June 29, 2011
(Chris Jones/IndyCar)
On the gas all night long, a very racy and aggressive Marco Andretti (No. 26 Andretti Autosport Team Venom Energy Dallara/Honda/Firestone) blew by former Andretti Autosport teammate Tony Kanaan (No. 82 GEICO-KV Racing Technology-Lotus D/H/F) on Lap 232 of 250 and went on to win by 0.7932 seconds in the Iowa Corn Indy 250 presented by Pioneer at Iowa Speedway Saturday night. "We were down a little bit on the bigger ovals but we know when it comes down to handling we'd be alright," Marco said afterward. "These guys did a great job in the pits. They got me the lead back. We had some good racing with T.K. (Tony Kanaan). It was good fun." Remarkably enough with all of his potential and all of the opportunities given to him it was Marco's first win of 2011 and only his second win of his Indy car career. His first win came at Infineon Raceway in 2006, 79 races ago. It was also Andretti's first win on an oval.
(Chris Jones/IndyCar)
Marco and Tony go at it (above). Marco had passed Kanaan on Lap 209 only to have Tony re-pass Andretti four laps later. Andretti was running second to Dario Franchitti when they cycled through for their final round of pit service on Lap 184 under caution, but Marco ended up getting out first. Kanaan overtook Franchitti for second on a Lap 199 restart.
(Shawn Gritzmacher/IndyCar)
In a sensational drive, Scott Dixon (shown here in practice in his No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing D/H/F running ahead of Ryan Hunter-Reay) charged from 23rd starting position to finish third Saturday night.
(Chris Jones/IndyCar)
Rookie JR Hildebrand (shown here before qualifying), the Indianapolis 500 runner-up, passed Dario Franchitti in his No. 4 Panther Racing National Guard car on Lap 242 for fourth place.
(Chris Jones/IndyCar)
Dario Franchitti was 23-years-old when he moved to the States in 1997 to drive for Hogan Racing in CART. Franchitti had a best finish of ninth at Australia, earned his first pole at Toronto and wound up 22nd in the championship standings. Franchitti, whose best oval finish was 13th at Nazareth that year, sought and received oval racing input from Rick Mears, who had amassed 29 victories over the course of his career under USAC and CART sanction. Now, the four-time Indianapolis 500 and six-time series champion (Mears) and the two-time Indianapolis 500 and three-time IZOD IndyCar Series champion (Franchitti) are tied for ninth on the all-time Indy car win list. "If I'd had known that I wouldn't have helped," Mears deadpanned as the drivers discussed the past and future of IndyCar racing and their legacy a few hours before the Iowa Corn Indy 250 presented by Pioneer at the Iowa Speedway (above). Mears recorded seven USAC- and 22 CART-sanctioned race victories (22 on ovals) in a three-decade Indy car career. Dario led the most laps in his No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing D/H/F Saturday night.
(Shawn Gritzmacher/IndyCar)
Dario's tribute to his close friend Greg Moore appears on his helmet.
(Shawn Gritzmacher/IndyCar)
Ryan Briscoe climbs into his No. 6 Team Penske machine before the start of the race. He would finish sixth.
Shawn Gritzmacher/IndyCar)
Takumo Sato (No. 5 KV Racing Technology - Lotus D/H/F) gets focused before qualifying. He captured his first pole position since coming to IndyCar racing, but crashed out of the race.
(Shawn Gritzmacher/IndyCar)
Danica Patrick (shown here before qualifying) would qualify second in her Andretti Autosport No. 7 Team Go Daddy machine, but that was the highlight of her weekend as she floundered in the race, finishing tenth. "The balance from one end of the track to the other was completely different, so that made it difficult to have a consistent lap," she said. "The GoDaddy car was strong all weekend, so I was confident that we would be competitive tonight. I was really hoping for a better result, but we'll have to take what we got. Congrats to Marco and his crew for a great race; they deserved the win."
(Shawn Gritzmacher/IndyCar)
Will Power (No. 12 Team Penske Verizon D/H/F) had a miserable race, ending up into the wall after a pit mash-up ruined the handling of his car. "It was definitely a hard hit. The Verizon car was damaged after the incident in the pits and we just had a problem with the steering and it came around me. It's a tough result for us tonight. We'll do our best to get it back next race."
(Chris Jones/IndyCar)
Marco, Michael and family in Victory Lane. Will this win get Marco's mojo going? We'll see. Next up is the Honda Indy Toronto at Streets of Toronto on July 10. It will be telecast by VERSUS at 2 p.m. (EDT).
(Chris Jones/IndyCar)
Josef Newgarden (No. 11 Copart/Score Big/RoboPong/SSM0, who overtook pole sitter and Sam Schmidt Motorsports teammate Esteban Guerrieri (above) on Lap 26, cruised to a 5.4724-second victory. With his third victory of the season Newgarden improved his championship points lead from 13 to 46 over Guerrieri, who retired midway through the race with a steering issue and was credited with 12th place. Gustavo Yacaman, driving the No. 2 TMR-Tuvacol-Xtreme Coil Drilling car, finished second, his best Firestone Indy Lights result to date. Bryan Clauson (No. 77 Mazda Road to Indy/CURB Records), competing in his third Firestone Indy Lights oval race finished a season-high third. The next Firestone Indy Lights race is the Toronto 100 at Streets of Toronto. It will be televised live by VERSUS at Noon (EDT).
(Chris Jones/IndyCar)
Sage Karam won the Pizza Ranch 100 Star Mazda race Saturday. It is the second-consecutive win for 16-year-old from Nazareth, Pa., and his No. 88 Andretti Autosport team. Andretti Autosport is the only team that fields entries in all four Mazda Road to Indy divisions.
(Porsche USA)
FOA (Friend of The Autoextremist) Jeff Zwart, from Woody Creek, Colo., sliced more than 24 seconds off his Time Attack 2WD class record from last year, setting an all-time record for a street-legal car at Pikes Peak, but it wasn’t quite enough to beat mentor and old friend Rod Millen, who drove a full-blown race car up the mountain three seconds faster. Zwart was driving a Porsche 911 GT2 RS street car which he drove from Los Angeles to the event. Zwart came up short to Millen by 1.5 seconds on Friday in qualifying, and knew he would not know Rod’s time as he headed up the hill because he would be starting last. “I knew that Rodney would be fast, and I would have to leave it all on the road to beat him, but we fell just a few seconds short,” said Zwart, whose drive from L.A was a throwback to many Porsche racers from the ‘50s and ‘60s who used their everyday street cars to race. "The Porsche 911 GT2 RS ran great, and we now have the fastest street-legal car ever to climb Pikes Peak. We broke last year's record by 24 seconds, but we fell three seconds short of beating an all-out race car that is hundreds of pounds lighter with no street safety or emission equipment. Porsche Motorsports North America prepared a great car for us, and I laid it all on the line, completely wearing out the rear tires by the finish. We can all be proud of the Porsche - I can't see any sports car legal for the street beating us anytime soon," said Zwart. "With the Porsche 911 GT3 RSR - Porsche's fastest purpose-built race car - winning at the Nurburgring earlier today in a 24-hour race, and our setting the record in Porsche’s fastest street car, Porsche 911 owners can be assured that the company will continue to use its advanced performance and reliability experience in race cars to make its street cars great." Both Zwart and Rod Millen smashed the class record that Zwart set a year ago - 11:07 and 11:04 respectively - as Jeff went 11:31 in 2010.
(Grand-Am)
Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas (No. 01 TELMEX BMW/Riley) won the Rolex Sports Car Series 250 Driven by VISITFLORIDA.COM at historic Road America last Saturday. It was the fourth victory of the season for the duo driving for Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates. Pruett finished 11.738 seconds ahead of Alex Gurney (with Jon Fogarty) driving the No. 99 GAINSCO Auto Insurance Chevrolet/Riley. It was Pruett's 36th career Rolex Series victory. Max Angelelli (with Ricky Taylor) finished third in the No. 10 SunTrust Chevrolet/Riley.
(Grand-Am)
John Heinricy scored his first Rolex Series victory in GT filling in for Boris Said with Marsh Racing. He qualified fourth in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Corvette co-driven by Eric Curran. Said was at Infineon Raceway for Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.
(Grand-Am)
John Edwards (No. 9 Stevenson Auto Group Chevrolet Camaro) battled hard with Billy Johnson to win Friday evening's Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge race at Road America. The race ended under caution after Nico Rondet crashed hard into a barrier that destroyed the pole-winning No. 18 Insight Racing BMW 328i with 24 minutes remaining and significantly damaged the wall. It was the first victory of the season for Edwards and co-driver Matt Bell. It marked the sixth consecutive podium finish for Johnson and Jack Roush Jr. in the No. 61 Roush Performance Ford Mustang Boss 302R.
(Grand-Am)
Nic Jönsson and Michael Galati (No. 10 Infinity Audio/Kia Motors America Kia Forte Koup) won the ST class in the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge at Road America.
Editor-in-Chief's Note: Two things merit particular attention this week. The first is a lengthy report on the current state of the business side of Formula 1 in Sunday's New York Times by Eric Pfanner and Brad Spurgeon, go here because it's well worth the read. And, Gordon Kirby updates the progress of the innovative Eagle Delta Wing project for Le Mans, with comments from Ben Bowlby and Dan Gurney. Fascinating stuff indeed, especially Gurney's philosophical comments on the sport, sentiments I share, to put it mildly. I'm a big believer in this program and I am encouraged that the all-star team (including Duncan Dayton's Highcroft Racing and Dan Panoz) may lure an engine manufacturer to the project soon. Stay tuned. - PMD
(McLaren Automotive)
The first McLaren car built for racing outside of Formula 1 since the McLaren F1 GTR will make its world debut at the 2011 Goodwood Festival of Speed, June 30 - July 1. The new GT3 car, based on McLaren’s MP4-12C high-performance road car, will appear in its revised form, the result of an intense period of development. The 12C GT3 is being developed by the recently established McLaren GT. Led by McLaren Group CEO Martin Whitmarsh and CRS Racing Team Principal Andrew Kirkaldy, McLaren GT is spending the 2011 race season developing the 12C GT3 before delivering 20 cars to privateer teams for GT3 racing in Europe in 2012. Formula 1 suppliers past and present including Akebono, Mobil 1, McLaren Electronic Systems, Ricardo and Michelin are working with McLaren GT on the project.
Editor-in-Chief's Note: If you really must keep up on all of the latest F1 developments and the potential U.S. GP in Austin, Texas, go here. - PMD
Editor-in-Chief's Note: Check out Michelin's racing website - "Michelin Alley" - and get in on all of the behind-the-scenes buzz. Go here. - PMD
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