Australia’s
Will Power has won the Firestone Grand Prix on the streets of St Petersburg,
Florida, opening the 2014 Verizon IndyCar Series season in style. His
twenty-second IndyCar victory surely sounds a warning bell to his fellow
competitors that the #12 Penske Chevrolet will be a force in the championship
race this year.
When you
consider that Power, who suffered from a slow start to last year that basically
put an end to his championship aspirations, won three of the final five races
in 2013 (Sonoma, Houston and the season finale at Auto Club Speedway), you
could make a solid point that it’s the Queenslander Power who is the hottest
driver in the IndyCar paddock, not defending champion, New Zealand’s Scott
Dixon.
There is a
lot of optimism around the 2014 IndyCar Series. The new title sponsor, Verizon,
comes in with a well-publicised desire to broaden the profile of America’s
premiere open wheel racing series, has people getting very excited about the
sport’s future. There are old faces returning to the series – Australia’s own
Ryan Briscoe and former Indy 500 champion Juan Pablo Montoya – and exciting
rookies the Colombian Carlos Munoz and Russian Mikhail Aleshin poised to mix it
with veterans like Tony Kanaan, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Helio Castroneves.
It would
appear that the optimism has enthused Power, whose race on Sunday on the
temporary street/airport circuit was one of his best. The tricky circuit, where
there are concrete walls galore just waiting to punish even the slightest
mistake, rewards clean and precise driving, and that was exactly what Power
displayed on Sunday afternoon. His effort behind the wheel was matched by solid
strategy from his Penske crew – what else is new?
Power took
the lead from pole sitter, Japan’s Takuma Sato on 31, a brave move to the
outside of turn one, where the track narrows from the runway first straight
into a series of tight corners, and held his line into the second turn. It was
a case of who blinked first, and it was Sato. We saw a typically brave move by
Power, against a driver, in Sato, who’s known for his own bravery. Good driving
allowed both to continue racing.
From there,
Power was barely headed. Aside from an exchange of green-flag pit stops, he led
the remaining laps, and took the checkered flag ahead of 2012 champion Ryan
Hunter-Reay and Power’s own Penske teammate Helio Castroneves.
***
The race
was caution-free for the most part, before Charlie Kimball nosed his Ganassi
Honda into the tire wall at the bottom of the front straight. That resulted in
a restart with 28 laps to run: the tipping point in what had previously been a
well-driven, incident free race. There was plenty of passing and on-track
action, just no carnage – a change from the myriad turn one moments we’ve seen
in recent years.
On a
restart with 28 laps to run, Power appeared to accelerate then slow up before
the green flag was thrown, and a concertina affect ensued behind, with cars
backing up quickly. Out of that melee, Marco Andretti and British rookie Jack
Hawksworth crashed into the wall. It was perhaps a sign of the talent on show that
a two-car accident didn’t become anything more, though that would be small
comfort for the teams who now face the daunting task of rebuilding a race car
in two weeks, before the next event.
It was a shame
for Hawksworth. The newcomer, who has won Pro Mazda and Indy Lights races at St
Petersburg in two consecutive years before graduating to the IndyCar Series,
showed great speed through the middle portion of the race, driving for Bryan
Herta Autosport. Based on his limited showing on Opening Day, he’s a guy to
watch out for as he gains more experience through the season.
Marco Andretti,
who flipped upside down on the first corner of the 2011 race, appeared to
injure his elbow and perhaps his leg in the awkward contact. He was unimpressed
with Power’s restart attempt, and told ESPN as much as they followed him down
pit lane, eventually admitting that his car was ‘junk’ anyway. Gotta love Marco’s
ability to cut through the usual clichéd racing talk and tell it how it really
is.
Interestingly,
both analysts in the booth blamed Power for not standing on the gas
immediately. It’s strange to hear Scott Goodyear actually take a stand on
anything in the booth. Normally, he tows the party line and tries to avoid
jumping off the fence. Maybe he’s changing his ways. Finally.
With two
weeks before the IndyCar circus reconvenes at another picturesque seaside
destination, this one in Southern California, you can bet that the rest of the
IndyCar community will have plenty of time to discuss the incident. Castroneves
believes it was one of Power’s tricks, and Power himself vehemently denied
brake-checking, and invited everyone to look at his data.
I’m not completely
sure what happened. I want to believe Power but the footage is a little
incriminating.
***
Driving an
IndyCar at St Petersburg for the first time, ex-Formula One and NASCAR star
Juan Pablo Montoya found the going tough, finishing in fifteenth place. He wasn’t
ever a factor at the pointy end, but anyone who thought he could jump into an
open-cockpit car after so long driving NASCAR stock cars was crazy.
Obviously,
it’ll take a few races for him to reacclimatise himself to this form of racing,
and the physical pressures of not driving a closed-cockpit vehicle. I think he’ll
be a factor later in the year. Watch for him at Indy. He’s won there before, in
a Ganassi car in 2000, and is driving this time around for Roger Penske. If
there’s one thing that the Captain knows more about than anyone else, it’s
winning at Indy. Another Penske driver, Castroneves, is shooting for his fourth
Indianapolis 500 victory this year.
***
With the
first race of the year in the books, we look ahead to the next round of the
season, and it’s the Indianapolis 500 of road racing, the fabled and iconic Toyota
Grand Prix of Long Beach. The race that revitalised the Southern California
hotspot is back for it’s fortieth edition in front of what is sure to be a
giant crowd.
Long Beach’s
tough-to-tame street circuit is the one that every other temporary street
circuit in the world – with the possible exception of Monaco – wants to be
like. Many have tried, but none can quiet match that long front straight, the
fountain turn and the final turn, that long, slow hairpin that brings cars back
towards the start/finish line.
Drivers
want to win at Long Beach almost as badly as they want to win at Indy. Takuma
Sato scored a memorable victory a year ago, his first and the first for car
owner A.J. Foyt. Can’t wait to see what unfolds on the SoCal streets this year!
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