Finally, the premier open-wheel series in North America is back racing at North America’s best racetrack. Ask any driver what their favourite track on the continent is, and they’re going to name Road America, the 4.048-mile ribbon of tarmac that winds its way through the Wisconsin countryside near the tiny village of Elkhart Lake.
2007 was the last time the IndyCar Series raced at Road America, and in the mean time we’ve had to watch the heavy stock cars of the second-tier NASCAR Xfinity Series lumber around the picturesque track and look clumsy in the process. Finally, IndyCars are back at Elkhart Lake, and their return was a spectacular one. Here are the Road America Grand Prix talking points:
Will Power Dominates
After a win in Detroit wiped out a year-long stretch without a win, Australia’s Will Power didn’t wait much longer to notch his second victory of the season. Indeed, with the Texas Motor Speedway race postponed by rain and shifted to August, the Queenslander’s won two straight races to reignite championship hopes that were on the ropes following his exclusion from the season-opening race due to concussion issues, and a run of indifferent form since.
Whereas Power’s victory at Detroit was a hard-fought affair, particularly with his Team Penske brethren, his Road America triumph was an emphatic one leading forty-six of fifty laps en route to the chequered flag after staring on pole.
Despite a late challenge from runner-up Tony Kanaan, this was Power’s day. He pretty much brained the field. We’ve seen it before and we’ll see it again, I hope. This was vintage Will Power. He drove like he did so often in his IndyCar Series championship year of 2014, and is not without a shot at another championship this year, just eighty-one points back of series leader Simon Pagenaud, with seven races left. Suddenly, Power’s dangerous again.
Josef Newgarden
Superman award of the race goes to the Tennessean, who, before the eventual postponement and rescheduling of the Texas Motor Speedway, was involved in a fierce crash with Connor Daly. It looked worse than it was, but the end result for the American star was a broken collarbone and it seemed like he’d be on the sidelines for at least a few races.
Instead, Newgarden suited up at Road America, doing an immense job in the long race, carving through the field from twenty-second to finish eighth. That’s a damn good day’s work under any circumstances, and especially with a broken collarbone. His multi-lap duel with Juan Pablo Montoya was some of the best racing all day.
Honda
Graham Rahal admitted he was jealous of Chevrolet’s top speed after being passed by Chevy-powered cars on the long front straight, but the Ohio native had another strong day, driving his bright yellow Rahal Letterman Lanigan machine to a third place finish. Not bad for a one-car team.
Fellow Honda runner Ryan Hunter-Reay finished fourth, and deserves kudos as he was battling flu all weekend. Race day was hot, and RHR would’ve felt it in the car. Huge effort from the Floridian.
Spencer Pigot
The promising American, driving for Ed Carpenter Racing, came home ninth, the best-finishing rookie driver. There’s plenty of cause for optimism for the youngster, who won the Indy Lights title a year ago, and partnering Josef Newgarden at all road course events – owner/driver Ed Carpenter drives the oval track events – will only help accelerate Pigot’s development. He’s a star of the future, and it was great seeing him have such a positive run this weekend.
The Championship Hunt
After dominating up to and including the road course race at Indianapolis, Frenchman Simon Pagenaud has gone a little off the boil, and finished a distant thirteenth on Sunday at Road America.
Courtesy of three straight race victories, the Frenchman still has a nice buffer in the points race, leading Helio Castroneves by seventy-four points. Will Power is seven markers further back, with Australian-born Kiwi Scott Dixon in fourth place and Josef Newgarden rounding out the top five.
The drivers chasing Pagenaud are all within a hundred points, and given there’s six races left, not to mention double points at the Sonoma finale, even Newgarden, ninety-two points back, isn’t completely without a shot.
The Crowd
It’s been a long time away from Road America for the IndyCar Series, and it appears that Wisconsinites have missed the open wheelers. Reports emerged midway through the 200-mile race that the track attendance record had been smashed, with more than 100,000 fans attending across the three-day weekend, and around 50,000 on race day alone, according to track president George Bruggenthies.
The fans who turned out were given a treat: the race was one of the best road course events in recent memory. Sure, there wasn't a pass for the lead, but there was immense action throughout the top ten all day. As Montoya quipped, any fan who wasn't satisfied with the on-track product today should go and watch horse racing. Well said!
This was the biggest race weekend in the track’s storied history, and the track was just about falling over itself to note that the IndyCar Series would be back next June – and against the year following. Hopefully, there’s IndyCar racing annually at Road America for the rest of my lifetime and longer.
Hopefully the powers-that-be learn from this: there was a huge appetite for open-wheel racing in Wisconsin, part of the American Midwest where IndyCar racing has always been strong. Perhaps instead of trying to make races work in places like Boston or New Orleans, the series will go back to it’s heartland roots and cater to diehard IndyCar fans in places like St Louis (Gateway Motorsports Park) and Milwaukee (The Milwaukee Mile). One can only hope!
The IndyCar Series is back in action in two weeks’ time on the Iowa Speedway bullring.
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