Rahal Rolls to Early Benchmark Friday at Mid-Ohio

Photo Credit: Dan Helrigel

Celebrating almost 50 years of hosting sports car and open wheel event, the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course is the location of the 2011 IZOD INDYCAR Series season's 11th event.

Born in Columbus, Ohio home, Service Central Chip Ganassi Racing driver Graham Rahal must have felt some hometown magic lapping the Lexington-based race track during Friday's practice. The #38 car of 22-year old Rahal lapped the 13-turn, 2.258 mile track in 1 minute, 9.6031 seconds in one of his 20 laps in the session. "It feels good to start the weekend off this way for sure. I think we showed the grip is low, but at the end of the day it felt pretty good." Rahal commented on the slick Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. 

While Graham Rahal's road course prowess in open wheel is acknowledged, the Friday practice for the IZOD INDYCAR Series' Honda Indy 200 presented some surprises. Timing slightly slower than Rahal, the KV Racing Technology #59 car of EJ Viso was only 5/100ths of a second off the top time in the early track session. "This result is very important, it shows us that we have a fast car for the weekend and hopefully we have the control to bring a good result." cited the Venezuelan driver Viso. Another somewhat major surprise from the usual superteam dominance, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing's Justin Wilson is intent to continue a recent performance upturn. Other impressive top times posted on Friday at Mid-Ohio included a 6th fastest effort by Newman/Haas Racing rookie James Hinchcliffe, an 8th by red hot Andretti Autosport driver Ryan Hunter-Reay and an 11th fastest time posted by the #78 HVM Racing team car driven by Simona de Silvestro.

Finishing first at Toronto and third on the Edmonton airport circuit, Dario Franchitti enters the Mid-Ohio Honda Indy 200 ready to seek an advantage over the IZOD INDYCAR Series rival Will Power. Franchitti was 4rd fastest in the first practice driving the #10 Target/Chip Ganassi Racing car. The Scottish defending champion Franchitti just barely edged on the #12 Penske Racing car of Power on practice time proving early an advantage might be difficult to discover.   

Saturday IZOD INDYCAR action at Mid-Ohio includes a one-hour practice starting at 9:30 AM with a qualifying to be held at 12:55 PM.

Kanaan Curbs Winless Streak with Iowa Corn 250 IndyCar Win

Photo Credit: Sean Gritzmacher


Though only a 7/8 mile oval (the smallest circuit on the 2010 IRL schedule), the IZOD IndyCar Series at the Iowa Speedway has provided enough room for some entertaining events. Receiving warm accolades for being built to the specs for modern racing, including a wide pit road and a outside retaining wall built specifically with SAFER barriers in mind, the Iowa oval is a fantastic track for multi-groove racing.

Without completing a single lap, the Iowa Corn 250 fell under its first caution when the #22 car driven by Justin Wilson swept backwards up the track. Regrettably, the backward collision of Wilson caught the #32 KV Racing Technology car of Mario Moraes taking the Brazilian out of the event. Though two drivers were alright, they were also out of the event early. Disappointed for the sudden loss of control of the Dallara-Honda, Justin Wilson ended the day saying "It's obviously not how I wanted today to be and I feel sorry for everyone on the Charter car and the Dreyer & Reinbold Racing and also for Mario and his guys. He was an unfortunate bystander". Starting with some strong road course runs to the 2010 season, Justin Wilson and his Dreyer & Reinbold Racing team has found the ovals to be problematic. In the past 4 oval races on the IZOD IndyCar schedule Wilson had only one top 10 finish resulting in the Indy 500. Justin Wilson is definitely looking forward to the road course of Waltkins Glen not only for the before mentioned reason but because this was the race the Brit won last year.

Though Penske Racing's Will Power started on the pole position, the #12 Verizon car would be spending a short time amongst the front. Leading the first 32 laps for the day, the Penske Racing car of Power will be unseated at the front by the #26 of Marco Andretti. the first lead change of the race, the front position would be swapped 16 times during the Iowa Corn 250 event. Leading the most of the 250 laps was the Target/Chip Ganassi Racing #10 of Dario Franchitti. Taking the lead on lap 45, Franchitti led until a lap 52 debris caution, the second time the yellow flew on the day so far. Most cars took the opportunity to pit with exception to the #24 Dad's Root Beer car being driven for the weekend by Graham Rahal. Initially thought by observers as a bold attempt to gain track position, Rahal would confess in post-race that his presence in the lead was a result of radio troubles.

After 5 laps under green, Dario Franchitti would take the lead from Graham Rahal and the #24 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing car was required to pit lane for refueling as well as tires. Without letting Franchitti capturing on the glory for the Target/Chip Ganassi Racing team at Iowa, the #9 team car of Scott Dixon would make a competitive move on his Scottish teammate as the two Target cars swapped the lead 4 times between lap 68 to lap 116. The race was slowed again for a Sarah Fisher accident in turn 4 allowing an opportune caution where teams could pit.

Restarted on lap 112 for the Iowa Corn 250, the Target/Chip Ganassi Racing cars would soon meet a very hungry and very fast Andretti Autosport #11 car hovering in their mirrors. Tony Kanaan bolted from a 15th place starting spot in just under half the race distance with credit going to teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay for aiding the Brazilian on a race setup. Making full use of his teammate's setup, Kanaan took the lead on lap 120.

Having a terrific performance, the KV Racing Technology team had two cars within the top-10 of the running order led by the #5 Lotus Engineering car driven by Takuma Sato. Running incident-free for more than 75% of the Iowa Corn 250, the Japanese rookie's race ended on lap 17 8 when his #5 car swept into the turn 4 wall.

Through the final pit stops for the leaders under this caution for Sato, an anxious moment developed within the Andretti Autosport team. As Kanaan was being serviced by the #11 crew members, the #37 of Ryan Hunter-Reay darted into his pit and almost made contact with the #11 team's front tire changer. The incident was a near miss as crew member was not seriously hurt and both Andretti Autosport cars were initially sent back into competition. However, IRL later summoned Ryan Hunter-Reay to pit road for a drive-through penalty for making contact with pit equipment.

After the pit stop, Dario Franchitti was positioned convincingly for his 3rd win at Iowa Speedway. However, a challenge from Penske Racing's Helio Castroneves kept pressure on the Scot's #10 car. Franchitti's desire for Iowa victory ended after late in the event when his Dallara-Honda experienced gear-shifting issues regulating the 2010 Indy 500 winner into pit road and several laps down. Finishing 18th in the race, Dario Franchitti lost the overall IZOD IndyCar Series points lead falling to third as well as the AJ Foyt Oval championship points lead.

With Castroneves now in the lead in his #3 car, the #11 of Tony Kanaan begin a triumphant charge back to the front. With only 10 laps remaining, the duo of the Brazilian IndyCar drivers was resolved with Kanaan streaking by Castroneves winning the Iowa Corn 250. The first win for Kanaan since Richmond of 2008, Tony Kanaan was understandably ecstatic about being in victory lane. This victory for the #11 team was also the second win of the season for Andretti Autosport signalizing that the IZOD IndyCar series could be showing signs of having three strong superteams.

With Tony Kanaan's first win in about two years proving as a significant storyline, some special credit should be paid to the finish of KV Racing Technology's EJ Viso pulling out a brilliant 3rd place run. The last of the KV Racing Technology cars left in the Iowa Speedway event, the Venezuelan moved from 19th to score this personal-first podium position.

As Dario Franchitti falls from the top of the 2010 IZOD IndyCar series overall points lead, Will Power retakes the lead enduring the four-race oval stretch which saw the Australian nonetheless with only an 11 point lead over Scott Dixon.


2010 IZOD IndyCar Series Iowa Corn 250 Race Results

1. 11 Tony Kanaan/Brazil/ Andretti Autosport
2. 3 Helio Castroneves/Brazil/ Penske Racing
3. 8 EJ Viso/Venezuela/ KV Racing Technology
4. 6 Ryan Briscoe/Australia/ Penske Racing
5. 12 Will Power/Australia/ Penske Racing
6. 9 Scott Dixon/New Zealand/ Target/Chip Ganassi Racing
7. 14 Vitor Meira/Brazil/ AJ Foyt Racing Enterprises
8. 37 Ryan Hunter-Reay/United States/ Andretti Autosport
9. 24 Graham Rahal/South Africa/ Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
10. 7 Danica Patrick/United States/ Andretti Autosport
11. 4 Dan Wheldon/England/ Panther Racing
12. 77 Alex Tagliani/Canada/ FAZZT Race Team
13. 19 Alex Lloyd/England/ Dale Coyne Racing
14. 2 Raphael Matos/Brazil/ Luczo Dragon/de Ferran Motorsports
15. 26 Marco Andretti/United States/ Andretti Autosport
16. 34 Mario Romancini/Brazil/ Conquest Racing
17. 36 Bertrand Baguette/Belgium/ Conquest Racing
18. 10 Dario Franchitti/Scotland/ Target/Chip Ganassi Racing
19. 5 Takuma Sato/Japan/ KV Racing Technology
20. 06 Hideki Mutoh/ Japan/ Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing
21. 78 Simona De Silvestro/Switzerland HVM Racing
22. 67 Sarah Fisher/United States/ Sarah Fisher Racing
23. 18 Milka Duno/Venezuela/ Dale Coyne Racing
24. 22 Justin Wilson/England/ Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
25. 32 Mario Moraes/Brazil/ KV Racing Technology

KV Racing Adds EJ Viso to 2010 IndyCar Series Lineup

Entering into the 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series, KV Racing Technology cars will be piloted two fresh faces to the team. On Monday, KV Racing named EJ Viso to the 2010 driver roster joining the already-announced Takuma Sato. Having been named to test for the KV Racing Technology just a week ago, news of EJ Viso's 2010 plans in IndyCar come hardly as a surprise. Viso's addition to the team also coincided with KV Racing naming several new sponsors that included at least three companies tied to Viso home country of Venezuela. It's fair to say that Viso's presence made this sponsorship possible.

The 24 year-old EJ Viso briefly resided as a test driver in Formula 1 for the now-defunct Spyker MF1 Team. While Viso formative years involved stints in GP2 and British Formula 3, he was no stranger to the United States racing stage. Amongst his leading career achievement to date is the East division champion in the Skip Barber Formula Dodge series in 2001.

Having spent two eventful seasons with IndyCar team HVM, EJ Viso earned a devious reputation in his rookie season as being somewhat reckless. However, Viso was also seen for being a super fast drivers. In his first season, Viso posted his career best finish in only his 2nd race, a 4th on the Streets of St Petersburg. While earning the valuable respect of competitors in his second season, the HVM racing effort nested only a single top 10 finish for 2009 with a 7th place at Waltkins Glen.

Already signing two drivers for the 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series, a notable absence is KV Racing's driver for the past two seasons Mario Moraes. Either KV Racing Technology will add a third car to the lineup or Moraes will be looking elsewhere with time ticking away on the start of the 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series on the Streets of Sao Paulo in less than three weeks.