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.