Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Six Thoughts Heading Into Another Summer Break

Another two weeks between races for the Izod IndyCar Series and despite Mid-Ohio being the only race in a five week span, there is a lot to think about after what was a fairly straight forward race.

First, Charlie Kimball won an IndyCar race. That didn't hit me until yesterday morning. Here was a kid who, to be frank, was average in Europe. He didn't light the world on fire, wasn't on the best teams, didn't have a big sponsor footing the bill on his rise to the top but he had talent. In 2005 he finished second in the British Formula Three Championship, losing out to teammate Álvaro Parente but ahead of Mike Conway, Dan Clarke and Bruno Senna. How about this fact: He was teammates with Romain Grosjean in the 2006 Formula 3 Euro Series and finished ahead of the now Lotus F1 driver by twelve points and scored more wins than the Frenchman. Kimball also finished ahead of Sébastien Buemi that season but finished behind the likes of Paul di Resta, Sebastian Vettel, Esteban Guerrieri, Giedo van der Garde, Kazuki Nakajima, Kamui Kobayashi, hell Kimball was even the best finishing American that year in the championship. Richard Antinucci and Jonathan Summerton (both sadly never got a great shake at IndyCar) finished ahead of Kimball. So Kimball has always had the talent but even when he came to the United States to run Indy Lights, he wasn't dominating like JR Hildebrand or JK Vernay (another guy to sadly never step into an IndyCar) but was consistent. In 2010, Kimball had eight top fives in thirteen Indy Lights races, though never won.

Now, Kimball is a winner and at the highest level of American open-wheel racing. He's driving for one of the best teams on the grid and this can only be a step in the right direction for Kimball. Through consistency he's tied for seventh in the championship with James Hinchcliffe who has three wins and ahead of the likes of Tony Kanaan, Will Power, Takuma Sato, Sébastien Bourdais and Graham Rahal. Remember when Kimball was thrown under the bus as the reason Hildebrand got into the wall at Indianapolis and he should be thrown out of IndyCar all together? Yeah, neither do I.

Second, the racing a Mid-Ohio was not spectacular, it was a typical Mid-Ohio race but at the same time it was a fine race. There wasn't a last lap pass like Brazil or dog fight, three wide for fifth like St. Petersburg but it was a grueling test between teams going full sprint and teams stretching out the limits of the fuel cell. To be honest, I thought the point of extending the race five laps was to end the chance of a fuel strategy race but as one on Twitter pointed out, the extra five laps made it impossible for the two lap strategy to work. This is true because the race went caution-free, however, one caution and Ryan Hunter-Reay and Will Power are sitting pretty. Maybe, to completely get rid of any chance of something stretching their mileage to make the race in two stops, Mid-Ohio should be extended by another ten laps next year? Just a thought.

Also, when was the last time their was a full course caution on a permanent road course for an accident? There was one a Barber this year but that was for debris. I guess we have to go back to Sonoma when Tagliani spun Hunter-Reay but that was a simple stalled car that brought out the caution. Does the fact there are only three permanent road courses a season help limit the amount of full course cautions on said tracks? Yes but a couple years ago, five cautions at each road course race wasn't out of the question. Now, you can't even get a driver to put a wheel off course and when they do, it's second place driving hard to catch the leader exiting the pit lane to take the lead.

Third, according to John Oreovicz of ESPN, Mid-Ohio had one of it's best crowds in recent years, despite IndyCar racing without a sports car series race on Saturday, which many fear would hurt attendance and with a NASCAR Nationwide Series race at the track two weeks later, which I know I feared would hurt attendance. That's good to hear for the event going forward.

Fourth, Luca Filippi was asked a question about IndyCar in Italy and IndyCar tweeted out his response:
 Which lead me to tweet this (yes, I realize I used the wrong form of "there"):
In all honesty, if Luca Filippi is going to be on the grid (which he should be) let's go to Italy. IndyCar should find some sponsors and get a race on the schedule. In my wildest fantasy, IndyCar and Monza would work together to restore and update the oval to modern safety standards, add lights, IndyCar would revive the Race of Two Worlds as one, five hundred mile race, qualify Friday night and race the Saturday night of the Italian Grand Prix weekend. With that never happening unless at least hundred million dollars are found, I would settle for Mugello or Imola. And, if we are going to Italy, we mind as well stop in France and the UK for a race while we are at. We've got three Frenchmen on grid and with anywhere from three to four Brits on the grid depending on who Coyne puts in the #18, we mind as well give them a home race as well. If IndyCar's going to France, let's run the Bugatti Circuit in Le Mans and let's go to Rockingham Motor Speedway in the UK. However, any European road trip for IndyCar is just mindless chatter as of now.

Fifth, as much as these long breaks suck, I kind of like them. Would I like IndyCar to be at Road America this weekend? Yes but it will give me a chance to catch up on sport cars and the following week Moto GP will be at Indianapolis so there is something to watch. Does having all of September off suck? Yes and hopefully that will be fixed next year.

Here is all I am going to say about 2014 scheduling right now: I hope they don't end the season by Labor Day and IndyCar's goal as of right now should be to retain all sixteen events at their current dates or within a week of their current date, something they have failed to do for over a decade now. As for ovals and road courses being added and trying to keep one track president happy, I'll leave that for another day.

Sixth, I am very happy for Stefan Wilson, who is getting a shot at IndyCar at Baltimore and if JR Hildebrand lands the Bryan Herta Autosport seat for Sonoma, I hope Coyne keeps James Davison in the car. He's a talented driver who deserves more of an opportunity. One race is not enough of an opportunity nor is it fair to a driver to prove their worth. It's bad enough drivers such as Dillon Battistini, Martin Plowman, Wade Cunningham and Richard Antinucci, who were successful in Indy Lights only got one, three, five and five starts in an IndyCar respectively and other promising drivers such as Logan Gomez, Robbie Pecorari and Daniel Herrington were out of Indy Lights rides despite winning and consistently bringing the car home in one piece in the top ten back when Lights grid featured more than double the cars it currently fields.

Those are just a few things I wanted to air out before we head into another two week break. Enjoy.
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