The Continuing Story of Indycar Bill Round 13 of 17: The Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course
Track length: 2.25 miles
Race length: 90 laps
Number of turns: 13
Previous winner: Simon Pagenaud (Penske-Chevy)
A scant two weeks after the Indycars unconvened from Exhibition Place, Toronto, they have arrived at the somewhat quaintly-titled Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, that fancy and beloved jewel of the region of America’s seventeenth state called Mid-Ohio, even though the track is only 90 miles from the city of Cleveland which is about as far from the mid of Ohio as you can get. The track winds and wends about the rolling hills in a manner conducive to cars following each other commentators saying things like “Team Penske has four bullets in the chamber”, “the TV really flattens out the elevation change” and “at this phase of the race they’re all driving to a fuel number”.
Scarily, this season has five races left to run, with two ovals and two all-natural road courses. Mid-Ohio is the second-slowest of these, or the second-fastest if you paint in the colours of optimism. According to Indycar’s scoring system whose enormous points numbers are reminiscent of nothing so much as the relentless expansion and inevitable heat death of the universe, Scott Dixon is in pole position with three of the four Penske drivers less than one victory in arrears. Will Power and Hometown Hellion Graham Rahal are more than a victory behind, or to translate that into Sonoma, less than a victory behind.
Last year, Simon Pagenaud won the race after he and Will Power stole the lead from Mikhail Aleshin in the pits, who had stolen the lead from… someone… because of an unexpected… thing. If you are anything like me your mind only has room for one racing injustice at a time and that is currently filled by transformation of the previous race by a shot from the closed-pitlane Tony Kanaan atomic randomizing gun. What am I trying to say? I’m trying to say that I’m already in over my head and aside from that Team Penske has four bullets in the chamber, drivers will drive to a fuel number and the TV will flatten out the elevation change, I can’t tell you a thing about what will happen on Sunday.
Oh yeah, I know the schedule too but only because I looked it up:
Friday July 28th
8.25-9.10: Indy Lights practice
10.00-10.45: Indycar practice 1
12.30-1.15: USF2000 race 1
1.30-2.00: Indy Lights qualifying 1
2.15-3.00: Indycar practice 2
3.35-4.20: Pro Mazda Race 1
Saturday July 29th
9.10-9.40: Indy Lights qualifying 2
9.55-10.40: Indycar practice 3
10.55-11.55: Pirelli World Challenge GTS race 1
12.10-12.50: USF2000 race 2
1.05-1.50: Pro Mazda race 2
2.05-3.20: Indycar qualifying
3.35-4.30: Indy Lights race 1
4.45-5.55: Pirelli World Challenge GT-GTA-GT Cup race 1
Sunday July 30th
9.05-10.05: Pirelli World Challenge GTS race 2
10.20-11.00: Pro Mazda race 3
11.15-11.45: Indycar warm-up
12.00-1.05: Pirelli World Challenge GT-GTA-GT Cup race 2
1.20-2.25: Indy Lights race 2
3.40: Indycar race GO
Let’s go! Helio! Indycar!
, then a weekend with NOTHING 
, and then another weekend with the same combo of 4 races again?? 
Take that back.
