THE LINE

August 29, 2012

9/1, 3:00 p.m. Editor-in-Chief's Note: John Dagys of Speedtv.com first reported early Saturday afternoon that the American Le Mans Series and the Grand-Am series will merge beginning with the 2014 season. After speaking with one of the manufacturer representatives who had directly participated in the discussions, I can confirm that this is indeed true. The announcement will come next Wednesday in Daytona Beach. After years and years of writing about this very idea, I am thrilled for the players involved for having the cojones to finally get this done. It will be great for the participating manufacturers, it will be great for enthusiasts who love road racing, and it is fantastic for the overall health of the sport itself. Kudos to all involved for making it happen. More to come in this week's "Fumes." - PMD

(Jamey Price - INDYCAR/LAT Photo USA 2012)
Ryan Briscoe (No. 2 Team Penske Hitachi Chevrolet) started next to Team Penske teammate and pole sitter Will Power (No. 12 Team Penske Verizon Chevrolet), held off Power on a pair of late restarts and won the GoPro Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma by 0.4408 of a second for his first victory since Texas in 2010. He became the seventh different winner in 13 IZOD IndyCar Series races this season. Briscoe took the lead on Lap 65 during a pit stop sequence when he hit the blend line ahead of Power, who had pitted a lap earlier but was caught behind traffic during the first full-course caution in more than 2½ races.

(Jamey Price - INDYCAR/LAT Photo USA 2012)
Will Power clinched the Mario Andretti Road Course Trophy in IndyCar for the third consecutive year last Sunday, and increased his championship points lead from five to 36 over Ryan Hunter-Reay (No. 28 Andretti Autosport Team DHL/Sun Drop Citrus Soda Chevrolet) with just two races remaining (Baltimore and California). Needless to say, Power looks strong for the 2012 IZOD IndyCar championship. Hunter-Reay was running third behind the Team Penske duo when he was slammed from behind in a classic boneheaded move by Alex Tagliani (No. 98 Barracuda Racing) going into Turn 7 on Lap 75 and stalled. It ruined Hunter-Reay's day and he ended up 18th.

(Phillip G. Abbott - INDYCAR/LAT Photo USA 2012)
Dario Franchitti (No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) finished third. "Obviously seeing Scott (Dixon) taken out on the first lap was not what I wanted to see," Franchitti said. "We seem to get caught behind guys, we just didn't have enough to get by them, but we were definitely quicker than we should. Lost a place each pit stop and then just had to sit behind guys, and that was kind of frustrating. It's nobody's fault but our own really. In the end, I was lucky to stay out of trouble."

(Jamey Price - INDYCAR/LAT Photo USA 2012)
Rubens Barrichello (No. 8 KV Racing Technology BMC/Embrase Chevrolet) posted a season-high fourth place after starting 11th. "It's really good to have some good points, Barrichello commented. "You know the season started a little bit slow so, thanks to the whole team and thanks for all the support. I've had wonderful support. The thing that I hear the most is "Welcome to America" and I feel welcome. There's plenty more from me for sure... The team is a small group that works well together. For one reason or the other we haven't been able to get the results that we deserve. I mean, TK was superb in getting those results but, today was a good day. The track really worked well. I was able to put some really good laps in."

(Jamey Price - INDYCAR/LAT Photo USA 2012)
With Ryan Briscoe's win in the GoPro Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma, Chevrolet clinched the 2012 Manufacturers' Championship in IndyCar. Chevrolet supplied 15 of 27 engines to the starters in the 85-lap race on the 2.385-mile, 12-turn road course. It has won nine of the 13 IZOD IndyCar Series races. "We congratulate Chevrolet on clinching the 2012 Manufacturers' Championship," said Randy Bernard, CEO, IndyCar. "In a year that saw the debut of a new car, the return of engine competition and some of the fiercest racing this sport has seen in decades, our hats are off to Chevrolet, its teams and drivers on a job well done." "Chevrolet is proud to race in the IZOD IndyCar Series in 2012, and honored to win the Manufacturers championship with the Chevrolet direct-injected, twin turbo IndyCar V6," said Jim Campbell, U.S. Vice President Performance Vehicles and Motorsports. "The key to developing the best combination of power, durability, fuel economy and driveability in the Chevrolet Indy V6 has been teamwork with the drivers, crew chiefs, team owners and our engineering partners. There is still more racing to go this season, and the team remains 100% focused on finishing strong."

(Camden Thrasher - INDYCAR/LAT Photo USA 2012)
Mr. Impressive all season long, Simon Pagenaud (No. 77 Schmidt Hamilton HP Motorsports Honda) clinched the Sunoco Rookie of the Year award with a seventh-place finish. "It was a pretty eventful race for the HP team," Pagenaud said. "It seems like I was always behind the car that got spun. We had contact early on when cars got together in front of us, but we were able to finish that first stint in good shape, even with damage to the front wing. The guys in the pit changed the nose like lightning-quick. They were awesome. We had a strong race car on the Firestone red tires. At the end, I was hoping to get a top-four position, but we got boxed in behind (Alex) Tagliani, who had a broken wing, on that last restart. Those things happen on restarts.  We got the Rookie of the Year award, and that's pretty cool. It was one of our goals for the year, so we can check that box. We are now in fifth in the championship, so we are very proud of those accomplishments."

(Michael L. Levitt - INDYCAR/LAT Photo USA 2012)
For Ryan Briscoe, Sunday's win was huge, as he isn't signed for next year. "It's big. I wasn't sure if I was ever going to win again. It has been too long.   Especially here in Sonoma, I've always done so well at this track and I got my first ever pole position here and we've been top-five every year pretty much for the last five years so it's great to finally get the win. I look forward to drinking the red wine. Great battle with Will at the end there. He definitely had some bad luck in the pits, but we were there all day. I'm really excited and I hope to be able to work on my burnouts a little bit more in the future." (About what it's like to go through a losing streak like this): "It was tough. The last year was the first year that I hadn't won a race in a while. You've just go to keep plucking away, keep pushing hard. We've been fast. There's no doubt - several poles this year and front row starts, but we had trouble executing, and today we executed flawlessly thanks to the guys in the pits. There was absolutely no trouble at all. It was a straight free race. It was fun at the end there with some pressure from Will. My car was a lot better on reds. In the middle of the race he got away from us - the car wasn't that good on the blacks. But, we saved those reds for the end."

(Phillip G. Abbott - INDYCAR/LAT Photo USA 2012)
Ryan Briscoe gets a kiss from his wife Nicole in Victory Lane.

(Jamey Price - INDYCAR/LAT Photo USA 2012)
Roger Penske made several comments after the race: "We've run here a lot, we've got a pretty good setup the teams do perform each time we come back. The chance to test here a couple of weeks ago was really a plus for us because we got the cars the same, and I think everyone was on their best behavior from the standpoint of working together. You can see that with the cars as close as they are, but it was a very good day for us, obviously disappointing for Hunter-Reay and Dixon, but we want to win this championship. What we have to do is focus here on the next two races." (On Will Power getting the road course championship): "I think any championship is important, we want to focus on the overall championship. It's important to us, it's important to the team, we've been close so many years and haven't been able to close the deal. Ganassi has done a better job doing that, so today was key for us." (On the relationship with Chevrolet): " I think to have Chevy come into the series was a big plus. We have three engine manufacturers now, and there's a lot of competition, good competition between the brands. To come from Detroit and have Chevrolet in the race with the engines has been terrific, and certainly the reliability has been excellent. I think the speeds for both engines has been very competitive. I think the league has done a very good job in monitoring each engine and be sure it's a level playing field. To me, the Chevy relationship goes back a long time when we had the first Chevy Indy engine, to me this is just a repeat. To see them when the manufacturer's championship in their first year is very rewarding."

(Ford)
The Jari-Matti Latvala (FIN)/Miikka Anttila Ford Fiesta RS WRC on day three of the 2012 Rallye Deutschland. The duo was the leading Ford finisher (second place) in the FIA World Rally Championship event in Germany, but the big news - as always it seems - was that Sebastien Loeb marked the 10th anniversary of ADAC Rallye Deutschland's elevation to the FIA World Rally Championship by winning the asphalt event for a ninth time in the Citroen DS3 WRC he shares with co-driver Daniel Elena. Loeb won the opening stage on Friday morning to take a lead he would never relinquish following a dominant display in changeable weather conditions. The result was his seventh victory of 2012 - his fifth in succession - which hands him a 54-point title lead heading to Wales Rally GB next month. The Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen Citroen DS3 WRC finished third.

(Chevrolet)
Chevrolet Corvette will be the featured marque next August at the 2013 Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion, at Laguna Seca (Mazda Raceway). The recognition in Monterey, Calif., coincides with the sports car's 60th anniversary model year, and a large contingent of Corvette racers is expected representing each of the car’s six generations in competition. Corvette also was the featured marque in 2002.

 

Editor-in-Chief's Note: Check out Will Buxton's piece on his first foray into the world of IndyCar racing here. It's well worth the read. - 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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