Vereyezon Indycar Series Round 10 of 17: Road America, The American Road Course
Corners ahoy! The Robert Wickens Indignity Machine – formerly known as the Indycar Series, formerly formerly known as the Pep Boys Indy Racing League Series – proceeds along its course to the annual Great Lakean racepicnic at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin (geography fans: Elkhart is not one of the Great Lakes). Slipstreaming, braking, passing, blocking and gratuitously halting Robert Wickens’ attempts to win an Indycar race are all on the menu. Bears, Handford devices, chicanes, Canada and the chance of getting through the weekend without smugness about how lucky we are to be Indycar fans, are not.
Why Road America? Why care? Why life?
Road America is America’s, and maybe the world’s, best remaining going-left-and-right race track. Long straights through dense woodland, corners called things like Kink and Carousel, big-ass climbs up hills and bridges sponsored by a brand of sausage that’s amusingly called Johnsonville. The Indycar Series is one half-season through its experiment in removing downforce and prettifying its lines and, especially on road courses, it’s going pretty well. Ten or so drivers insert themselves with regularity into the dialectic about victory. Improbably, there are four America drivers in the top six of the points standings (and a Canadian in seventh). Many more are fast but have not slain the dragon Inconsistency. The season, in other words, is brewing up nicely.
Anything to watch out for this weekend? The revolving door of Juncos revolveth once again and welcomes the Mexican, sometime Pro Mazda driver and sometime F1 tester Alfonso Celis, Jr. Better than Binder? Kooler than Kaiser? It’s unclear, although he’s apparently being mentored by three-time top ten finisher in Champ Car, David Martinez. Funny, they’re not making Champ Car races anymore but every time you look there’s another racing driver who you forgot ever took part. Oh, and it’s the bright-eyed and strangely-beshoed Zachary Castellet de Mistral back in the second Coyne car for another go-around, hopefully this time minus the race-ending collision with Team Penske’s best and brightest.
Schedule plz
It’s a busy weekend containing Indy Lights, Pro Mazda, the automotive shaggy dog story that is Pirelli World Challenge and USF2000 alongside the Indycars. No NASCAR Trucks, Stadium Super Trucks, Butch Trucks or indeed any other kind of trucks: the best we’re getting in the gigantism stakes are the Bentleys in PWC. Anyway, times and events below. Local timezone, which is to say 6 hours behind whatever time it is in the UK.
Friday, 22 June
9.15-10am: Indy Lights practice
11-11.45: Indycar practice 1
2.20pm: Pro Mazda race 1
3.15-4.15: Indycar practice 2
4.55-5.25: Indy Lights qualifying 1
Saturday, 23 June
8-8.30am: Indy Lights qualifying 2
11-11.45: Indycar practice 3
12 noon: Indy Lights race 1
1.10pm: USF2000 race 1
2.05: Pro Mazda race 2
3-4.15: Indycar qualifying
4.35: Pirelli World Challenge race 1
Sunday, 24 June
8am: USF2000 race 2
9.50: Indy Lights race 2
12.05pm: Indycar race GO
2.45: Pirelli World Challenge race 2
What’s happened? Lately?
Cast your minds back to before the Le Mans 24 Hours: Two weeks ago the Indycar posse showed up in the implausibly-named No Limits, Texas for 248 laps for some oval racing at some ungodly time in the early evening. AJ Foyt supplied the first two retirements, with Matheus (or “Matt”, as Indycar’s entry list invariably calls him) Leist’s car almost immediately catching fire and teammate Tony Kanaan hitting the wall in mysterious but very much concrete circumstances. Team Penske continued its slide down the snake as Will Power crashed, and Josef Newgarden endured one of those evenings that can be best compared to that dream where you suddenly realize everyone’s noticed you’re not wearing any clothes, only instead of public nudity it was public having a poor-handling car and finishing four laps down. Simon Pagenaud unhelpfully finished second. Top ladders men were Scott Dixon and Alex Rossi, the former leading from the front to win the race and take all the points, and the latter coming through the field to finish third and somewhat erase his disastrous experience in Detroit.
At this arbitrary and not very important point in the season, it’s Scott Dixon leading the championship with his car that looks disconcertingly like the car that Charlie Kimball used as a battering ram during his long and eventful association with Chip Ganassi. Within range of a disgusting Sonoma double-points victory are only four other drivers, remarkably enough:
1. Scott Dixon, Ganassi (357 points)
2. Alex Rossi, Andretti (-23)
3. Will Power, Penske (-36)
4. Ryan Hunter-Reay, Andretti (-49)
5. Josef Newgarden, Penske (-68)
Representatives of non-big-three teams are sixth, seventh, ninth and eleventh, but they’re going to have to get within 100 points of Scott Dixon before I acknowledge their relevance to the North California Double Points Tragedy We Can All See Coming But Cannot Avoid.
Obligatory Indycar Tarot reading
Fanciers of the occult, the collective unconscious or indeed the 1970s may be interested to know that I’ve procured a Tarot reading for this weekend’s Indycar race from an online service called Glastonburytarot.com, who are 1) potentially descended from Merlin, King Arthur and/or Morgana le Fay, 2) free and 3) only offering their services to over-18s. With those auspicious qualities in mind, herewith the reading:
7 of Swords
“The Seven of Swords is a card of deception and betrayal. It indicates the difficulty of trying to get away with something undetected and unnoticed.”
King of Wands
“The King of Wands holds a blossoming wand in his hand, representing life and creativity.”
7 of Pentacles
“The Seven of Pentacles portrays a young man taking a rest from the difficult work of harvesting his abundant crop. He has been labouring long and hard in his garden.”
Two sevens! I think that means Tony Kanaan, driver of car number 14, will do well. Or is that what the devil wants us to think? There is only one way of finding out and that is by validating our choice not to watch Poland vs Colombia on Sunday evening and watching the race with us instead. In the meantime, write posts about practice, qualifying and the King of Staffs below.
Edit: full race broadcast here
), but I sense he's coming.
