THE LINE

September 5, 2012

(Jamey Price - INDYCAR/LAT Photo USA 2012)
Ryan Hunter-Reay (No. 28 Andretti Autosport Team DHL/Sun Drop Citrus Soda Chevrolet) charged to victory in the second Grand Prix of Baltimore, a win he absolutely had to have if he was going to contend for the championship going to the Fontana in two weeks. Hunter-Reay started 10th and overtook leader Ryan Briscoe (No. 2 Team Penske PPG Automotive Refinishes Chevrolet) on the front straight of a Lap 70 restart. A four-car pileup in Turn 4 on the same lap triggered yet another full-course caution and gave Briscoe another shot, but Hunter-Reay used the last of his 90 seconds of push to pass on the Lap 73 restart and went on to a 1.4391-second win over Briscoe, who had started 14th.

(Jamey Price - INDYCAR/LAT Photo USA 2012)
Coming off his big win at Sonoma, Ryan Briscoe ran a well-judged race and then came up crappers at the end. "It was a tough race today," Briscoe said. "Really mixed conditions with the rain and everything. Strong finish, the car was fast, even saving fuel that whole final stint, the car was really fast. I'm really proud of the whole team, my engineer, everybody, for giving me the whole car to race today. Bit of frustrating end there on that final restart, they waved the green and we weren't even lined up yet, it was a little bit unfair. But Hunter-Reay did a great job today, and I'm just really proud of my whole team. And Roger pulled off one of those strategies today and it worked for us."

(Jamey Price - INDYCAR/LAT Photo USA 2012)
Simon Pagenaud (No. 77 Schmidt Hamilton HP Motorsports Honda) who a week earlier clinched the Sunoco Rookie of the Year award, finished third for the second time in the past three race. "It was a shame we got passed by Hunter-Reay on the stop there, but anyway, on the last restart we got too much pickup from the tires and I couldn't get rid of it," Pagenaud commented. "I'm happy to take third, we're knocking on the door and sometimes it's that way, it's the first year. Next year we'll be tough with those guys." Roger Penske was after Pagenaud for next season but his current contract is iron clad, so he's staying put. And it's no wonder Roger was after Pagenaud, he has an eye for talent and Pagenaud has been the most impressive IndyCar rookie in years.

(Jamey Price - INDYCAR/LAT Photo USA 2012)
And now, it gets interesting. For the seventh consecutive year, the IZOD IndyCar Series championship will be decided in the final race of the season. Ryan Hunter-Reay made up 20 points on front-runner Will Power (No. 12 Team Penske Verizon Chevrolet), who finished sixth in the 75-lap race on the 2.04-mile, 13-turn temporary street circuit and takes a 17-point lead into the finale Sept. 15 on the 2-mile Auto Club Speedway oval. "We still have a shot. We all want it bad enough; we can go get this thing. The team deserves it; it's a matter of if we can put it together." Hunter-Reay has four Indy car oval victories, including two this year (Milwaukee and Iowa). Power's lone oval victory came in 2011 on the 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway.

(Jamey Price - INDYCAR/LAT Photo USA 2012)
"I knew it would be a day like this. It never comes easy," said Power, who earned the three bonus points for earning the pole and leading the most laps (22). "We just have to do our best and fight like a dog till the end. We'll come out swinging."

(Jamey Price - INDYCAR/LAT Photo USA 2012)
Tristan Vautier (No 77 Mazda Road to Indy/SSM with Curb Agajanian) recaptured the Firestone Indy Lights points lead with a dominant win in the Grand Prix of Baltimore. Vautier swept the bonus points for earning the Sunoco Pole Award and leading the most laps. He won by 15.3783 seconds over Gustavo Yacaman (No. 2 TMR-Tuvacol-Xtreme Coil Drilling). Esteban Guerrieri (No. 11 Pistas-Argentinas/SSM with Curb Agajanian) finished third. Vautier, the 2011 Star Mazda champion, takes an 11-point advantage over teammate Guerrieri going into the Sept. 15 race at Auto Club Speedway. "This win feels great. From the start of the weekend the car was hooked up," said Vautier, who turned 23 on Aug. 22. "We scored lots of points so that was very good for us with an oval at Fontana coming up next. We have to stay focused and arrive ready in California."

(John Thawley  ~  Motorsports Photography @ www.johnthawley.com  ~ 248.227.0110)
Christophe Bouchut and Scott Tucker (No. 055 Honda Performance Development ARX-03b) led a 1-2 finish for Level 5 Motorsports at the Baltimore Sports Car Challenge presented by SRT on Saturday. The two Level 5 cars led three times for 32 of the 67 laps in taking their second overall win in the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón this year. Bouchut, the P2 pole-sitter, beat Luis Diaz in the No. 95 entry by 2.158 seconds as the two P2 cars led the way in a wild race on the rocky streets of Baltimore. The last P2 team to win overall was Andretti Green Racing at the 2008 Detroit street race. Wolf Henzler and Bryan Sellers (No. 17 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR) were repeat winners in GT for Team Falken Tire. Sellers held off Corvette Racing’s Oliver Gavin (No. 4 Compuware Corvette C6.R) by 2.208 seconds as he drove the last 70 minutes on a tank of E85 and the same set of Falken tires. Two caution periods in the last 16 laps helped the field – including the top five GT runners – stretch its fuel mileage. Alex Popow and Ryan Dalziel (No 06 CORE Autosport ORECA FLM09) won in Prototype Challenge and finished third overall. It marked the second straight win for Popow, who won two weeks ago at Road America with Tom Kimber-Smith. TRG’s Al Carter and Patrick Pilet (No. 68 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup) won in GT Challenge and Dyson Racing’s Eric Lux and Michael Marsal won the P1 race in their No. 20 Lola B12/60 Mazda but finished way down after an opening-lap melee. Next up for the ALMS championship is the VIR 240 from Virginia International Raceway. The four-hour race is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, Sept. 15. ESPN2's broadcast begins at 5 p.m. ET on Sunday, Sept. 16. Full, live coverage starts at 2:15 p.m. ET on ESPN3. Check out A.J. Morning's report from the race below, and John Thawley's awesome images from the streets of Baltimore here.

A flood of cautions, terrific action, crab cakes, and an announcement that will transform sports car racing in America? Yep, it must be Labor Day Weekend in Baltimore.

By A.J. Morning

Baltimore. Last weekend’s 2012 Baltimore Sports Car Challenge presented by SRT was defined as much by off-the-circuit news as anything that happened on the 2.04-mile street circuit. We’ll get through the good, the bad, and the just plain weird of it.

For starters, following a blast of a successful debut in 2011, the original promoters – who delivered the goods in crowd turnout but blew it by having way over-promised on revenues – were sacked earlier this year by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. Then, with the entire event hanging in the balance for months, eventually Andretti Sports Marketing was brought in to pick up the pieces and make the event happen – all in the span of about 90 days.

The first thing anybody noticed this year was the crowd; or, really, the lack of one. Where the 2011 debut had the streets flooded with people (many of whom seem to have gotten in free) the turnout was huge despite the lack of advertising in local media. This time round, even with ads running all over TV and radio in Baltimore and DC markets, it was considerably easier to get where you needed to go, and spend a lot less time waiting in line.  Andretti Sports Marketing’s Jade Gurss summed it up, saying “we may have fewer total numbers, but we more likely have a higher number of paying customers.” 

Sunday brought the biggest crowds, as IndyCar seemed to have more of a “main event” feel about it. That’s what having a live TV contract gets you, even if it’s on NBC.

For an event so quickly cobbled-together, the Andretti group deserves a tip of the hat – as does the City of Baltimore itself. Last year’s abhorrent traffic tie-ups were made substantially better by routing traffic more efficiently, and the behind-the-scenes workings seemed to flow with better organization (for the most part) than last year. Also, while the track designer may have screwed-up by re-designing the circuit without last year’s dreaded chicanes (leading to several cars literally catching air while crossing the railroad tracks on Pratt St), the response to this foul-up was quick and decisive – the chicanes were put back in place, so that rather than cars flying through the air, we had cars getting loose and tagging the wall. If you’re going to have damage, better to contain it on the tarmac than launch it through the air.

Along with the road hazard carried over from last year, every race over the span of three days involved some kind of pile-up in the now-notorious turn 1. One local fan observed “I don’t think we need a race announcer for this one, so much as we need a traffic reporter.” Coupled with some light rain on Sunday, the track seemed to take on both the best and worst characteristics of Sebring and Long Beach. This time, however, the manhole covers stayed put.

Of course, it’s impossible to talk about the Baltimore race without bringing up the situation that threatened to overshadow the entire event: As this is being written, we are just a few hours away from the announcement that the Grand Am series and the American Le Mans Series have reached an agreement to “merge.” Anyone who watched the DaimlerChrysler “merger of equals” play out at the end of the last century, knows what “merger” means these days – and Peter’s insight on this deal really is the last word as far as its analysis is concerned. It’s far too early to know whether to throw roses or dead fish at the parties involved – or some combination of both – but one thing is certain: Sports car racing in North America just took a very sharp U-turn, and it will never be the same.

That’s it for now; I’ll see you at the next pit stop.

(BMW)
Legendary land speed racer Andy Sills (above, left) claimed another world record riding solo on a 2012 BMW S 1000 RR at the BUB Motorcycle Speed Trials on August 29 at the famed Bonneville Salt Flats.  Sills recorded a flying mile two-way average speed of 204.784 mph, setting a new FIM record in the Partially Streamlined Naturally Aspirated 1000 cc class.  Sills bested the previous world record set in 2009 by more than four-and-a-half miles per hour. Erin Hunter (above, right), also an accomplished land speed racer and ambassador for women in the sport, set an AMA national record on the same BMW S 1000 RR with a top speed of 207.758 and a two-way average of 205.566 mph (besting the previous record by over six miles per hour) at the Bonneville event. “Andy and Erin contacted me about a week before the trials and asked if I could provide them with an S 1000 RR for Bonneville,” said Gary Orr, co-owner and general manager of San Diego BMW Motorcycles.  “We’ve been successfully prepping race bikes for them for the past several years, so we were happy to help them out again.” Orr and his technicians took the production bike and installed a BMW HP Race Powerkit, a LeoVince SBK exhaust pipe, and race body work.  In the meantime, Brock’s Performance shipped Orr a suspension lowering kit.  The race-ready BMW S 1000 RR was delivered to Andy and Erin the day before they left for Bonneville.  The couple had FastSkinz race vinyl added to the bike at the BUB event. Andy Sills and Erin Hunter are avid high-speed riders with a combined 17 years of land speed racing competition.  Together, they have earned 19 world and national landspeed records with streamliner motorcycles as well as traditional race bikes.  They hold a Guinness World Record for the fastest speed on a motorcycle ridden by two people simultaneously – a record achieved on a 2011 BMW S 1000 RR reaching an average two-way speed of 181.426 mph at the Bonneville Salt Flats where Andy was the rider for the qualification run (with Erin as the pillion passenger) and  they switched for the record return run – with Erin as the rider and Andy as the pillion passenger.  Erin also is named in the Guinness Book of World Records as the fastest female with a World Record in a streamliner motorcycle.

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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