Today is IndyCar Media Day from Barber Motorsports Park and with that comes part II of the five part series of Team-By-Team previews for the 2013 Izod IndyCar Series season.
Three teams will be featured today and they are Dale Coyne Racing, Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan Racing and Schmidt Peterson Hamilton Motorsports.
Part I can be found here.
Dale Coyne Racing
2012 Review
Drivers- Justin Wilson (15th in points, 1 win). James Jakes (22nd, best finish 8th at Toronto).
2013 Drivers- Wilson and TBA.
Very few had Justin Wilson and Dale Coyne Racing winning a race 2012, let alone winning at Texas. After years of being one of the top road course drivers in IndyCar, Wilson's win at Texas was his first on an oval and Coyne's second overall win in 28 years of racing.
James Jakes left the team for Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan but he was able to score two top tens, a 10th at Texas to go along with his 8th at Toronto in 2012. Since 2008, only one Coyne driver not names Justin Wilson has a top five finish (Alex Lloyd, Indianapolis 2010, 4th). Whoever teams with Wilson, will be facing an uphill battle for results. The lead driver rumored to be heading to Coyne is Ana Beatriz but other names, such as Narain Karthikeyan, have been thrown around.
Update, 2:44pm
Looks like Stefan Wilson, brother of Justin, and Ana Beatriz will split the second seat at Coyne. Stefan will join his brother at the Barber test. Though nothing is confirm for an actual race, the deal would be Wilson running all road and street courses, sans Brazil, while Beatriz would run Brazil and all the ovals.
Stefan had a respectable track record in Lights. He ran a handful of races for Derrick Walker in 2009, most of the races for Bryan Herta in 2010 and a full season for Michael Andretti in 2011. He has amassed 2 wins, 7 podiums, 13 top fives and 23 top tens in 32 career Lights races. He ran one Lights race in 2012, Fontana where he finished 6th.
Beatriz ran two races in 2012, apart of a partnership between Conquest Racing and Andretti Autosport. She finished 20th at São Paulo and 23rd at Indianapolis.
Wilson should be able to score solid results at all tracks in 2013. As for the second seat at Coyne, a few top ten finishes would be sufficient and, to some, a great success.
Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan Racing
2012 Review
Driver- Takuma Sato (14th, 2 Podiums).
2013 Drivers- Graham Rahal, James Jakes, Mike Conway (One-off at Long Beach).
The best return to IndyCar in 2012 may not have been Chevrolet but Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan Racing. However, despite the good results, the team had great chances to win multiple races and came up with null.
Now, Graham Rahal heads to drive for his father and looks to end his five year winless streak. Rahal had Texas in the bag before brushing the wall, handing the win to Wilson. Should RLLR keep the speed from 2012, Graham will be in great position to pick up a win, something he failed to do at Ganassi.
James Jakes had a fair sophomore season, but looks to improve even more in 2013. Heading to RLLR should give him a better opportunity for top ten finishes. Mike Conway's one-off at Long Beach gives the team an extra bullet at the race the team nearly won in 2012. A third car is expected for Indianapolis, though no plans have been announced.
Graham Rahal will get a race win in 2013 and Jakes should be hanging around the top ten at most races as RLLR looks to take a big step forward in 2013.
Schmidt Peterson Hamilton Motorsports
2012 Review
Driver- Simon Pagenaud (5th, 4 podiums).
2013 Drivers- Pagenaud and Tristan Vautier.
Though out of a full-time seat in American Open-Wheel Racing since 2007, Pagenaud had one of the best seasons in 2012. Had Long Beach been two laps longer, he probably would have passed Will Power and scored his first career victory. Ovals seemed not to bother the Frenchman as he picked up a sixth at Texas and fifth at Iowa.
Tristan Vautier has won championships the past two years and is now in IndyCar, just the way the Road To Indy ladder system is suppose to work. He is now in the big time and all reports from testing have been positive for the rookie.
The team has the speed to compete with the old guard of Penske, Ganassi and Andretti. SPHM will get a win in 2013 with Pagenaud and Vautier, the de facto Rookie of The Year, should be competing for top tens on a regular basis. Do not be surprised if Pagenaud is a title contender and do not be surprised if other teams start poaching him for 2014.
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