Round twelve of the Izod IndyCar Championship will take place at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio. Helio Castroneves took his second win of the season at Edmonton two weeks ago and is second in points behind Ryan Hunter-Reay.
Pantano in; Kimball Hurt
Charlie Kimball broke a bone in his hand at last week's Mid-Ohio test and needed surgery. Giorgio Pantano returns to IndyCar after substituting for Justin Wilson at Sonoma, Baltimore and Motegi last year. Pantano drove for Ganassi at Sonoma and Watkins Glen in 2005, recording a fourteenth and a fourth. Kimball has five top tens this season including an eight at Indianapolis and a second at Toronto. No time is set for Kimball's return, reports are he would like to be back for the next race at Sonoma.
1... 2... 3... 4... 5... A Delay For Push-2-Pass
Starting at Mid-Ohio, push-2-pass will take affect five seconds after pressing the button. This is a response to teams using timing and scoring to tell their drivers when the person behind them were on the button and could defend against it. One hundred seconds will be available for the drivers this weekend.
Rahal Leaving Ganassi?
I did not see this one coming. In an article by Marshall Pruett, he reports Rahal will be leaving Ganassi Racing after this season and other potential free agents including Ryan Briscoe, Sebastien Bourdais, Oriol Servia and Justin Wilson are highlighted. Ryan Hunter-Reay is reportedly working on a deal to stay at Andretti Autosport. If a deal is not reached he would be added to the free agent list.
Past Mid-Ohio Results
Ryan Hunter-Reay has never finished outside the top ten at Mid-Ohio. His first career podium was at Mid-Ohio in 2003 and added another podium last year. Castroneves has two wins at Mid-Ohio (2000 and 2001) as well as three additional podiums. He also has three finishes outside the top ten. Will Power has only raced at Mid-Ohio three times with finishes of fourth, second and fourteenth. He won pole for the 2010 Mid-Ohio race. Scott Dixon has three wins and a total of six top-fives in seven races at the track. However Dixon's three wins all came in odd years (2007, 2009 and 2011). 2011 was James Hinchcliffe's first race at Mid-Ohio where he started seventh, led twenty-six laps before a late spin in turn two relegated him back to twentieth position. Hinchcliffe did finish second and seventh in two Lights' races.
Big Week For Sonoma
A lot of positive news from Wine Country. First, GoPro was announced as title sponsor for the race. The camera company signed a three year deal with the track, making one think this race will be around for a few more years. Also announced were alterations to the race track at turn seven, nine and eleven. Turn seven will be tightened into a hairpin, turn nine (the bus stop) was widen by ten feet in hopes to encourage more passing and the turn eleven hairpin was extended by two hundred feet. Personally, I would just like to see IndyCar run the sports car course that runs the esses and not the bus stop, goes through turn ten and uses the actually turn eleven hairpin.
More Track Alterations
The Baltimore Grand Prix circuit will be altered as well. The chicane on the front straightaway will be removed, turn one will be wider and the turn five and six section, along with the pit entrance will be changed.
Predictions
I see Hunter-Reay holding on to the points lead with another top ten. Power and Dixon are also in the top ten. Pantano has an average weekend in his first DW12 race. Graham Rahal puts on a great showing at his home race. It would be cool to see him win. Sato is either going to wreck it or get a podium. I see Ryan Briscoe having a good day and I am going with an upset and taking Alex Tagliani this weekend. Sleeper: Marco Andretti (Hard to believe but I feel his luck will turn around. Either that or he has another weekend where he no better than fifteenth in any session).
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