For the second year running, the Month of May for the IndyCar Series at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway features a race on the infield road course, a circuit that, whilst featuring sections also used by MotoGP, Formula One and Rolex Series sports cars, also includes new asphalt, extensions and add-ons built specifically with the IndyCar Series in mind, and with heavy driver input.
The result is a fairly racy circuit, albeit a flat one that runs through the IMS infield, behind that towering pagoda over the yard of bricks on the front straight of the oval, and incorporates turn one and turn four of the oval, albeit in the opposite direction to the way they will race in two weeks’ time when the 99th Indianapolis 500 gets the green flag.
I must admit that I wasn't a fan of the traditional Month of May activities on the famous 2.5-mile superspeedway oval being encroached upon by a road course race on what hadn’t exactly been the most inspiring circuit ever built, but the inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis was a pretty good race, with action through the field, a little controversy, and a popular winner, in France’s Simon Pagenuad.
All things being equal, more IndyCar races are a good thing, and the fact that the powers-that-be at IMS took the time to contact drivers and ask for their opinion on the new sections of track meant that the spectacular on-track product that the series delivers time and time again with the new DW12 chassis wasn't dulled by a circuit that hadn’t exactly shown us scintillating racing in MotoGP, Formula One or sports cars.
So hopes are high for another exciting race this weekend, and IndyCar Series officials will doubtless be counting on the success of the inaugural event – there were more people around the track and more on-track action than most, including myself, expected – bringing more people through the gates. If the race is half as good as the last show the series put on, at Barber Motorsports Park, then we’ll be in for a ripping afternoon.
It’s Indianapolis, and no matter on which circuit they race, nor whether it’s a turbo-charged IndyCar or, quite frankly, a horse and cart, you would be foolish to count out Team Penske, particularly considering that last year’s Grand Prix of Indianapolis winner, Simon Pagenaud, now drives a fourth entry for 15-time Indianapolis 500 winner Roger Penske.
Pagenaud’s Team Penske stablemates, Brazilian Helio Castoneves (3-time 500 champion), Juan Pablo Montoya (an Indianapolis 500 winner on his debut, in 2000) and Australian Will Power (the reigning IndyCar Series champion) are a formidable group, and qualifying on Friday merely confirmed that.
In what is good news for Australians – and hopefully a sign of what is to come as we get deeper into May – Will Power will lead the IndyCar Series field to the green flag, securing pole with a track record with a 1:09:488. Target Chip Ganassi’s Scott Dixon (an Australian-born New Zealander) lines up alongside Power for an ANZAC-themed front row, and Power’s Penske teammates, Castroneves, Montoya and Pagenaud start in third, fourth and fifth respectively.
None of this is any surprise: Penske cars have been dynamite in qualifying all year. Nor was it a surprise that the first ten grid positions were claimed by drivers running Chevrolet engines inside their cars. In fact, eleven of the top twelve cars on the grid are running Chevrolets.
The lone Honda man was Englishman Jack Hawksworth, driving for A.J. Foyt Enterprises, who qualified eleventh, after impressing here last year. We saw strong runs from Honda last time out at Barber Motorsports, with Graham Rahal charging to second, and Andretti Autosport’s Ryan Hunter-Reay in fifth, after starting way back in eighteenth. It seemed that there was some hope for Honda, but qualifying for the Grand Prix of Indianapolis has crushed that pretty solidly.
Speaking during the post-qualifying press conference, Power lamented the obvious gap between Chevrolet and Honda, and suggested that he would only be worried about the Honda brigade if it rained – forecast for tomorrow is mostly cloudy with a chance of thunderstorms. If the race stays dry, Power will doubtless be more worried by his teammates and by Dixon.
Who else to keep an eye out for? Sebastien Bourdais starts from seventh, narrowly missing the final round of qualifying. Rookie Stefano Coletti, a guy with big wraps on him coming out of Europe, will roll off from tenth. This might be the race we see him break out. Barber Motorsports Park race winner Josef Newgarden is two spots further back in twelfth. Don’t discount Dixon’s Ganassi teammate, Tony Kanaan, who’ll take the green from sixth.
Can any of the Honda runners figure in proceedings? Based on their qualifying, I wouldn’t be too confident. I’ve got a good feeling this one will be another Penske vs. Ganassi slug fest, and it could be a potentially epic one.
Join The Roar for live coverage of the Grand Prix of Indianapolis from 5:30am AEST on Sunday morning as we begin the build-up to running of the 99th Indianapolis 500.
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