Briscoe Toasts an INDYCAR Series Win in Sonoma Wine Country

Photo Credit: INDYCAR/LAT USA

The third to last event on the 2012 IZOD INDYCAR Series calendar, the Sonoma region of California hosted a 85-lap contest of turbocharged, open wheel racing during a pivotal time in the rapidly passing season.

Retuning to action after a three-week hiatus, the IZOD INDYCAR Series drivers and teams entered the GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma knowing they’re proceeding into the homestretch of their 2012 season. Drivers Will Power, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Helio Castroneves, and Scott Dixon approached the hilly 2.385-mile California road course with the knowledge that you miscue could desperately impact their chance of hoisting the overall IZOD INDYCAR Series championship trophy.

Taking his fourth pole in the 2012 season, Australian Will Power placed his Chevrolet-powered #12 Team Penske car at the front of an event he had won the previous two years. A 1-2 start of Team Penske cars with Power’s teammate Ryan Briscoe claiming the second-fastest time in qualifying, the third Roger Penske-owned machine piloted by Helio Castroneves would gain unfavourable attention once the green flag dropped. Starting 4^th, Castroneves made contact with championship rival Scott Dixon’s #9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing car in the turn 7 area of the Sonoma racetrack. Contact that amounted to Dixon spinning on-track losing ground to the lead of the field early, the #3 car of Helio Castroneves would himself be plucked from the front of the GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma when the IZOD INDYCAR Series assessed the Brazilian driver a penalty. Serving a drive-through penalty in the pit lane, Castroneves would make his way back through the race field to 6^th place at the end of 85 laps.

 

Photo Credit: F. Peirce Williams.LAT Photo USA/Honda

 

 

With the first 65 laps of the GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma passing without a single yellow flag, the Team Penske race cars of Will Power and Ryan Briscoe were supreme to the rest of the IZOD INDYCAR contenders. Will Power was in control for much of the event reflected in a 8.44-second lead he had on teammate Briscoe on lap 50.

Contrasting the fortune of the Team Penske organization, the other IZOD INDYCAR superteam of Andretti Autosport suffered bad luck for 2 of its 3 entries. Canadian James Hinchcliffe retired from the GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma on lap 35 due to an engine problem. Hinchcliffe’s exit in the #27 car would be followed 11 laps later by Marco Andretti. Only Andretti Autosport car left was the championship-contending driver Ryan Hunter-Reay.

The GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma’s first caution would be the result of a scary collision in turn 8 section of the road course. Colliding entering the corner, the #7 of Sebastien Bourdais and he #67 driven by Josef Newgarden sailed into an outer retaining wall. Despite a severe impact with the concrete wall, both drivers escaped major injury. However, it was determined after the race that Josef Newgarden did suffer an injury to his left index finger. His Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing team opted to place Bruno Junqueira for the upcoming Labour day weekend street course race in Baltimore.

As the field operated under its first full-course caution, this incident would be defining for the event. Two laps prior to the Bourdais/Newgarden accident, the leader Will Power had pitted relinquishing the lead to the #2 car of teammate Ryan Briscoe.

Restarting on lap 74, the late laps of the GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma would claim other championship-contending driver when an overly ambitious move performed by Alex Tagliani led to contact with the #28 car of Ryan Hunter-Reay. INDYCAR race control penalized the Canadian driver Tagliani but Hunter-Reay lost a potential top-5 finishing a disappointing 18^th place with only two races remaining to compete for the series’ overall championship.

Photo Credit: Camden Thrasher.LAT Photo USA/Honda

With his newfound advantage over teammate Will Power, Ryan Briscoe soared away on the race’s final restart at Sonoma winning his first IZOD INDYCAR race since the 2010 race at Texas Motor speedway. As the 2012 had been reaching an end, Briscoe’s presence with Team Penske for 2013 and beyond has been much questioned. With the victory in the GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma, the Australian driver Ryan Briscoe has allowed Team Penske to have all three drivers in the 2012 winner’s circle.

Chevrolet-powered contenders in the IZOD INDYCAR Series led every lap in the GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma acting as additional garnish to locking up the engine manufacturer championship for 2012. A season where the Bowtie brand has won 9 of the 13 races so far in the 2012 IZOD INDYCAR Series, Chevrolet’s battle against tour mainstay Honda and the limited resources of Lotus is a triumphant return to a series they were absent from since the end of 2005. Chevrolet’s open wheel racing is made possible with a twin-turbocharged, 2.2 liter V-6 engine the auto company says reflects the technology currently being implemented in production cars for the street.

Next race for the 2012 IZOD INDYCAR Series is a Labour Day weekend Sunday race on the streets of Baltimore.

　

2012 IZOD INDYCAR Series
GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma
Race Results

	Car #	Driver	Driver Nationality	Race Team	Engine Supplier
1	2	Ryan Briscoe	Australia	Team Penske	Chevrolet
2	12	Will Power	Australia	Team Penske	Chevrolet
3	10	Dario Franchitti	Scotland	Target/Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda
4	8	Rubens Barrichello	Brazil	KV Racing Technology	Chevrolet
5	38	Graham Rahal	United States	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda
6	3	Helio Castroneves	Brazil	Team Penske	Chevrolet
7	77	Simon Pagenaud	France	Schmidt-Hamilton Motorsports	Honda
8	4	JR Hildebrand	United States	Panther Racing	Chevrolet
9	98	Alex Tagliani	Canada	Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb Agajanian	Honda
10	11	Tony Kanaan	Brazil	KV Racing Technology	Chevrolet
11	18	Justin Wilson	England	Dale Coyne Racing	Honda
12	19	James Jakes	England	Dale Coyne Racing	Honda
13	9	Scott Dixon	New Zealand	Target/Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda
14	14	Mike Conway	England	AJ Foyt Enterprises	Honda
15	17	Sebastian Saavedra	Columbia	Team AFS	Chevrolet
16	5	EJ Viso	Venezuela	KV Racing Technology	Chevrolet
17	78	Simona de Silvestro	Switzerland	Lotus-HVM Racing	Lotus
18	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	United States	Andretti Autosport	Chevrolet
19	22	Oriol Servia	Spain	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	Chevrolet
20	20	Ed Carpenter	United States	Ed Carpenter Racing	Chevrolet
21	83	Charlie Kimball	United States	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda
22	7	Sebastien Bourdais	France	Dragon Racing	Chevrolet
23	67	Josef Newgarden	United States	Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing	Honda
24	6	Katherine Legge	England	Dragon Racing	Chevrolet
25	26	Marco Andretti	United States	Andretti Autosport	Chevrolet
26	27	James Hinchcliffe	Canada	Andretti Autosport	Chevrolet
27	15	Takuma Sato	Japan	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	Honda

　

Franchitti Snags Pole for Milwaukee Indyfest

Photo Credit: INDYCAR/ LAT USA

Returning to the Milkwaukee Mile oval last season after a race promoter fiasco cancelled the 2010 activities at the track, there was questions whether the IZOD INDYCAR Series was going to appear at the complex in 2012. A less-than stellar track audience and TV audience put open wheel racing in doubt until Michael Andretti rescued the Wisconsin state spectacle. Still occurring on Father's day weekend, there is a change to the 225-lap event from the previous year. As opposed to the 2011 race, the 2012 Milwaukee Indyfest was event scheduled early on Saturday afternoon.

In Friday afternoon qualifying, Honda-engined IZOD INDYCAR competitors continued to show force with the 2012 Dallaras. Accomplishing a two-lap speed average of 168.737 miles per hour, Dario Franchitti took pole for Saturday's Milwaukee Indyfest for the Target Chip Ganassi Racing team. After qualifying the #10 car on pole, Franchitti expressed some surprise from the fast effort after practice."Practice is one thing, qualifying is another and then there is the race. For as warm as it it people are fighting the car and everyone wants the same line. I expect tomorrow is going to be tough, especially at the end of a full - stint on those Firestone tires." said Dario Franchitti.

Perhaps on the momentum of the Texas Motor Speedway upset win, the #18 Dale Coyne Racing car piloted by Justin Wilson continues to impress on ovals. "The confidence has helped a lot." said Wilson adding, "I feel like we've made some progress in understanding this car and what it's looking for, so we'll keep chipping away at it and making the car better and better." While qualifying 2nd, Justin Wilson will fall to 12th on the start of the 2012 Milwaukee Indyfest because of an unapproved engine change after the Texas race. Will Power's #12 Team Penske car, the #67 Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing car of Josef Newgarden, the #15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing vehicle of Takuma Sato and the Mike Conway driven #14 AJ Foyt Enterprises machine have also been handed grid position penalties of 10 spots.

Promoting the race through his sports event business arm, Michael Andretti's three-car team had mixed fortunes in qualifying. While Ryan Hunter-Reay's #28 car was the fastest Chevrolet-engined competitor presented as 3rd on the time sheet, James Hinchcliffe tied his worse starting spot of the season with a 13th place grid position. Marco Andretti will start 15th on the 1-mile oval with the #26 Chevrolet-powered Dallara. 

Visiting the Milwaukee mile for the first time, 2012 IZOD INDYCAR freshman Rubens Barichello place his #8 KV Racing Technology car 5th fastest between two Team Penske machines. Josef Newgarden for Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing also had a very respectable 7th quickest time but will forfeit 10 grid positions Saturday. "Knowing that we had the penalty coming here wasn't too bad because it's been a cycle this year. Everyone's had to go through it at some point and it's just our turn." said Newgarden.

A race with 25 cars, the 225-lap Milwaukee Indyfest main event is scheduled for a 12:30pm Eastern time start. According to weather forecasts, a slight chance of thunderstorms could threaten the race on Saturday.


2012 IZOD INDYCAR
Milwaukee Indyfest
Milwaukee Mile
Qualifying Results


Blue denotes vehicles serving grid position penalties

	Car #	Driver	Driver Nationality	Race Team	Engine
1	10	Dario Franchitti	Scotland	Target/Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda
2	18	Justin Wilson	England	Dale Coyne Racing	Honda
3	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	United States	Andretti Autosport	Chevrolet
4	12	Will Power	Australia	Team Penske	Chevrolet
5	8	Rubens Barrichello	Brazil	KV Racing Technology	Chevrolet
6	3	Helio Castroneves	Brazil	Team Penske	Chevrolet
7	67	Josef Newgarden	United States	Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing	Honda
8	5	EJ Viso	Venezuela	KV Racing Technology	Chevrolet
9	2	Ryan Briscoe	Australia	Team Penske	Chevrolet
10	11	Tony Kanaan	Brazil	KV Racing Technology	Chevrolet
11	9	Scott Dixon	New Zealand	Target/Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda
12	77	Simon Pagenaud	France	Schmidt-Hamilton Motorsports	Honda
13	27	James Hinchcliffe	Canada	Andretti Autosport	Chevrolet
14	15	Takuma Sato	Japan	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	Honda
15	26	Marco Andretti	United States	Andretti Autosport	Chevrolet
16	4	JR Hildebrand	United States	Panther Racing	Chevrolet
17	38	Graham Rahal	United States	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda
18	98	Alex Tagliani	Canada	Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb Agajanian	Honda
19	6	Katherine Legge	England	Dragon Racing	Chevrolet
20	19	James Jakes	England	Dale Coyne Racing	Honda
21	83	Charlie Kimball	United States	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda
22	22	Oriol Servia	Spain	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	Chevrolet
23	20	Ed Carpenter	United States	Ed Carpenter Racing	Chevrolet
24	78	Simona de Silvestro	Switzerland	Lotus-HVM Racing	Lotus
25	14	Mike Conway	England	AJ Foyt Enterprises	Honda

Wilson Whips INDYCAR Superteams with Texas Win

Photo source: Michael L. Levitt. LAT Photo USA

The IZOD INDYCAR Series trip to the Texas Motor Speedway has always been one a fan favourite. While last year's race featured much of the drama within the twin-race experiment, many believed the reversion back to the single 228-lap formula in addition to the new 2012 race cars would amount to a better quality race at Texas for the Firestone 550. Fortunately, the result for this Saturday night contest among the open wheel racing stars of the 2012 IZOD INDYCAR Series was everything fans wanted. Race-long competition, a few harmless crashes and a late lap fight between two hungry drivers.
When the 25-car field took the field at the 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway, pole-sitter Alex Tagliani led the Firestone 550 for 20 laps. The #98 Bryan Herta Autosport car's presence at the front was disturbed by the charge of the #9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing piloted with the hands of Belle Isle race winner Scott Dixon. Dixon took the lead from Tagliani through turn 3 coming on the 20th lap. 
The race's first caution came on lap 31 with Charlie Kimball crashing his #83 car slammed the turn 4 wall. Kimball left out of his vehicle unhurt but expressed displeasure with the driver of the #5 KV Racing Technology driver EJ Viso. "It's disappointing. The car was going to get better and better, especially in clean air. I had really good pace but the No. 5 car of Viso was all over the road in front of me. I had no idea what he was going to do for five laps in a row. I'd go low and then he'd chop me, and I'd take off toward the fence." said Kimball.

leaders of the Firestone 550 would pit on lap 36 making use of the caution period ahead of a restart on lap 40 where Scott Dixon continued to lead the early stage of the Texas oval race. Between lap 62 and lap 65, the Firestone 550 saw two potential front-runners fall to the waste side during the Saturday night race. Started with the souring of the Chevrolet engine inside the #28 Andretti Autosport of Ryan Hunter-Reay, Takuma Sato lost control of his #15 car in turn two drawing the race's second yellow flag.

Photo Credit: INDYCAR/LAT USA

During the Firestone 550's first 173 laps, Oriol Servia, Mike Conway and James Hinchcliffe would lead on occasions but the race was dominated by the #9 car of Scott Dixon. The New Zealand driver Dixon was at front for 133 of the laps Saturday night but would not finish the Texas Motor Speedway. After a fantastic performance, the Target Chip Ganassi Racing driver spun out in turn 4 and made slight contact with the wall. "I turned in and the rear just started to slide and I kind of dipped down onto the apron and shut around again." said Dixon who would wind up in 18th place.

Following the clean-up of the Dixon caution, the plot thickened to the Firestone 550 as the new leader of the race Will Power made contact with the #11 car of Tony Kanaan during a three-way battle for the lead. Resulting in minor damage to the #11 KV Racing Technology car, the #12 Team Penske car of Power was charged with a violation relating to blocking on lap 194. "I had (Ryan) Briscoe on the outside and Tony (Kanaan) took me by surprise. I feel bad for him. I ruined his day because he had to come in and change the front wing, and we ruined our own day by getting the penalty." said Will Power who ended up 8th in the event.

Will Power's teammate Ryan Briscoe inherited the lead of the Firestone 550 on lap 194 but would lose the position 6 laps later to Graham Rahal's #38 Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara-Honda. Through the final 28 laps, the story was about the leading car of Rahal and the charging #18 Dallara-Honda under the Dale Coyne Racing banner. Reeling in the leaders, British driver Justin Wilson in the #18 car focused on providing the first win to his race team since his 2009 victory at the Watkins Glen INDYCAR event. Into the final laps, Wilson caught Rahal and Briscoe for a final two-lap showdown among three cars. Through turn 4, a bobble by Graham Rahal's #38 car opened the door for the #18 of Justin Wilson to pass and win the Firestone 550.

Justin Wilson's first oval victory in an Indycar-type machine (counting INDYCAR and Champ car competition for the British driver), this memorable win with Dale Coyne Racing was a significantly treasured triumph against the heavyweight teams in the 2012 IZOD INDYCAR Series that ruled the season. Wilson returned to Dale Coyne Racing in 2012 after two seasons signed with the Dreyer & Reinbold Racing organization. "I just can't believe we managed to pull this off. The car was fantastic. And on the long runs, it just got better and better. I saw people sliding around and knew I just had to hit my marks." said the winning driver of the Firestone 550.

Photo source: (c)2012, Phil Abbott. LAT Photo USA

Despite the late-race mistake, Graham Rahal held onto 2nd place ahead of Ryan Briscoe. After being the victim of a degrading Detroit race track on the previous race weekend, the #27 Andretti Autosport driver James Hinchcliffe rebounded to finish 4th. The Canadian driver Hinchcliffe was elevated back to third in the overall driver points standing with Will Power still holding on to the top spot.

The euphoria of that win was dampened slightly away from victory lane as the #18 Dale Coyne Racing Dallara-Honda was sent through inspection. An forbidden aerodynamic adjustment on the winning race machine resulted in a fine of $7,500 and the deduction of 5 points earned through the Texas Motor Speedway win.



2012 IZOD INDYCAR
Firestone 550
Texas Motor Speedway
Race Results

	Car #	Driver	Driver Nationality	Race Team	Engine
1	18	Justin Wilson	England	Dale Coyne Racing	Honda
2	38	Graham Rahal	United States	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda
3	2	Ryan Briscoe	Australia	Team Penske	Chevrolet
4	27	James Hinchcliffe	Canada	Andretti Autosport	Chevrolet
5	4	JR Hildebrand	United States	Panther Racing	Chevrolet
6	77	Simon Pagenaud	France	Schmidt-Hamilton Motorsports	Honda
7	3	Helio Castroneves	Brazil	Team Penske	Chevrolet
8	12	Will Power	Australia	Team Penske	Chevrolet
9	98	Alex Tagliani	Canada	Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb Agajanian	Honda
10	19	James Jakes	England	Dale Coyne Racing	Honda
11	11	Tony Kanaan	Brazil	KV Racing Technology	Chevrolet
12	20	Ed Carpenter	United States	Ed Carpenter Racing	Chevrolet
13	67	Josef Newgarden	United States	Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing	Honda
14	10	Dario Franchitti	Scotland	Target/Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda
15	6	Katherine Legge	England	Dragon Racing	Chevrolet
16	14	Mike Conway	England	AJ Foyt Enterprises	Honda
17	26	Marco Andretti	United States	Andretti Autosport	Chevrolet
18	9	Scott Dixon	New Zealand	Target/Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda
19	5	EJ Viso	Venezuela	KV Racing Technology	Chevrolet
20	22	Oriol Servia	Spain	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	Chevrolet
21	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	United States	Andretti Autosport	Chevrolet
22	15	Takuma Sato	Japan	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	Honda
23	83	Charlie Kimball	United States	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda
24	8	Rubens Barrichello	Brazil	KV Racing Technology	Chevrolet
25	78	Simona de Silvestro	Switzerland	Lotus-HVM Racing	Lotus

No 2012 INDYCAR Race in China

Image Credit: INDYCAR

After several sources detected troubling signs that the 2012 IZOD INDYCAR Series event in Qingdoa, China was in peril, the sanctioning body has announced that the planned August 19th trip has been cancelled. The China race for the IZOD INDYCAR Series was set to be the sole Asian event effectively replacing the tour's former event at the Twin-Ring Motegi in Japan that concluded last season.

According to the INDYCAR CEO Randy Bernard, it was the race promoter that pulled the plug on what was going to be the first visit by the North American open wheel racing series to the highly-populated country. "After ongoing discussions regarding alternative dates, as well as doing our due diligence in exploring alternate venues in China, the promoter cancelled the event. A decision had to be made to allow INDYCAR and its participants to plan accordingly for the second half of the season." said Bernard.

INDYCAR is currently eyeing options for replacing the Chinese date with another 2012 event. Rumours indicate Road America had been mentioned as a leading candidate but no decision has been made.

Tagliani Tops Texas INDYCAR Qualifying for Firestone 550 Pole

Photo Credit: INDYCAR/LAT USA

 
A week after a bizarre street race on Detroit’s Belle Isle course, the 2012 IZOD INDYCAR Series is taken into another unusual situation for the 7^th race of the year. Only the second oval race of the 2012 season where drivers are still acquainting themselves with new Dallara racing machines, the Firestone 550 at Texas Motor Speedway is the first time the new vehicle configuration will run on a highly-banked circuit.

For the second year in a row, Canada’s Alex Tagliani was the toast of Texas in the time trials for the IZOD INDYCAR Series’ Firestone 550 at the 1.5-mile oval in Fort Worth. Last year winning the pole with Sam Schmidt’s team, it was Tagliani and the combined effort of the #98 Bryan Herta Autosport team that mustered a two-lap average speed of 215.691 miles per hour to take the top spot for Saturday night’s 228-lap event at the Texas Motor Speedway.

Beating the #10 car of Dario Franchitti by a thin 0.01 second advantage, the #98 car’s pole is only the latest indicator for an emerging force to be reckon with on the IZOD INDYCAR Series tour. Since being dropped by engine supplier Lotus at the end of the Long Beach event, the Bryan Herta Autosport team returned to the Indianapolis 500 with Honda’s formidable powerplant. After a stable Indy 500 for the team, Alex Tagliani delivered the #98 car into the top-10 at the Belle Isle for the highest finish in the 2012 season for the team. “Wow that is so great, back on the pole at Texas! I told people after we sat out the race in Brazil that our season started in Indy and it did, with Honda power.” said Alex Tagliani after qualifying adding confidence that his team will be a threat for the Firestone 550.

From 2^nd through 4^th, Chip Ganaasi-owned race cars of Dario Franchitti, Graham Rahal and Scott Dixon will be lined up on Saturday night planning to display their dominance showed in the first race of the double-race last season at Texas Motor Speedway. With the Firestone 550 integrated back into a single race for 2012, the Texas Motor Speedway event will not have the disputed second race lottery that proved costly for Franchitti and Dixon in 2011.

With Chevrolet power showing the way through the beginning of the 2012 IZOD INDYCAR Series season, the improved forces of Honda teams have begun to displace the bowtie’s early path of success. Will Power leads in the #12 Team Penske car in 5^th place leads the Chevrolet runners that occupy 4 of the top-10 spots in the Firestone 550 starting grid. Andretti Autosport’s #27 car piloted by James Hinchcliffe and Tony Kanaan in the #11 KV Racing Technology vehicle are Chevrolet drivers right behind Power’s #12 car while Marco Andretti is placed 9^th on the grid for the Saturday race.

Losing 10 grid positions after engine changes at the previous Belle Isle race will be the HVM Racing #78 car of Simona de Silvestro and the AJ Foyt-owned #14 driven by Mike Conway.

The Firestone 550 at Texas Motor Speedway will start at 8pm on Saturday night.


2012 IZOD INDYCAR
Firestone 550
Texas Motor Speedway
Qualifying Results

	Car #	Driver	Driver Nationality	Race Team	Engine	Speed
1	98	Alex Tagliani	Canada	Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb Agajanian	Honda	215.691
2	10	Dario Franchitti	Scotland	Target/Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda	215.646
3	38	Graham Rahal	United States	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda	215.554
4	9	Scott Dixon	New Zealand	Target/Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda	215.331
5	12	Will Power	Australia	Team Penske	Chevrolet	215.116
6	27	James Hinchcliffe	Canada	Andretti Autosport	Chevrolet	214.920
7	11	Tony Kanaan	Brazil	KV Racing Technology	Chevrolet	214.701
8	14	Mike Conway	England	AJ Foyt Enterprises	Honda	214.458
9	26	Marco Andretti	United States	Andretti Autosport	Chevrolet	214.424
10	15	Takuma Sato	Japan	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	Honda	214.196
11	77	Simon Pagenaud	France	Schmidt-Hamilton Motorsports	Honda	214.082
12	2	Ryan Briscoe	Australia	Team Penske	Chevrolet	214.060
13	22	Oriol Servia	Spain	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	Chevrolet	213.957
14	8	Rubens Barrichello	Brazil	KV Racing Technology	Chevrolet	213.949
15	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	United States	Andretti Autosport	Chevrolet	213.927
16	5	EJ Viso	Venezuela	KV Racing Technology	Chevrolet	213.444
17	3	Helio Castroneves	Brazil	Team Penske	Chevrolet	213.402
18	83	Charlie Kimball	United States	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda	212.833
19	18	Justin Wilson	England	Dale Coyne Racing	Honda	212.136
20	20	Ed Carpenter	United States	Ed Carpenter Racing	Chevrolet	211.643
21	19	James Jakes	England	Dale Coyne Racing	Honda	211.245
22	6	Katherine Legge	England	Dragon Racing	Chevrolet	210.543
23	78	Simona de Silvestro	Switzerland	Lotus-HVM Racing	Lotus	204.066
24	4	JR Hildebrand	United States	Panther Racing	Chevrolet	202.596
25	67	Josef Newgarden	United States	Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing	Honda	No Speed

Dixon Wins Detroit INDYCAR Race Amidst Track Decay

Photo Credit: Phillip G. Abbott/ LAT Photo USA (American Honda Motor Company)

The race on the Belle Isle circuit was touted as a major deal with the open wheel racing series’ returning engine supplier Chevrolet sponsoring the ‘motor city’ event. The Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix was granted the special honour of being the race that followed the Indianapolis 500 on the 2012 IZOD INDYCAR Series calendar. With many minds still recalling the 96^th race at the Brickyard fondly, the 2.07-mile street course in the state of Michigan one week later served as restart point for the 2012 open wheel racing season.

In Saturday qualifying the #9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing car of Scott Dixon broke the pole position dominance that Team Penske held throughout the 2012 season up to the Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix. Only the three IZOD INDYCAR Series event of the season where Honda was able to make use of a more powerful turbocharger unit, the engine is coming off of a momentous Indy 500 win powering Dario Franchitti‘s Target Chip Ganassi entry. Will Power qualified 2^nd quickest as the highest Team Penske car intent to allow their Chevy engines capture the Chevrolet-sponsored event.

Photo Credit: Phillip G. Abbott/ LAT Photo USA (American Honda Motor Company)

As cars took off through the warm-up laps of the Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix, the 3^rd place starting #98 Bryan Herta Autosport machine of Canadian driver Alex Tagliani would not start. This race was the second race of 2012 where the Bryan Herta Autosport team were utilizing Honda power rather than the Lotus engine they ran for the first 3 IZOD INDYCAR Series events of 2012. The #98 car was able to restart but lost its prime starting spot as the scheduled 90-lap street race were sent to green.

Besides, Tagliani, there was also early race troubles for the #18 Dale Coyne Racing car piloted by Justin Wilson. On the first lap, Wilson slid and made side contact with concrete barrier out of a turn. While Justin Wilson remained in the race for 28 more laps, the Dale Coyne-owned car was retired based on mechanical issues pertaining to the crash damage finishing 22^nd. James Jakes, Sebastian Bourdais and Rubens Barrichello were also early retirements from the Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix by the time the race‘s first pit stops were taking place.


From pole, Scott Dixon was having an opportune race leading all the early laps of the Detroit IZOD INDYCAR event up to the pit stop cycle. Thanks to a comfortable lead and other lead cars pitting, Dixon’s #9 car left his Target Chip Ganassi Racing pit crew still holding the race lead as he returned to competition. While passing wasn’t impossible on the Belle Isle track, the pace of leaders gave few teams an chance to challenge the New Zealand driver Dixon. There was also a number of accusations that 5^th place starting EJ Viso’s slower race pace divided the field.

An event composing of 40 laps of green flag racing, the 2012 Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix’s first caution resulted from two incidents on track caused by a deterioration of the race surface. While almost every driver on the course were realizing sizeable pieces of asphalt flying from the Belle Isle track, it wasn’t until the #27 GoDaddy.com car of James Hinchcliffe sailing hard into the tire barrier of turn 7 that a problem presented itself to everyone observing the spectacle. In addition to Hinchcliffe, the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing #15 car of Takuma Sato was also bit by a decaying track in turn 12. After retiring from his first 2012 IZOD INDYCAR Series race, James Hinchcliffe commented "It was like Russian Roulette and I just pulled the bullet."

Photo Credit: INDYCAR/LAT USA

Given a choice to run the race under caution to 45 and calling the event as official, the IZOD INDYCAR Series official elected instead to give track repairs an opportunity to patch up the sections of the Belle Isle street. More than 2 hours and 15 minutes of red flag to replace the defective parts of the Belle Isle track, the event would continue without further interruptions from the surface. The remaining IZOD INDYCAR drivers were sent back out on the course to receive green for a reduced race distance of 60 laps (turn from 90).

There were two full course yellows the slowed the Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix in the final 15-lap dash.. On lap 47, an incident involving Helio Castroneves spinning out on a slick turn 6 that also collected the #20 car of Ed Carpenter. The #67 car of Josef Newgarden had spun out during this caution after receiving contact from another car.

The race’s final caution flew as a result of a turn-5 incident involving KV Racing Technology driver EJ Viso and the #26 car of Marco Andretti. The final caution period came at lap 52 giving the field one more chance to chase race leader Scott Dixon.

The extended break in the 2012 Detroit Grand Prix did little to upset the rhythm of the leader Scott Dixon. Through the final 15 laps, the #9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing car kept his teammate Dario Franchitti in his rearview mirrors on route to his first victory of 2012. A dominant performance where the New Zealand driver led flag-to-flag in the shortened Detroit race, Dixon’s first victory comes after finishing three times in the runner-up position in this year’s events. “If I could have gotten my gloves off I'd have chewed my nails for sure on those final laps. I'd like to give a lot of credit to everyone at INDYCAR and the Detroit staff for getting the track back in shape so we could race. The final 15 lap shoot-out was exciting for me - so I sure hope the fans liked it.” said Scott Dixon.

Photo Credit: Phillip G. Abbott/ LAT Photo USA (American Honda Motor Company) 

Even a final chance 7 laps to go wasn’t enough for Dario Franchitti to follow-up his Indy 500 win with a victory on the streets of Belle Isle. Still a solid effort based on the start of the 2012 season, Franchitti in 4^th place in IZOD INDYCAR Series overall driver points. In post-race, Dario Franchitti responded, "I thought in the first couple of laps I had a chance, but I couldn't, he was too quick. And with our car breaking the front wing early on, the more the run went on, the more understeer it got. But that's not to take anything away from the job Dixie did, and a 1-2 for Team Target after his brilliant qualifying and my abysmal one, we'll take it." Franchitti and the #10 car came from a 14^th place starting spot to 2^nd at the end of 60 laps.

Aside from the two Target Chip Ganassi Racing cars powered by Honda engines, rookie driver for Schmidt-Hamilton Motorsports Simon Pagenaud allowed the Japanese auto company to own the podium for the Chevrolet-sponsored Detroit street race.

Chevrolet’s top finisher in the Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix was Australian Will Power in 4th. Leading the overall driver points standing by 26 points over Scott Dixon, Power and the Team Penske group are starting to feel a much stronger challenge from old rival Target Chip Ganassi Racing as 2012 progresses.

After a quiet but effective effort at Indianapolis that resulted in a 4^th place finish in the 500-miler, Oriol Servia and the #22 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing team continues to impress with their new Bowtie engine at Detroit. With a 5^th place result, Servia finished ahead of multiple car team Chevrolet contenders KV Racing Technology (Tony Kanaan in 6^th) and Andretti Autosport (Ryan Hunter-Reay in 7^th).

Worthy of honourable mention, Alex Tagliani and the #98 Bryan Herta Autosport team didn’t give up after their early race setback. After starting deep in the field, Tagliani managed to break into the top-10 during the final race restart. The 10^th place is the first top-10 for the former Lotus-powered entry in 2012. The only Lotus-engined car on the IZOD INDYCAR Series grid throughout the 2012 season, HVM Racing’s #78 car driven by Simona de Silvestro took a respectable 13^th place from the Detroit event.

On Saturday night, the 2012 IZOD INDYCAR Series will participate in their second oval race of the season at Texas Motor Speedway.



2012 IZOD INDYCAR Series
Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand PrixRace Results

	Car #	Driver	Driver Nationality	Race Team	Engine Supplier
1	9	Scott Dixon	New Zealand	Target/Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda
2	10	Dario Franchitti	Scotland	Target/Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda
3	77	Simon Pagenaud	France	Schmidt-Hamilton Motorsports	Honda
4	12	Will Power	Australia	Team Penske	Chevrolet
5	22	Oriol Servia	Spain	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	Chevrolet
6	11	Tony Kanaan	Brazil	KV Racing Technology	Chevrolet
7	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	United States	Andretti Autosport	Chevrolet
8	83	Charlie Kimball	United States	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda
9	14	Mike Conway	England	AJ Foyt Enterprises	Honda
10	98	Alex Tagliani	Canada	Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb Agajanian	Honda
11	26	Marco Andretti	United States	Andretti Autosport	Chevrolet
12	20	Ed Carpenter	United States	Ed Carpenter Racing	Chevrolet
13	78	Simona de Silvestro	Switzerland	Lotus-HVM Racing	Lotus
14	4	JR Hildebrand	United States	Panther Racing	Chevrolet
15	67	Josef Newgarden	United States	Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing	Honda
16	2	Ryan Briscoe	Australia	Team Penske	Chevrolet
17	3	Helio Castroneves	Brazil	Team Penske	Chevrolet
18	5	EJ Viso	Venezuela	KV Racing Technology	Chevrolet
19	38	Graham Rahal	United States	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda
20	15	Takuma Sato	Japan	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	Honda
21	27	James Hinchcliffe	Canada	Andretti Autosport	Chevrolet
22	18	Justin Wilson	England	Dale Coyne Racing	Honda
23	19	James Jakes	England	Dale Coyne Racing	Honda
24	7	Sebastien Bourdais	France	Dragon Racing	Chevrolet
25	8	Rubens Barrichello	Brazil	KV Racing Technology	Chevrolet