Tag Archives: Helio Castroneves

Congrats to Will Power, IndyCar Champ

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For the third year running, the IndyCar Champion was crowned at the season finale at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana.  And after finishing IndyCar runner-up three times, it was finally Will Power’s time to take the crown.

Will Power

Will Power came to Auto Club Speedway with a lead of 51 points over Penske Racing teammate Helio Castroneves and 81 points over Simon Pagenaud.  Helio’s pole reduced the lead to 50 points entering the race, and with the finale awarding double points – up to 103 with all the bonuses – Power’s lead was anything but secure, especially with his starting position on the last row.

In the first 10 laps, Pagenaud was losing places while Power gained a few as his teammates Helio Castroneves and Juan Pablo Montoya ran at the front.

At the halfway point, Indy 500 winner Ryan Hunter-Reay was leading from Montoya and Castroneves.  Power was running 7th in the thus far caution free race.  Hunter-Reay was steadily pulling away from Montoya just before pit stops around lap 140.  On lap 145, just after most had cycled thru the pits, Castroneves lead Tony Kanaan and Montoya.

On lap 175, Ryan Hunter-Reay spun, bringing out the first caution – a record run of green flag laps.  On the ensuing green, Will Power drove aggressively to the front from 5th like a man possessed.  He took the lead on lap 189.

On laps 198 thru 200, the Ganassi Racing pair of Tony Kanaan and Scott Dixon both passed Power.  Late pit violations for Helio Castroneves and Ryan Hunter-Reay put them both out of race contention and also ended Helio’s title hopes.  On Will Power’s last stop, a mistake was made on his front wing adjustment that made his car very difficult to handle.  Since Helio’s penalty essentially eliminated him from championship contention and Pagenaud had gradually lost several laps throughout the night, Power was able to nurse his car home while Tony Kanaan took his first and well-deserved win on the last race of the season.

We’re lucky in SoCal to host two of North America’s premier open wheel races – the Grand Prix of Long Beach and the season ending 500 miler.  For the third year in a row, we were treated to an exciting finale that crowned the IndyCar season Champion.  Not sure I am a fan of ending the season so early – it seems like we should be seeing these guys for at least another month.  That makes the off-season just that much longer as well.  I can’t wait until Long Beach in the Spring!

2013 MAVTV 500 Wrap – Power & Dixon

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IndyCar put on a great show for the last race of the season – the MAVTV 500 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana.  Even with Scott Dixon entering the weekend with a 25 point lead, his championship battle with Helio Castroneves was still in doubt until late in the contest.

IndyCar has chosen an excellent race and venue for the season finale with the MAVTV 500 – a big track with multiple lines that’s tough on both drivers and cars.  In both of the last two seasons, the outcome wasn’t decided until late in the race, and ultimately in neither case did the season champion actually win the race.  If you’re anywhere near Fontana, CA, you really should see this spectacle in person.  Access to Auto Club Speedway is easy; with a paddock or infield pass, you can get very close to the action during practice and qualifying sessions; and the venue itself is a good place to watch a big race, in this case the MAVTV 500.

Will Power drove a great race to the top step of the podium.  If he drove such a race last year, he’d have been the reigning champion coming into this year’s race.  Scott Dixon drove a smart race – content to run in fairly open spaces mid pack for much of the race, saving fuel, and staying out of trouble.  Helio Castroneves clearly had to be aggressive, and he nearly pulled off a come from behind championship win.  He was competitive for the win throughout most of the race, meaning Dixon couldn’t afford to play it too safe.

Congratulations to Scott Dixon, 2013 IndyCar Champion!

MAVTV 500 Qualifying – IndyCar Championship

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MAVTV 500 Qualifying

On a perfect SoCal day at Auto Club Speedway, the MAVTV 500 qualifying session set the stage for Saturday’s IndyCar championship battle.  Scott Dixon comes to the race with a 25 point lead, having erased a 49 point deficit to Helio Castroneves during the Grand Prix of Houston double-header.  Castroneves had a disastrous weekend in Houston while Dixon shined.

Castroneves’s teammate WIll Power denied both title contenders the single point pole position bonus by posting the fastest time during the MAVTV 500 qualifying.  When Power went out, Castroneves was on provisional pole with Dixon still to go, so Power had to set his best time to prevent Dixon from taking pole.  Power bumped Castroneves to second, and Dixon ended up qualifying seventh.  AJ Allmendinger, driving a third Team Penske car set the third fasted time after not having raced an IndyCar since his horrible weekend at Detroit in June.  Castroneves will have two strong wing men as he attempts to claw back the points he lost in Houston and win the season championship.

MAVTV 500 Qualifying

Alex Tagliani, subbing for the injured Dario Franchitti, will be Dixon’s teammate this weekend in the #10 Target car.  Tagliani actually won a CART race at Auto Club Speedway more than ten years ago.

MAVTV 500 Qualifying

Defending IndyCar series champ, Ryan Hunter-Reay, who won the 2012 title at this very race continued a challenging year by qualifying fifteenth.

MAVTV 500 Qualifying

The final results for the MAVTV 500 qualifying:

Pos  Driver               Team/Engine      Speed
 1.  Will Power           Penske/Chevy     220.775
 2.  Helio Castroneves    Penske/Chevy     219.677*
 3.  AJ Allmendinger      Penske/Chevy     218.894
 4.  Sebastien Bourdais   Dragon/Chevy     218.513
 5.  Charlie Kimball      Ganassi/Honda    217.986
 6.  James Jakes          Rahal/Honda      217.979
 7.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi/Honda    217.979*
 8.  Marco Andretti       Andretti/Chevy   217.958
 9.  Ed Carpenter         Carpenter/Chevy  217.932
10.  Josef Newgarden      Fisher/Honda     217.871*
11.  James Hinchcliffe    Andretti/Chevy   217.798
12.  Tony Kanaan          KV/Chevy         217.566
13.  Alex Tagliani        Ganassi/Honda    217.419
14.  Carlos Munoz         Andretti/Chevy   217.050
15.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti/Chevy   216.898
16.  Simon Pagenaud       Schmidt/Honda    216.447
17.  Oriol Servia         Panther/Chevy    216.213
18.  Graham Rahal         Rahal/Honda      216.106*
19.  JR Hildebrand        Herta/Honda      215.967
20.  Tristan Vautier      Schmidt/Honda    215.207
21.  Simona de Silvestro  KV/Chevy         214.679
22.  Sebastian Saavedra   Dragon/Chevy     213.262*
23.  Justin Wilson        Coyne/Honda
24.  Pippa Mann           Coyne/Honda
25.  Takuma Sato          Foyt/Honda

* 10 spot grid penalty pending

MAVTV 500 qualifying

More pics from MAVTV 500 Qualifying

Detailed information on the MAVTV 500

Dario Franchitti & Scott Dixon at Auto Club Speedway

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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.

Dario Franchitti

Scott Dixon

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.

Dario & Scott were having fun!

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.

The guys with Scott Tots and Franchitti Ziti

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.

Scott Dixon & Dario Franchitti

So What About IndyCar Push-To-Pass?

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Well after watching a few races under the revived IZOD IndyCar series push-to-pass system, I can’t say that I am a big fan – at least yet.  At Edmonton, most of the radio chatter in the last few laps of a competitive race was about when to use push-to-pass, how much to use, how much other guys might have left.  Helio Castroneves was able to hold off Takuma Sato, perhaps with the help of conserving his push-to-pass time throughout the race.  Too much like a video game for me.  This weekend at Mid-Ohio, there was a revision in that there would be a 5 second delay between push and effect.  I never heard an explanation for the change, but I would guess that it was to prevent push-to-defend: the overtaking driver would know where he wanted the push-to-pass boost and would push 5 seconds early, and the overtaken driver would not be able to respond.  At Mid-Ohio, it was not easy to determine the effect of push-to-pass on the race.  Winner Scott Dixon had great pace throughout and the Target Ganassi team executed flawlessly on pit stops.  I do have to give IndyCar kudos for how they reflect the use of push-to-pass on live timing and scoring – which is perhaps the best timing display in professional racing.

Personally I would rather see overtaking more dependent upon driver skill and looking after tires that performed more on the edge.  And I think the cars should have much more horsepower all of the time with less dependence upon aero.  Again this would put a premium on driver skill and car control.  Think of what a race is like in the rain.  In fact, on Twitter, there were folks rooting for rain at Mid-Ohio.  Opinions?