First Impressions: Barber 2014

1. That was a lengthy rain delay. 

2. Who had Ryan Hunter-Reay? What a bounce back for him and Andretti Autosport with Marco Andretti in second. This was a great race. I wasn't sure how a timed event would go but it was a different wrinkle and it played into a great race. Andretti has quite the stable of wet weather drivers. Hunter-Reay was superb. Andretti out ran the big boys (Dixon, Power, Pagenaud). James Hinchcliffe was respectable and recovers after two terrible races in 7th. Carlos Muñoz was doing really well before he spun but this team should be rooting for rain in a fortnight at Indianapolis.

3. Oh by the way... the next race is at Indianapolis...

4. But not the Indianapolis 500...

5. But that is a month away...

6. May is at our doorsteps.

7. Scott Dixon avoids five straight years runner-up at Barber but third keeps his podium streak alive. When third is your worst finish at a track, I am sure you will live with that.

8. Simon Pagenaud had a quiet day in fourth. I don't think I heard his name at all except for the quick off-and-on on lap one. 

9. Will Power had a slight off that handed Hunter-Reay the lead initially but he recovered for fifth. 

10. Like Pagenaud, Justin Wilson had a quiet day in sixth. 

11. Josef Newgarden got a much deserved top ten. If only someone would step up and fund him and Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing. 

12. Tony Kanaan went from 23rd to 9th. A good day in the +/- category for the Brazilian. Imagine if he qualified toward the front once in a while.

13. Charlie Kimball made it three Ganassi cars in the top ten. He started off very slow in the wet but when the track dried out he turned his day around. 

14. Tick-tac-toe, three Ganassis in a row as Ryan Briscoe was eleventh. He picked up nine positions on the day. Not bad but low man on the Ganassi totem pole isn't a place he wants to be all that often. 

15. Jack Hawksworth finally didn't run into an Andretti car, picked up ten spots and finished twelfth. Top rookie on the day. Good for him.

16. Takuma Sato kept his nose clean and recovered nicely for thirteenth after a spin-and-stall early. 

17. Not a great weekend for Mike Conway. Midpack all week and fourteenth on race day. 

18. KV Racing had a great day but a frustrating day. Sébastien Bourdais ran really well but contact with Mikhail Aleshin drew a penalty and he could only manage fifteenth. Sebastián Saavedra stayed out on wet tires for nearly a dozen laps more than the rest of the field and led a fair share of laps but in the end the timing of this final stop dropped him from 3rd to 18th in the final order. 

19. Carlos Huertas had a spin-and-stall but did well. Wasn't his performance from Aragón last year but showed he is competent. 

20. Rahal Letterman Lanigan struggled again. Graham Rahal was seventeenth and never a factor. Oriol Servià was twentieth after he needed to make a late, late stop to make it to the finish. I wonder if their sports car program is holding back their IndyCar results. Think about it. Was a top team from 2004-2008. Team cuts back to part-time in IndyCar. Starts running BMWs full-time in ALMS for the 2009 season. They had a decent return to full-time IndyCar competition in 2012 with Takuma Sato but even that had it's fair share of poor results (mostly because of Sato having late accidents) but other than that they have yet to cement themselves as a top team in IndyCar. I hate to say it but they are the bottom of the seven Honda teams. 

21. Helio Castroneves made a minor gaff driving into Wilson's pit stall and drew a penalty. Nineteenth was all he could manage.

22a. (Wrote this around lap 10) How about Juan Pablo Montoya in the wet? Last time I remember him racing in the wet was in the Grand-Am race at Indianapolis in 2012 but it just goes to show wet weather driving just comes naturally to a driver. 

22b. (Lap 27) Damn. Montoya in the kitty litter. Oh well. Twenty-first in his Barber debut.

23. Mikhail Aleshin ran well in the wet before the slight contact with Bourdais. His accident at the end was unfortunate but he has had three decent race weekends. Remember he beat Daniel Ricciardo for the 2010 Formula Renault 3.5 championship. He has talent but sometimes we think he is just another paycheck... (He does bring a nice paycheck though).

24. IndyCar needs more corner workers for events. There should be two or three guys inside turn five at Barber. That is a hot spot for action. Aleshin could have quickly been started or pushed off circuit.

25. If there was a road course in the United States to add lights, Barber Motorsports Park should be the one to do it.

25b. Barber Motorsports Park is quickly becoming my favorite road course in the United States. Road America is great. Austin is new and nice but... Tilke-ey. Watkins Glen is historic. Sonoma is beautiful but too narrow. Mid-Ohio is just too narrow Lime Rock is cute. Sebring is rough and needs an update but won't. Road Atlanta is kind of in the same boat as Sebring. Miller Motorsports Park is in the middle of nowhere and sadly seen a reduction in action (no more sports cars, World Superbike is gone, their biggest weekend is a Pirelli World Challenge/NASCAR West Series doubleheader. Don't get me wrong, PWC is great but six years ago that place was hopping and now it has taken a big step back).

Barber might only have IndyCar and an AMA weekend but it is a crown jewel hidden in the state of Alabama. The grass looks better than a putting green at Augusta National, I'd love to spend an afternoon with a beautiful women in a gravel trap sunbathing with a cooler of drinks and the sculptures of giant ants, spiders and dragonflies are uniquely scatter about the facility. 

But more importantly the racing is phenomenal. MotoGP may never go their but I hope someone takes a bike there the week before Indianapolis and just spends a day testing to see what it is like because I bet it would feel like and look like heaven. I have to get their sooner rather than later.

26. Anyway... the month of May. It is at our door step. I wasn't a fan of the Grand Prix of Indianapolis  originally (deep down I am still not a fan of it but open to it and see some the potential it has). Testing will take place at the Speedway Tuesday and Wednesday (Indianapolis 500 rookie orientation Tuesday, road course test Wednesday) but a fortnight to go before car are on track at "The Temple of Motorsports" as Franck Montagny called it.

27. By the way it was the first wet weather race for the DW12 chassis. Not bad. I noticed it was twitchy in the wet conditions but could still be controlled quite well. Passing appeared harder to do in the wet. It seemed like the action really picked up when the track dried out. Might be something to keep in mind.

28. Ryan Hunter-Reay won in car #28 today. To be honest when I reached impression #26 and remembered Hunter-Reay won I thought I mind as well get to #28 in honor of his victory. To wrap this up I just want to reinterate how great this race was and that I am nominating it for the 2014 Race of the Year for the 2014 For the Love of Indy Awards. It wasn't the greatest race ever but it deserves it's due.