Scott Dixon Aggrandisement Machine Phase 11 of 17: Iowa Speedway
Road America done? Preparing for three races in four weeks spanning the high and low of America’s Old Northwest? Feeling in the mood for some… corn? Yes! It’s Iowa time! Admittedly the Indycar season has reached July with little to show for it barring some exploded Honda engine parts and a painstakingly-assembled Penske steamroller that has so far failed to steamroll. Admittedly Takuma Sato sits fourth in points with a record that runs 5-retired-9-retired-12-1-8-4-retired-19. Admittedly Young Americans Josef, Graham and Alex languish far from the sweet honey of being within 60 points of the championship leader. Admittedly, I can’t promise you – and nor would I – that this weekend will bring some Attic spectacle of giants, sea monsters and gods-among-men contending with the Furies of their heedless presumption.
But!
Iowa Speedway, seven-eighths of a mile long and banked to a maximum of fourteen degrees, is a beautiful track and is somehow already celebrating its tenth anniversary with the Indycar circus. 10 years has brought us such rarities as heat races, a consistent run of good results from Ryan Hunter-Reay, and a Marco Andretti victory.
But that’s not all!
The Iowa Corn 300 (on the trading floor, Iowa Corn is referred to by its generic name, “corn”) is heavily promoted by the state of Iowa’s agriculture board, which initially seemed like a joke but they were in such deadly earnest that after the fifth or sixth race you wondered why every race isn’t sponsored by the local agrariana. Not even the 2012 race’s four-sentence Wikipedia page has escaped the affections of Iowa’s Corn Fellows. The notoriously heat-affected(?) race is described as follows: "The weather at this event reached up to 86 °F or 30 °C; almost becoming too hot to grow the corn that would make up the ethanol fuel for the drivers."
But that’s not all!
To my knowledge, the state flag of Iowa is the only state flag that features a talking eagle. Iowa is not just about corn.
That is more information about Iowa than I was really interested in reading. Whither the schedule?
Thither it is. There may be more stuff going on than this but Iowa’s website isn’t yielding much information. Times are Iowa times, which is to say UK times plus 6 hours.
Saturday, July 8
11.00-12.15: Indycar practice 1
15.00-16.30: Indycar qualifying
19.15-19.45: Indycar practice 2
Sunday, July 9
13.05: USF2000 race
14.00: Indy Lights race (if you don’t know what an Indy Light is, ask Prost1997T)
16.45: Iowa Corn 300 GO
There was a test last week, right?
You are a very well-informed interrogative construct. Yes, after the Road America race about half the drivers made the 400-mile jaunt from the shores of Lake Michigan to the et cetera prairies of Iowa to test setups, or tyres, or their cool-guy racing driver stares, or I don’t know. No times were published, but according to Marshall Pruett, who was either there or knows a guy who was, Ed Carpenter Racing seem to be getting their cars to go as good as they did last year when Josef Newgarden nearly lapped the field. Teams Penske and Ganassi didn’t attend though, so presumably all this information will mislead us all come Sunday.
Anything else I need to know?
Oh not much except ESTEBAN GUTIERREZ IS BACK. Your and my favourite Gene Haas hard luck story has finally done an oval test, and having in retrospect wisely missed the Texas round is bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and fully prepared to drive around in circles for 300 laps. His interview with Racer dot com is here. It is notable for the Monterrey Menace tossing around words like “roll bar”, “spring” and “ride height” like he used to be a test driver for the Ferrari F1 team or something.
Oh, and Honda say they’ve figured out what made all their engines go bang at Indianapolis. That means Fernando Alonso has to come back next year now, right?
