Sao Paulo: First Impressions

1. Turbo wasn't the problem Honda. Try again.

2. With that said, Takuma Sato drove one hell of a race and I was wrong thinking he wouldn't do well this weekend

3. The anti-stall has to be figured out. We can't have guys have days ruined because the actually avoided an accident.

4. To Lotus: Are you sure you want to stop supplying Dreyer and Reinbold?

5. Newgarden has shown a lot of talent as he heads to his first oval...

6. ...which happens to be Indianapolis.

7. Anyone who thinks IndyCar shouldn't race in Brazil is wrong. It looked great on TV, imagine what it would look like if a Brazilian won? Once IndyCar starts running a 20-22 race schedule I would not mind seeing Brazil getting a second race.

Morning Warm-Up: Sao Paulo 2012

Will Power broke the track record and is joined by Dario Franchitti on row one for the Sao Paulo Indy 300. Power now has won the last two poles at Sao Paulo and two poles this season as he looks to win his third straight race this season. Scott Dixon will start third after having an off in the Firestone Fast Six and he will be followed by the Andretti Autosport teammates James Hinchcliffe and Ryan Hunter-Reay and the Dale Coyne Racing entry of Justin Wilson. The Brazilians did not fair well, as only Tony Kanaan made it in to the top 12 but starts 12th. Barrichello, Castroneves an Beatriz will start 13th, 20th and 21st respectively. Simon Pagenaud starts from the 17th positions. He has yet to show the speed he had at the first three races but, unlike the first three races where he had raced on all those tracks in either ALMS, ChampCar or IndyCar previously, this is his first race on the streets of Sao Paulo. Different from Long Beach is instead of a who's-who of drivers with 10 grid spot penalties for engine changes, only the Honda of Takuma Sato was issued a penalty for an engine change. He did not take part in qualifying and will start from the 26th position.

If there is one thing about Sao Paulo it is you can't rule anyone out after qualifying. Rain is always a possibility and can give someone starting mid pack or in the back a great opportunity to steal a victory. Honda seems to be on the same page with Chevrolet after their turbo update, although the true litmus test will be a dry race. Honda and Chevrolet split the Firestone Fast Six at three apiece and the Top 12 at six apiece. Expect Sao Paulo to wide open once again this year and don't be shocked if it rains. This has been a great start to the season with so far three exciting races and a fourth that is expected to be just as unpredictable as the three before it, all of this as we head into the month of May and teams prepare for the Indianapolis 500. You can catch IndyCar 36 at 10:30 am, highlighting Ryan Hunter-Reay's weekend at Long Beach. Pre-race coverage for the IndyCar races begins at 11:00 am and green flag will be around 11:45 am.

2012 DTM Preview

As we enter the final weekend of April, the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season begins in Hockenheim, Germany. Last year, Martin Tomczyk in the older of the two Audi A4s, held off his former Abt Sportline teammate, Mattias Ekström of Sweden and the Mercedes of French-Canadian Bruno Spengler to win his first DTM championship. This season, Tomczyk and Spengler will both be driving for BMW, as the Bavarian manufacture rejoins the DTM after a eighteen year absence. Along with the new BMW M3 DTM, Audi and Mercedes will each be fielding new cars for the 2012 season. Audi replaces the A4 with the A5 and Mercedes will update to the AMG C-Coupe.

One driver BMW brings to the DTM is their American factory driver, Joey Hand. In 2011, Hand won the 24 Hours of Daytona, the GT class at the 12 Hours of Sebring, finished on third in the GTE Pro class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and won the 2011 American Le Mans Series GT Champion with teammate Dirk Müller. Hand is the first American to race in a DTM race since 1994, when 1985 Indianapolis 500 winner Danny Sullivan ran a Alfa Romeo at the Donnington Park round of the championship. Sullivan finished 10th in the first race and 4th in the second race.

Along with Hand, BMW factory drivers Dirk Werner (Germany), Andy Priaulx (United Kingdom) and Augusto Farfus (Brazil) are all new to the DTM. The only rookie Audi driver will be Adrien Tambay, son of former Formula One driver Patrick Tambay. Mercedes-Benz will introduce two drivers to the DTM world, Canadian Robert Wickens and Spaniard Roberto Mehri. Wickens and Mehri each were champions in 2011, with Wickens winning the Formula Renault 3.5 Championship (beatng current Formula One drivers Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo) and Mehri dominated the Formula 3 Euro Series, winning 11 of 21 races and defeating second place Marco Wittman by 121 points.

The 2012 DTM season will contest of 10 rounds from this Sunday until October 21. The Hockenheimring bookends the season with the remaining eight rounds being hosted in 5 different European countries with one non-championship round. The four non-Germany rounds of the championship take place at Brand Hatch (UK, round 3), the Red Bull Ring (Austria, round 4), Zandvoort (Netherlands, round 7) and Valencia's Circuit Ricardo Tormo (Spain, round 9). Other than Hockenheim, the German DTM race will take place at EuroSpeedway Lausitz, the famous Norisring on the streets of Nuremburg, the Nürburgring and Oscherleben. The non-championship round takes place between the Norisring and Nürburgring races at Munich's Olympic Stadium, host of the 1972 Summer Olympic Games, 1974 FIFA World Cup final and the UEFA Euro 1988 final. This event uses a similar format to the annual Race Of Champions held each December.

I predict that BMW will have their struggles but will ultimately win a race late this season will have at least one driver on th podium in thre races this year. Audi and Mercedes will be in a strong fight with one another at each round and I think the Audi driver Mike Rockenfeller will win the championship in 2012. Rockenfeller started the 2011 season well, winning at Zandvoort but his accident at Le Mans sidelined him for one DTM race and he never has as racy as he was before the accident. I think Rockenfeller's toughest competitors for the championship will be fellow Audi drivers Timo Scheider, Mattias Ekström and Filipe Albuquerque and the Mercedes driver Gary Paffett.

The first round of the DTM championship can be seen in the United States on SPEED2 at 8:00 am EST, Sunday morning.

Track Walk: Sao Paulo 2012

The final race before the month of May takes place on the streets of Sao Paulo. For the third consecutive year, IndyCar will roar down the Anhembi Sambadrome and Will Power looks to remain the only winner of this event. Power comes off a great drive from 12th on the grid to hold off a late-charging Simon Pagenaud at Long Beach. Power leads the points ahead of teammate Helio Castroneves in second, Pagenaud in third, Scott Dixon in fourth and James Hinchcliffe in fifth. Other notables: Hunter-Reay is 6th, Barrichello is 9th, Kanaan is 11th, Franchitti is 14th and the highest Lotus driver in points is Sebastien Bourdais who is 17th. The great news heading into Sao Paulo is that the race is nearly sold out, as Rubens Barrichello will run his first IndyCar race in his hometown.

Forecast
The most important thing at the two previous Sao Paulo races, and expected to come into play this weekend, is the weather. In 2010, rain saw Simona de Silvestro lead her first laps in her first IndyCar race and Will Power make a late race pass on Ryan Hunter-Reay for the win. Dario Franchitti started from pole and led 29 laps, but fell back and finished 7th. The race was held under a red flag for 36 minutes and ended at the 2-hour time-limit with 61 laps completed. 2011 saw Power and Hunter-Reay start 1st and 2nd but a heavy rain on Sunday saw only 14 laps over a little more than 40 minutes and after a two and a half hour rain delay, the remaining hour and twenty minutes were run on Monday morning. On Monday, to the surprise of many, Takuma Sato and EJ Viso put KV Racing Technology in a great opportunity to win the race but poor timing saw Sato drop to 8th after leading 23 lap and Viso end up 13th. Power once again took the lead as the field neared the two hour limit and held on to win. IndyCar is only on track at Sao Paulo on Saturday and Sunday and both days call for scattered thunderstorms.

Lotus Debacle
No Bryan Herta Autosport this weekend and this is the final race for Dreyer and Reinbold Racing with Lotus as the series heads to Indianapolis after Sao Paulo. Both teams are expected to look for deals for the remaining of the season with either of the other two manufactures. It would make sense that the defending Indianapolis 500 champions will go back to Honda, especially after Bryan Herta's long history with the Japanese manufacture. One question is what will become of some of the "TBAs" on the Indianapolis 500 entry list? It looks like Ed Carpenter will not run a second car which will leave an open Chevrolet package.

Speaking Of Indy
It was announced on Monday that Michael Shank and Jay Howard have a deal for the Indianpolis 500 but do not have an engine. Shank was believed to be lined up to run the full season with Lotus but the team has yet to enter a race this season. Michel Jourdain Jr. will drive the #30 Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan Racing entry. The entry was believed to be the beginning of a deal for the rest of the season for Luca Filippi. It is not clear if Filippi has a deal for any races after Indianapolis.


Prediction
Not much of a wild prediction but I expect rain this weekend. Will IndyCar finally run the scheduled 75 lap distance? Sure, I will go out on a limb on that one. I am going with "Rubinho". After years are trying to win at Interlagos, Barrichello finally gets a win in Sao Paulo. Will Power will run up front and end on the podium as well as Graham Rahal on his six race probation. All three Andretti Autosport cars are in the top ten as well as Kanaan and Justin Wilson. I see the Honda's of Pagenaud and Franchitti doing well but Sato will end up mid pack. Sleeper: JR Hildebrand.

Howard, Shank Enter 500; Engines Influx

Michael Shank Racing has signed Jay Howard to attempt the Indianapolis 500. Shank had planned to contest the whole 2012 Izod IndyCar season with Lotus but through four races has yet to run a race. Paul Tracy was reported to have been working with Shank to field him in 2012. Jay Howard was in the abandoned Las Vegas race last October and the last official race he raced was Texas where he finished 15th and 20th in the twin 275's. Last year at Indianapolis, Howard qualified for his first Indianapolis 500 after failing to in 2008 and 2010. He qualified on the first day of qualifications and started 20th before his day ended after only 60 laps in the 30th position.

Even with the Shank-Howard entry, the whole field is influx. Lotus' announcement that they will stop supplying Dreyer & Reinbold Racing and Bryan Herta Autosport leaves further questions. Speculations over whether the two teams will sign with Chevrolet or Honda has to leave people wondering about the rest of season and the security of one-off entries by Ed Carpenter Racing, Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan Racing and Schmidt Hamilton Racing for the Indianapolis 500. I expect both RLLR and SHR to field cars but according to a tweet from Curt Cavin, Ed Carpenter will not be fielding a second car. This seemed to be the only hope for a few drivers (Buddy Rice and Tomas Scheckter come to mind) of trying to qualify for this year's race. In Cavin's article on the Indianapolis Star's website, Randy Bernard said a resolution will come out "in a day or two."

No Carneval for Tagliani and BHA

Bryan Herta Autosports and driver Alex Tagliani are going to skip the upcoming Brazil round of the championship. This is after back-to-back did not finishes at Barber and Long Beach, falling out of the top 22 in points and not being apart of the TEAM Fund this season. One factor in the decision to skip Long Beach seems to be the larger Lotus situation of limited parts and an under preforming engine. This brings the Sao Paulo entry list down to 26 entries from 27. Ana Beatriz is scheduled to be running her first race of the 2012 season next week.

To spin this another way, last year Bryan Herta Autosport skipped Brazil. Look how that turned out.

Indianapolis 500 Entry List

With the entry list for the Indianapolis 500 expected to be released today, here is what we have so far.

26 full-time teams (11 Chevrolets, 10 Hondas, 5 Lotuses)
Sebastian Saavedra and Ana Beatriz (Andretti Autosport, 13 Chevrolets)
Either Luca Filippi or Michel Jourdain Jr. (Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan Racing, 11 Hondas)
Wade Cunningham (Foyt Enterprises, 12 Hondas)

That is thirty so far and we have heard speculation on the following:
Townsend Bell (Schmidt-Hamilton Motorsports, 13 Hondas)
Bryan Clauson (Sarah Fisher-Hartman Racing, 14 Hondas)
A possibe third RLL entry (Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan Racing, 15 Hondas)
Jean Alesi (Lotus-Newman-Haas Racing, 6 Lotuses)

Those would bring the total to 34. Chevrolet and Honda are expecting to field 14 apiece and the list of above has only 13 Chevrolets. A lot of people are saying Buddy Rice with run a second Ed Carpenter Racing entry and that makes sense seeing how he ran for Fuzzy's Ultra Premium Vodka for a few races last season, including the Indianapolis 500.

Now it is not out of the question that Davey Hamilton may run a third Schmidt-Hamilton car seeing how he is a partner in the team.

Prediction:  I think we will see 33 of the guys mentioned in the two lists above and a 14th Chevrolet and I do think it will be Buddy Rice driving for Ed Carpenter. I am on the fence about Davey Hamilton. Part of me thinks he is going to do it, another part of me thinks he made his mind to retire at Las Vegas. In the end though I don't think he wants to end like that and will enter the race. That brings the entry list to 35. I don't see a third RLL right now and to be honest I don't see it happening if Davey Hamilton decides to race. I think the entry list is set at 35.

Somethings Is Missing?: For the first time in a long time drivers without rides are extremely talented and very well deserve to have a shot at Indy. Tomas Scheckter is a guy that comes to mind as well as Alex Lloyd, Bertrand Baguette, Bruno Junqueira, Paul Tracy, Jay Howard, Pippa Mann, Vitor Meira and John Andretti. All these drivers were in the Indianapolis 500 last year. Also missing is Mike Shank Racing. He announced before most teams he would be running a car full-time with Lotus. Now he hasn't entered a car at the first four races and was talking with Paul Tracy about running Indianapolis. It's hard for me to imagine he will enter a car with the lack of engines and while we can sit here and say "why does Dreyer & Reinbold, Bryan Herta and Panther run a second car?", it won't happen. Don't expect any 11th hour deals before pole day or a guy jumping into a car on bump day and getting into the field. Maybe (actually hopefully) next year when the three engine manufactures have more parts, spares and engines in general. This year 34 or 35 entries will be enough. Hopefully one or two cars get bumped and we have some drama. Then next year we see a turn upwards with Lotus able to field more competitive cars.