Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Things You Will Not Hear At The IMS Road Course Test

Graham Rahal and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing and Ryan Briscoe and Panther Racing will being testing the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway today. The test is meant to gather data on the current layout and where changes and upgrades could be made. The test takes place today from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET

There are a few things you are not going to hear from this test:


  1. You are not going to hear either Rahal or Briscoe get out of their car and say, "This place is God-awful. We should never run a race here." It's not going happen. Unless a giant sink hole appears on the road course back stretch as the cars are on track, they are going to get out of the car, say how fun it was, point out differences in running clockwise and counter-clockwise, the difference in running oval turn one and the road course section in turn one, etc.
  2. You are not going to hear Rahal or Briscoe get out of their car and say, "This is the greatest road course in history. Why IndyCar isn't running here already is beyond me. We need a race on this road course next week. Why not? IndyCar needs a race and all but Penske and Foyt can be get to the Speedway in a half hour. Let's race here next Sunday." We are not going to hear that.
  3. We are not also going to hear, "Wow, look at the enormous crowd that came out for this test."
  4. We are not going to hear either of the drivers say, "I like the road course more than the oval."
  5. We are not going to hear an announcement that there will be an IndyCar road course race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2014. If that does come, it will be at a later date.
  6. We are not going to hear either driver get out of their cars and say, "Beaux Barfield should be fire."
  7. "It has always been my dream to win a road course race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway."
  8. "I hope we can get the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series to run the road course.
When the test is done, the drivers will be happy they were given the opportunity to be behind the wheel of a car and got to run some laps and that's all we're probably going to hear. Don't expect any big news to break or any comment off the wall. As much as I disagree with the idea of running a race at the IMS road course, the test is happening and is a step toward the race actually happening. But until something is announced, this is only a test. To those going, enjoy.