Indycar Series Round 10 of 17: REV Group Grand Prix of Road America (presented by Johnsonville Sausage American Medical Response)
It’s Road America time and I cannot over-stress how good this news is. The Big Track Near Sheboygan has hosted Indycar races since 2016 with its familiar blend of blind brows, wide corners, trees, and occasional fuel saving interludes. Last time the Indycars were racing by the shore of Lake Michigan there was much pit action and sideways barging, with the familiar result of Josef Newgarden and Scott Dixon leading on a road course and Alex Rossi somehow getting less than he deserved. This time, it’ll probably be the same again. Here’s the spotter’s guide. Don’t look directly at Pagenaud.
Road America fax 4 u
Road America officially has 14 turns, but it’s more like 12 as turns 2 and 4 are so slight as to look invisible from some angles:
What is definitely true is that it’s 4.048 miles long, there is a corner named after Canada and it reminds me a bit of Mugello. They should go there too.
REV Group, our sponsor for the weekend, are based in Milwaukee and manufacture products that you or I have heard of, including buses, ambulances and fire trucks. Back in the day they’d probably have put them all in a support race. I wish Roger Penske would sponsor one of these races just to rub it in that he’s got a big business empire and everyone else hasn’t.
Carlin are apparently going to show up this weekend with Irish exports Conor Daly and Pato O’Ward in tow. What happened to beloved double act Max Chilton and Charlie Kimball? What’s going on behind the scenes? Is this an improvement? (Yes it is.)
Hector Rebaque, both Jacques Villeneuves, Christian Fittipaldi and Bruno Junqueira all won their first Indycar races at Road America. Can anyone add their names to the list this weekend? Yeah it’s going to be Ferrucci isn’t it, Jesus Christ.
Dario Franchitti still holds the pole record here from back in 2000, getting his Reynard-Honda from wire to wire around 3 seconds faster than Josef Newgarden’s pole position last year. The record won’t be broken in 2019, but neither will the whole field retire the next day with transmission failures. You may consider this progress, depending on your theory of progress.
Speaking of the olden days, if you’ve got a spare couple of hours this weekend you could do worse than watch this complete shitshow from 1996:
Here’s the schedule
Standard support races this weekend. All times are Wisconsinian, meaning (I think) 6 hours behind the UK. Is it worth paying attention to Indy Lights? I know it’s worth paying attention to Indy Pro 2000 (formerly known as Pro Mazda, back when Mazda tried to tell everyone they were Indycar’s “third manufacturer”) because near the top of their standings is a guy called Stingray Robb. His name sounds like what a 1960s cartoon would think a racing driver should be called, but this does not explain why he was born in the summer of 2001, before CART had definitively imploded. The point is, the Indycar is a bit earlier than usual on Sunday so you’re best off missing the French Grand Prix and repeatedly asking on here when the race is going to start instead.
Friday, 19 June
11.05-12.05: Indycar practice 1
1.05-1.40: USF2000 qualifying 1
1.40-2.15: Indy Pro 2000 qualifying 1
2.15-3.00: Indy Lights qualifying 1
3.00-4.45: Indycar practice 2
Saturday, 20 June
8.00-8.35: USF2000 qualifying 2
8.35-9.10: Indy Pro 2000 qualifying 2
10.15-11.00: Indy Lights qualifying 2
12.00: USF2000 race 1
12.55: Indy Pro 2000 race 1
1.50: Indy Lights race 1
3.00: Indycar qualifying
Sunday, 21 June
8.00: USF2000 race 2
8.50: Indy Lights race 2
10.05: Indy Pro 2000 race 2
11.43: Indycar race
Status update
Indycar seasons are like the first episode of a bad TV show, or like those detective novels that spend the early chapters meeting colourful characters in motels and taking mysterious phonecalls. We hang around for a bit among the trivia of life as she is lived, unsure which rabbit hole the plot is about to bolt down. Ideas are tried out once then discarded. Takuma Sato wins. The Indy 500 happens. Eventually, if we’re lucky, a theme emerges. I think the 2019 season has reached Theme Time, and it is called the Josef Newgarden and Alexander Rossi show presented by Simon Pagenaud.
But for us Eurotrash focusing on drivers born in nowhere parts of mid-size countries who once passed the time in the hospitality area of a Grand Prix paddock and dreamed dreams of limitless opportunity and unbroken success, the true delights are deeper in the field than that gaudy bower of competence and achievement. I’m talking of course of the streaky, the inexperienced and presenting-mediocre who make up Indycar’s great midfield, but may not next year. As we all know by now, in the hottest of hotseats is Felix Rosenqvist, from whom even the title of Fastest Swede is in danger of being taken away. It was only 3 months ago that Rosenqvist led and led his first race at St Pete, but he’s now being distinctly out-rookied by the newly-vitalized Marcus Ericsson, the race-winning Colon Herta and the FIA silver-graded Santino “technically a gentleman driver” Ferrucci. Want to know something weird? Out of all of them, it’s Ferrucci who’s leading in the points table. All to play for, as they say.
What of the chasing pack? Above Ferrucci in 8th place is Graham Rahal, the man that Santino might be if he looked into a magic mirror that showed him 10 years in the future. In 7th is Ryan Hunter-Reay, or as no one calls him but perhaps they should, Random Huge Result. He had if not a huge result last time out in Texas, certainly one that reminded us that he still drives for Andretti. Then it’s the three-card monte of Will Power, Takuma Sato and Scott Dixon, so-called because whichever one you pick, they will all be eliminated in some bizarre accident, pit mishap or strategy fluke.
What I am driving at is that there’s a lot going on, much is chaotic and the story is what you make it. With that in mind, here’s the occult version with your midsummer three-card tarot reading:
6 of pentacles
The 6 of pentacles represents charity, kindness and magnificence.
10 of swords
The 10 of swords represents betrayal, ruin and the longed-for rebirth.
3 of swords
The 3 of swords represents sorrow and disenchantment.
Well, shit. Don’t miss this one. Why would you?
Excellent!
Rebaque sounds like he could have a corner at Monaco named after him, Sting Ray Robb sounds like a descendent of Slick Racin’ Gardner, and God help us all if Fulvio Ballabio ever shared a track with Dick Trickle. Almost enough to make me think Ha Ha Clinton-Dix missed his true calling as a lovable underdog Trans Am racer.
