass on Franchitti, which began Dario’s slide over the next several laps.  Simon Pagenaud, Takuma Sato, and Scott Dixon passed Franchitti in succession while Justin Wilson was simply running away from the field.

On lap 20, Sebastien Bourdais, former four time Champ Car Champion skidded into the Turn 9 tire barriers after having moved up 5 positions from his last row starting spot.  Wilson took the opportunity to dive into the pits and changed from red to black tires.  Franchitti had a horrible restart on lap 23, and Sato took the lead.  Shortly after the restart, EJ Viso tangled with Alex Tagliani, causing Tagliani to pit for an extended repair.  Viso was later penalized with a drive thru penalty.  Later on lap 23, Marco Andretti hit the Turn 8 tire wall in a violent crash that brought out another full course yellow.  Marco had been making a run on Graham Rahal, and as Rahal moved right slightly to defend, Andretti’s left front tagged Rahal’s right rear.  The resulting collision launched Andretti into an airborne 360 degree spin – taking out Rahal’s rear wing – before slamming into the barriers.  While the cars circled under yellow, Bourdais rejoined the race and Dixon left it.  Dixon’s car simply quit on the approach to Turn 8, not far from where Andretti and Rahal collided.

The top 5 on the lap 30 restart were Briscoe, Franchitti, Castroneves, Wilson, & Pagenaud.  Even though Dario was struggling thru the first third of the race, he was still near the front.    Dario, Helio, & Will Power pitted on lap 34, leaving Pagenaud in the lead with Kanaan in second and Wilson third on lap 35.   By lap 40, Power was pushing James Jakes hard for fifth place, and on lap 41, he completed a Turn 1 pass.  Pagenaud was in first and Wilson second as Kanaan pitted.

With 40 laps to go, Pagenaud was still in the lead, but needed to save some fuel.  Wilson was still hanging on in second on his blacks; Sato was third.  Will Power had managed to fight his way to fourth from twelfth.  Rubens Barrichello was all the way up to seventh, and JR Hildebrand was eighth but struggling with handling issues.  Conway’s car just quit – the second Honda to simply give it up.  Pagenaud pitted from the lead with 37 to go; Sato moved up to take the lead once again with Wilson right behind in second.  One lap later, Power took second from Wilson with a Turn 1 pass.  At this point, Charlie Kimball was hanging on in fourth as the top Ganassi car, and Barrichello was right behind him in fifth.

Viso had been holding up Castroneves, who was desperate to get past him.  In a crazy incident between Turns 7 & 8 Helio ended up accidentally chopping his teammate Ryan Briscoe while trying to get past Viso.  Amazingly, there was only minor contact, and all three managed to get thru Turn 8 relatively unscathed – and with Helio ahead of Viso.

Wilson pitted with 33 to go, and Power came in two laps later leaving Sato in first, followed by Hildebrand, Hunter-Reay, and Hinchcliffe.  With 30 to go, Sato made his last stop, leaving Hunter-Reay in first and Hildebrand in second.  Within the next three laps, Hunter-Reay, Hildebrand, Briscoe, and Hinchcliffe all pitted.  Now the top four were Pagenaud, Kanaan, Sato, and Power.  The question remained: of all the fast runners, who had to conserve fuel, and who could make it to the end?

With 20 to go, the top five were Pagenaud, Power, Sato, Jakes, and Wilson – Power having gotten by Sato on lap 26.  From this point, Wilson began slipping back, his tires going away; he was passed by Barrichello (for fourth) then Hildebrand (for fifth).

Pagenaud pitted from the lead with 16 laps to go, promoting Power to the top spot.  He came back out into fourth between Rubens and JR and was charging hard.  By now Hunter-Reay, Kimball, Wilson, and Hinchcliffe were running in a tight pack for sixth thru ninth.  Pagenaud took third from Barrichello with 11 laps remaining.  The final ten would be exciting – still, who was okay on fuel?

With eight to go, Will Power had about a 5 second gap to Takuma Sato in second, but Simon Pagenaud was charging fast.  One lap later, Barrichello, who last pitted on the same lap as Power, came in for a splash of fuel.  How could Power make it seven more laps?  Pagenaud passed Sato for second with six to go at Turn 1.  With 5 to go, he was about 5 seconds behind Power, who seemed to be conserving fuel, and charging very hard.

Kanaan was pushing Hildebrand very hard for sixth; he took a run at Turn 8 but backed out as the two nearly touched.  Finally at Turn 1 with three laps to go, Kanaan took the spot.  Power got the call to put the pedal down; could he keep Pagenaud behind him?

On the final lap, Hunter-Reay spun Sato from third at Turn 6.  What a shame; after such a great run, Sato would lose a podium spot.  Later at the Turn 11 hairpin, Helio punted Rubens into a spin that caused a major conflagration involving those two plus Wilson and Servia – blocking the entire turn!

In the end, Will Power was able to hold off Simon Pagenaud for the win, and James Hinchcliffe took the final podium spot.  Hunter-Reay and Castroneves  were both penalized for their final lap transgressions – small consolation to their victims.  Congratulations to Will Power and Team Penske.

The big story lines for the 38th running of the Grand Prix of Long Beach were:

  • Will Power wins from twelfth after the IndyCar mandated ten spot grid penalty; he was also able to run a hard 31 laps from his last stop while others needed fuel
  • Franchitti finished two laps down at fifteenth after starting on pole; neither Target Ganassi cars were competitive beyond the midpoint of the race
  • Honda could not manage a win even though all Chevrolet powered cars were penalized 10 grid places
  • Team Penske is 3 for 3 so far this season
  • Andretti getting airborne and crashing hard after hitting Rahal’s right rear with his left front

Can’t wait until next year…