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With
the cars of the IndyCar series about to make the first intentional right
turns in earnest Friday, I thought it would be interesting to rank and
comment on the most capable teams. I realize that this a very subjective
list, but I have never been short on conclusions and opinions.
1,
Andretti Green Racing Whether you wish to attribute the
success of this team to the strength of the Honda engine, the support of
the manufacturer or the outstanding driver lineup, this is clearly the
best team in the IndyCar series today, wherever they race. In winning
the series championship last season, not only did Tony Kanaan finish
every race lap of the season, but it appears he was on the lead lap all
the time. Three AGR drivers won last year as well. In Dario Franchitti,
it appears the series has been able to come up with another “cowboy in
a black hat,” to rival Thomas Scheckter, best known for being hard on
equipment; and Scott Sharp, who has driven an exceptionally wide car at
times. With Dario, I don’t think he’s fan challenged for any other
reason than who he is married to, and that to me is hard to understand.
Dario is married to Ashley Judd, and I like her
Hollywood
work. Anyway, when
you look to rank the series drivers, you have look to the short tracks
and now the “roads & streets,” and Dario has won or “shown at
some of the toughest the series races on. In addition, he may have
arguably been the best road racer in the CART series that spawned AGR
Racing. In CART, Franchitti was often a Paul Tracy Magnet, even though
the two were teammates at times. Often Dario would be in a position to
win when collected by knuckle-headed
Tracy
. I don’t have
“Dario” issues, he is friendly towards the media and I would rank
him as the series best driver. AGR has a driver depth unlike any other
team, and it would be a tough call who to rank next in road racing
skills, but I would give the nod to Bryan Herta over Kanaan, simply
because all of Kanaan’s big-time open wheel wins have come on the
ovals. Herta on the other hand is best known for his prowess at one
track, Laguna Seca and one famous winning downhill pass. I will list
Kanaan over Dan Wheldon, but only on the strength of experience, I was
impressed by Wheldon at the
Homestead
road race test.
2, Target Chip
Ganassi Racing
Because only one driver on this team, Scott Dixon, has won an IndyCar
event, this ranking is pure conjecture on my part. In February at the
Rolex 24 hour at Daytona, often through the race the announcers raved
about the pace Darren Manning was able to set. In fact, Manning and
Franchitti were the stars of the race, in spite of the superlatives
thrown Tony Stewart’s way. Manning has received a lot of talk on his
IndyCar exploits as an IndyCar rookie in 2004 as well, none of it
favorable. This season though, Darren has run clean and safe in the
first two races, and the Panoz Toyota could be better suited for the
roads and streets than it is on the ovals. The third TCGR driver is
rookie and former F1 test driver Ryan Briscoe, Ryan was at or near the
top of the charts in two days of road race testing at
Homestead
. Rumor has it that
Briscoe was also the fastest driver Tuesday at Sebring; I’ll check
that out Thursday.
3, Marlboro Team
Penske
I could have ranked this Penske team anywhere between 3rd and
7th on roads and streets and found support and justification,
mainly because of the lack of road race seat time Sam Hornish Jr. has.
In addition, Hornish was a disappointing 18th overall at the
road race portion of the Open Test at
Homestead
. While some might
think that Team Penske doesn’t have much of a chance in IndyCar’s
first season of road racing, the truth is that Helio Castroneves is good
enough to win all three non-oval events this season without any help
from Hornish. That said, mark me down as saying that Hornish will do
much better than most will expect of him. Sam my still struggle this
week, but on the two real road race venues, he will be more than just
respectable. Rick Mears will see to that
4, Panther Racing
Talk about a chance at being subjective and controversial, I could have
rated Panther Racing one spot above Team Penske and caused a mighty
uproar, but I have my doubts about two Chevy’s going full-song for an
entire race distance. This version of the Chevy Indy V8 was introduced
at the 2004 season finale at TMS. Scheckter stuck the car on the front
row, but it didn’t last the race distance. The Chevy of Townsend Bell
did go the distance though, and he managed not to hit anything. Two
weeks ago at PIR, both Chevy drivers were eliminated from the race by
contact. Scheckter was never able to show race speed that matched his
“Q” run effort. Enge was in trouble early and often. Both of these
drivers are better suited to road race, Scheckter tested in F1, Enge
looked rock solid at
Homestead
in leading one
session. If the Chevy engine will run at full song for an entire event,
and neither driver hits anyone, this could be a solid road race team.
5, Super Aguri Fernandez Racing/Fernandez Racing Did I hear a “say what? Trust me; Kosuke Matsuura and
Scott Sharp can both road race well. I think Matsuura will be a
“sleeper” at St Pete this weekend. Kosuke has raced at
Monte Carlo
, so he is no
stranger to street racing. Scott Sharp, because of his stint in Trans
Am, also is “fluent” in street racing. These two will be “pushed
around” by the potent Honda Indy V8, an engine that should eat up
distance and
Toyota
’s in a hurry on
the 5/8-mile airport runway.
Rahal Letterman
Racing/Team Cheever Once you get this far down the “food chain,” you expect weakness,
I’ll rate these two teams “a push,” or almost equal. Because RLR
uses the Honda and has strength in numbers with three entries, I give
them a slight edge over Team Cheever. For Rahal, the problem is lack of
experience at this level of road racing. My guess is that Vitor Meira
will be the team’s best road racer; I’m forever guilty of
low-balling Rice’s talent and ability. I like Danica’s future, and
that “future won’t be long in coming, in her we finally have a woman
that can and will win. As for Team Cheever, both drivers are better than
the cars the team gives them. In January though, on driving ability
alone, Patrick Carpentier was 7th overall at
Homestead
, in his first
IndyCar outing.
What should we
expect from Fridays P&Q runs? First off, we might expect a little rain, and that could
prove very interesting and entertaining. With only a 20% chance for
Friday, rain on Saturday is an even-money proposition. Also expect
“combo-qualifying,” and even though temperatures could be close to
80 degrees, it is likely we will also see tire warmers. IndyCar has come
up with a unique way to qualify the cars; first there will be two
regular “Q” sessions, one car at a time for one lap. Then the
fastest six cars will be given time to adjust on their cars, bolt on a
new set of tires, and then IndyCar will launch all six at 15-second
intervals for a ten-minute assault on the pole position. I like the
concept. I also like Dario Franchitti for the pole and perhaps all four
AGR drivers, one from TCGR and Helio Castroneves in the top-six run.
What can we expect
for “Q” speeds? Two years ago, the CART “pole was 105 mph. Those cars, although
already in speed and power reduction mode, had far more horsepower than
the IndyCars, but less downforce as well. The cars oh the IndyCar series
“corner” at a higher rate of speed while being a good bit slower on
the “straits.” On Tuesday, several IndyCar teams tested at Sebring,
and the speeds were very close to those of the 2003 CART cars when they
held a Spring Training event there. Fast lap for the CART cars in that
session was 50.8 seconds. Tuesday rookie TCGR driver Ryan Briscoe paced
testing with a 53-flat time, Bryan Herta was 2nd. IndyCar VP
and CEO Brian Barnhart has made some minor changes to the St. Pete
track, shown and explained here
http://www.indyracereports.com/2005/Articles/SPGP10.htm
These changes made the course slightly longer and probably a little
slower as well, but I expect a plus-100 mph pole speed. My SWAG is
103.2! As for the race, I'm sure that Dario Franchitti won't miss having
Paul Tracy punting him out of the lead, but he had better pay attention
to his mirrors, because there is always the aggressive Tomas Scheckter
to contend with. Also whether in practice, qualifying or in the race,
street racing can provide as much wall contact as hockey, and can be
equally as costly as oval track racing. I expect people to come to a
race and have a hockey game break out. Like most road and street races,
there are always first lap/first turn issues, and the 90 degree right
turn off the runway may be as tough as Cleveland, but with far less
room. The expected high speeds also make trouble more likely to happen
than Portland.
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