SoCal Speed!

Posted on April 4, 2014 by Chet

Spring brings racing to Southern California, and several of the season’s best events happen over the next couple of weekends.

First of all, this weekend we have the Porsche Club of America (PCA) 13th Annual California Festival of Speed at Auto Club Speedway. The Festival of Speed is the largest Porsche event in the Southwest, and it really does have something for everyone: Cup Races, Time Trials, Autocross, Concours, Vendors, & a Swap Meet. More info including schedule and map on the calendar here: California Festival of Speed.

Next weekend the TUDOR United Sportscar Championship (TUSC) and IndyCar come to SoCal for the 40th Grand Prix of Long Beach – a massive weekend celebration of SoCal speed. Long Beach is really a can’t miss event for motorsports fans. Check out what SoCal’s Bill Auberlen of BMW Team RLL has to say about the party that is Long Beach here on the TUSC site. Information, tickets, schedule, map, fan guide and much more can be found here: Grand Prix of Long Beach.

So far, aside from some really horrible officiating calls that have directly effected the race results, the unification of ALMS and Grand-Am under the TUSC banner has worked out quite well. In particular, the series seems to have gotten the balance of power between the former ALMS LMP2 cars and the former Grand-Am DP cars just about right. No surprise, the racing the in the GT classes has been particularly exciting and competitive.

IndyCar welcomes fan favorite Juan Pablo Montoya back to open wheel racing with Team Penske with teammates Will Power and Helio Castroneves. The competition between the Penske guys, Team Ganassi (Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan, Ryan Briscoe, & Charlie Kimball), and Andretti Autosport (Ryan Hunter-Reay, Marco Andretti, James Hinchcliffe, and Carlos Munoz) should be particularly close this year. Sadly, we’ll be missing the 2009 Grand Prix of Long Beach winner, Dario Franchitti, who retired in the offseason due to injuries sustained in the Houston race last year.

Also next weekend, the Porsche Owners Cup will be running a Cup Race and Time Attack weekend at Willow Springs.

We’ll Miss You, Dario

Posted on November 20, 2013 by Chet

Just over a month ago, Dario Franchitti suffered a frightening crash on the last lap of the second race of the Houston Grand Prix double-header. His car was thrown into the catch fencing which caused his car to violently spin through the air while disintegrating. This was by far the worst IndyCar crash since the 2011 season ending crash that took the life of Dan Wheldon – another case of a car being ripped apart by catch fencing. Along with countless fans, I breathed a sigh of relieve when we learned that although he was pretty banged up, Dario would be okay.

A week ago, on advice from his doctors, Dario announced that he was retiring from motor racing, effective immediately. Sadly, the injuries he sustained in Houston were serious enough to put his well-being at grave risk should he consider racing again.

Dario Franchitti – A Humble Hero

Dario closes out his career with four IndyCar titles, three Indy 500 wins, and 31 open wheel wins – one of the most successful all-time US open wheel racers – while being a cheerful, approachable, fan favorite along the way. One of the special things about Dario is his knowledge, respect, and reverence for the history of the sport and its heroes – especially fellow Scot, Jim Clark. Strangely though, he consistently and humbly underestimated his place in that history. He’ll be remembered along with his heroes.

I was fortunate to see him race six times at the Grand Prix of Long Beach, including his 2010 IndyCar victory, once at Auto Club speedway, and meet him at the Monterey Historics races.

Even without the Houston crash, Dario had fewer days in IndyCar ahead of him than behind him. I did think he had the chance to be a four-time Indy 500 winner, though, having just won his third in 2012. As a versatile driver and true lover of the sport, I expected Dario to race sports cars for a long time even after an IndyCar career came to a close. In 2008, he joined fellow Ganassi racers Juan Pablo Montoya, Scott Pruett, and Memo Rojas in winning the Rolex 24 at Daytona. I could have even imagined him joining Mark Weber on the Porsche LMP1 team sometime in the future.

I really hope Dario stays involved in IndyCar in some meaningful way – the sport and the series needs him. Losing him as a driver is a serious blow to Target Chip Ganassi Racing, his teammate Scott Dixon, the entire paddock, and the series.

We’ll miss you, Dario.

Motorsports Week – The Good, Bad, & Sad

Posted on August 11, 2013 by Chet

This past week has been quite a mix – happy things, not so happy things, but lots of emotion nonetheless. Starting last Sunday, on the good side, a SoCal racer named Charlie Kimball won his first IndyCar race at Mid-Ohio with an inspired drive in a back up car. Staying happy, another couple of SoCal racers had quite a battle in the GT class of the Grand-Am race at Road America on Saturday. Bill Auberlen in a Turner Motorsport BMW passed Patrick Long in a Park Place Motorsports Porsche late in the race to win the GT class. The Grand-Am – ALMS double-header at Road America was a great setup for sports car fans, and Sunday’s ALMS race was shaping up to have a fantastic finish across multiple classes, but a full course yellow with just under 9 minutes remaining left us with an anticlimactic finish under yellow. Not so good. But probably the worst part of the motorsports week was Sunday evening’s final broadcast of both Speed Center and Wind Tunnel as SPEED becomes Fox Sports 1 in the next week.

Motorsports Week – Charlie Kimball’s First IndyCar Win

In last Sunday’s Mid-Ohio IndyCar race, Charlie Kimball drove a fantastic race to take his first win in the series for the Ganassi Racing team. He passed Simon Pagenaud on lap 73 of the 90 lap race for the final lead change of the race. Kimball was on a different, and ultimately better strategy than his Ganassi teammates, Scott DIxon and Dario Franchitti. Dixon and Franchitti were initially on a two stop, fuel save strategy, while Kimball was clocking off great times lap after lap. He ultimately led 46 of the 90 laps. The whole story was all the more remarkable because Kimball was driving a backup car due to a severe crash on Saturday morning practice.

Motorsports Week – Grand-Am Road America GT Race

Road America was the site of Grand-Am – ALMS double-header this weekend, which was quite a spectacle for sportscar racing fans. In Saturday’s Grand-Am race SoCal’s Patrick Long and Bill Auberlen battled for the lead throughout the latter part of the race. With just over 16 minutes to go in the 2 hour, 45 minute race, Auberlen got a good run on Long off of Turn 3 in his Turner Motorsport BMW and passed him for good under braking into Turn 5. Long stayed close for the rest of the race, but ultimately finished second, still a great finish for his Park Place Motorsports team. Also in Grand-Am race, Brendon Hartley and teammate Scott Mayer took advantage of a relatively late full course yellow and notched their first win for the Starworks Motorsport Daytona Prototype team.

Motorsports Week – ALMS Road America Race

Sunday’s Road America ALMS race was shaping up to a fantastic finish with tight battles across multiple classes and several leading cars getting low on fuel when a bad wreck by a GTC car brought out of full course yellow with about 9 minutes to go. Unfortunately, as Johnny O’Connell said on the broadcast, ‘… I think they’re just taking too long here…’, and race control was not able to manage a return to green flag racing. The set up for a tremendous finish was missed. Even with a finish under yellow, Road America did not disappoint once again with a particularly tight battle in the GT class, which was ultimately won by the #91 SRT Viper driven by Marc Goossens and Dominik Farnbacher.

Motorsports Week – Farewell To SPEED, Speed Center, and Wind Tunnel

In both the bad and sad news of the week, SPEED broadcast their final weekend of racing, which also marked the end of Speed Center and Wind Tunnel, much to the chagrin of racing fans everywhere. We’ve known about the Death of Speed for quite some time now, but that doesn’t make it any easier to take. I must say that while I was watching the final episode of Speed Center and Wind Tunnel, I was both saddened and somewhat unbelieving that Fox Sports 1 decided not to continue these popular enthusiast programs. I’ll especially miss Dave Despain and his excellent guests and regulars like Robin Miller. I hope all those effected find even better opportunities in the near future. Thanks for the great fun and great memories!

2013 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach – IndyCar

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Chet

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:

Dario Franchitti
Ryan Hunter-Reay
Will Power
Takuma Sato
Mike Conway
Helio Castroneves
James Hinchcliffe
Tony Kanaan
Charlie Kimball
E.J. Viso

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.

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

Dario Franchitti & Scott Dixon at Auto Club Speedway

Posted on August 16, 2012 by Chet

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.

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.

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.

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.

Congratulations to Dario Franchitti

Posted on May 29, 2012 by Chet

In one of the most exciting Indy 500 races, Dario Franchitti took his place on the Borg Warner Trophy for the third time. He withstood an aggressive challenge on the final lap from Takuma Sato, who spun after trying to pass Franchitti on the inside into Turn 1. Franchitti traded first place with Target Ganassi teammate Scott Dixon multiple times over the last several laps. Dixon ultimately finished a close second. Tony Kanaan also mounted a challenge, leading the race as late as lap 193 of 200, and finished third.

The win was a significant vindication for both Target Ganassi and Honda after both had a disappointing qualifying session. Only one Honda engine was in the top ten grid places at the start, but Honda engines were in the top two cars – Franchitti and Dixon – as well as five of the top ten. The result was a major disappointment for the Chevrolet powered teams of Andretti Autosport and Team Penske, both of whom did well in qualification.

Dario Franchitti has now joined a very select group of three time Indy500 winners – including some of his heroes.

Power Takes Grand Prix of Long Beach

Posted on April 16, 2012 by Chet

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…

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