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2013 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach – IndyCar

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Grand Prix of Long Beach

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:

  1. Dario Franchitti
  2. Ryan Hunter-Reay
  3. Will Power
  4. Takuma Sato
  5. Mike Conway
  6. Helio Castroneves
  7. James Hinchcliffe
  8. Tony Kanaan
  9. Charlie Kimball
  10. E.J. Viso

Grand Prix of Long Beach - Dario Franchitti

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.

Grand Prix of Long Beach - Takuma Sato

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

Grand Prix of Long Beach - Graham Rahal

Ryan Briscoe Takes Pole at Indy

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Ryan Briscoe put in a fantastic four lap qualifying run on a warm afternoon at

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Ryan Briscoe at Long Beach

Indianapolis Motor Speedway to take the pole in next Sunday’s Indy 500.  James Hinchcliffe had been fast all day, and he he had Briscoe beat until the final two corners of his last qualifying lap, but he fell short by 0.0023 seconds – the closest margin in the history of the Indy 500.  That’s the equivalent of 9.168 inches over the four laps.

Hinchcliffe said that he went out too hot and was not able to maintain the pace throughout

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James Hinchcliffe at Long Beach

four laps.  He went out again later trying to beat Briscoe by starting slightly slower and trying to hold his pace throughout; however his first lap was slower than Briscoe’s pole taking average and his speed fell off from there.  Nobody else was able to mount a serious challenge to Briscoe’s pole time, although Ryan Hunter-Reay, Helio Castroneves, Marco Andretti, and Will Power all tried.

The first three rows for running of the 96th Indy 500:

  1. Ryan Briscoe
  2. James Hinchcliffe
  3. Ryan Hurnter-Reay
  4. Marco Andretti
  5. Will Power
  6. Helio Castroneves
  7. Josef Newgarden
  8. Tony Kanaan
  9. EJ Viso

Notably, all three Team Penske drivers made the 90 minute, top nine shootout for pole while none of four Target Ganassi drivers did, and Andretti Autosport has three of the fastest four qualifiers.  IZOD IndyCar points leader, Will Power, will start from 5th.  Rookie Josef Newgarden of the underdog Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing team qualified 7th.  Newgarden is also the highest placed Honda powered car on the grid – the other eight of the top nine being Chevrolet powered.  In the rest of the field, Dario Franchitti, reigning IndyCar champion will start 16th, and his teammate Scott Dixon will be 15th on the grid.  IndyCar rookie and 19-year Formula 1 veteran, Rubens Barrichello will start 10th.  SoCal’s Charlie Kimball will start 15th, while his teammate Graham Rahal will be 12th. Last year’s phenom and near winner, JR Hildebrand will start 18th.

Power Takes Grand Prix of Long Beach

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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…