The summer flies quickly. July is about to end. The heat is stifling and the humidity suffocating. It will soon change. A month may feel like a long time but it is over in a blink. In the next one, the heat will become more favorable. It will be easier to go out, but the sunshine will continue to decrease and soon nighttime will start earlier than you will wish.
We will start feeling the same about some of our favorite motorsports series. The races will start dwindling and the end will be closer than you wish.
SRX's Road Course Model
With a new season of SRX underway and more current drivers competing, it has me thinking of the initial mission statement when the Superstar Racing Experience was announced during 2020.
Co-founder Ray Evernham said when SRX was first announced the hope was to run half-mile tracks, dirt tracks and mentioned a "custom road course."
As SRX developed, it has focused on being a short track series, and rightfully so. It has dedicated its attention on being one thing and it has worked into its third season, but this concept has potential on road courses.
While being billed as a new take on IROC, SRX is neglecting the road course component of auto racing. To be fair, IROC did the same of the final portion of its existence. But if SRX can put together six short races and draw a dozen drivers to each one over the summer, the same could be done for road courses.
SRX runs six weeks a year. It began in early July and ends in the middle of August. There are 46 weekends SRX is not competing. The series does work on a tight budget, and it makes it known how scarce spares are even in year three, but with the right model, a spring road course series for SRX could work.
For starters, it could not be Thursday nights. That doesn't make any sense. However, SRX could work as a Friday evening or Saturday afternoon event attached to an already existing event.
IndyCar has a number of road and street course events in the spring. It has St. Petersburg and Long Beach, Barber and even a race on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. If bygones can be bygones and the rising the tide philosophy win out, there are a few NASCAR road course weekends SRX could add on to, most notably a weekend at Austin. It is unlikely, but there is also the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring as other events SRX could join.
Consider if SRX tied itself to IndyCar. It could run three or four races over the space of about eight or nine weeks. It could be the Friday headliner, after IndyCar practice and the junior series, SRX could cap the day. It could run a practice session in the morning to prepare the drivers and then run in the evening, racing into sunset.
There are plenty of road course experienced drivers competing in SRX at the moment. Marco Andretti, Paul Tracy, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Tony Kanaan, Hélio Castroneves and Josef Newgarden have all competed in SRX. That is half an SRX field using current competitors alone while not forgetting Tony Stewart did quite well on road courses in his career. SRX isn't tapping into the vast depths of sports car drivers sitting on the sideline or who otherwise would be interested in competing.
You don't think Joey Hand would be up for this? Or that Tommy Kendall and Boris Said would jump at the chance to run? Or Scott Pruett? How many active drivers would say yes like we see with IndyCar drivers? And there are still NASCAR drivers that can be called in.
The benefit of the current NASCAR schedule is most Fridays are wide open. A driver could spend a Friday in St. Petersburg or Long Beach because they don't have to be at the Cup weekend until Saturday afternoon for a 15-minute practice session and then one lap of qualifying. Cup drivers might bite on it because when else is a Cup driver going to run Long Beach? With a street course now on the Cup schedule, this could be a great chance for a driver to get extra practice on street courses, and could give them an edge on the competition.
SRX expansion isn't in the cards, and it would require extensive financial investment to make it happen, but it could work out with in the right minds and in the right sets of hands. Also, road and/or street courses could not be much more expensive than short ovals… unless Paul Tracy is still invited.
More For Iowa
IndyCar's doubleheader weekend at Iowa is quite a complete weekend. Two races, four concerts, suites galore, plus an Indy Lights races. It is one of the rare three-day oval weekends for the series. It does have me wondering what else could be done to make that weekend bigger.
I should immediately hit the brakes because there is such a thing as too much and it would be very easy to kill the Iowa weekend by trying too hard. Iowa works in its current form. The concerts are popular. The races are in strong windows that draw respectable television viewership. Change could ruin a good thing. Night races are not returning to Iowa anytime soon. However, I think there is room to do more and it begins on Friday.
Friday is a rather slow day on the Iowa weekend. There is only one IndyCar practice session plus the Indy Lights practice and qualifying. There are no concerts, hence why it was free to attend, but I think Friday is a chance to give more to the fans, especially race fans.
With its current doubleheader format, there is one qualifying session. Each driver runs two laps. The first lap is a driver's qualifying time for race one on Saturday. The second lap is a driver's qualifying time for race two on Sunday. It is an efficient session and pretty exciting to watch. One lap could be great and then the next could be wasted. A driver could take it easy on lap one and then go all out on lap two. There are plenty of strategies and it keeps the minds churning as one qualifying has implications over two races.
The qualifying format can stay the same at Iowa, but with this being a doubleheader, I think it opens the door for a different qualifying format. Back in 2012 and 2013, heat races were used to set the starting grid at Iowa, and I think with a doubleheader, heat races could return.
Friday can still have a late afternoon practice. Perhaps that is shortened to an hour or 75 minutes from 90 minutes. Then in the early evening we have qualifying. Qualifying sets the grid for the Saturday race and determines who will be in the heat races.
In the previous edition of the Iowa heat races, practice was used to determine how the grid was split. The fastest eight drivers automatically qualified for the final. The odd-numbered drivers from ninth on down went to one heat. The even-number drivers from tenth on down went to another.
In 2012, the races were only 30 laps and drivers did not advance. If a driver wasn't the top eight, the best he or she could start was on row five. In 2013, that changed and the winners from the first two heats went to the final. The distance also increased to 50 laps.
With the size of the IndyCar grid in 2023, I think the heats could be done a little differently. There were 28 cars at Iowa. My proposal would be to split the cars by seven. The fastest seven start are automatically in the A-Main. The next seven start in the B-Main. The seven after that are in the C-Main. The slowest seven start in the D-Main.
The D-Main is a 10-lap sprint, the top three advance. The C-Main is also a 10-lap sprint, the top three advance. The B-Main is 25 laps and the top three advance to the 50-lap A-Main that decides the top ten starting positions for Sunday's race.
It would be an event. The first two races would not take that long, but we must consider if a team went from the D-Main to the A-Main we are looking at that team putting an extra 95 laps on an engine. Those teams would definitely need at least two sets of tires. It could get expensive quickly.
However, it could be a great way to kickoff on Friday night. It could fit on Peacock without any issues. It would be different. Qualifying would be interesting as each driver would be focused on getting a good spot for Saturday but also know the difference between ending up seventh and eighth is an extra 25 laps of work.
On top of it, because 95 laps of segmented racing would not take long at Iowa, Indy Lights should run a doubleheader as well at Iowa. There should be a 75-lap Indy Lights race on Friday as well as Saturday.
Make Friday a big day for race fans. Have it be for them before the event gets going with the concerts on Saturday. Race fans would appreciate it.
August Preview
We are going to give it enough coverage when it happens but the IndyCar-NASACR combination weekend from Indianapolis Motor Speedway is setting up to be a stellar event.
The IndyCar race will be crucial to the championship. The NASCAR Cup races sees a slew of international superstars joining the grid.
Shane van Gisbergen will be back in the #91 Trackhouse Chevrolet a little over a month after van Gisbergen won on his Cup debut on the Chicago street course. Jensen Button will also be back for another round after he ran Austin and Chicago. Button continues in the #15 Ford for Rick Ware Racing.
There will be new faces to the grid. Kamui Kobayashi will drive the #67 Toyota for 23XI Racing. Brodie Kostecki also comes over for, Supercars and the driver second in that championship will make his debut driving for Richard Childress Racing.
It will be a full slate of top tier drivers across the multiple series competing. This is one of the best tickets in motorsports. And it will likely disappear after this year because why keep a good thing going?
Other events of note in August:
IndyCar has two other races, Nashville and Gateway.
The NASCAR regular season will end and it is guaranteed if a driver wins a race he will clinch a playoff spot.
IMSA’s Road America round looms, which means we will likely find out the 2024 calendar.
MotoGP has a pair of races after its extended summer break.
Formula One will be mostly off but will return in time for Zandvoort at the end of the month.
