|
Last year Ryan Briscoe played a major roll
in both qualifying and the eventual outcome of the race as well. Briscoe
won the pole position for the race and led the first 17 laps until he made
his first pit stop under caution. Split pit stop strategies and a poor pit
location caused Briscoe to be in about 7th position on the restart, and
heading for the carousel Briscoe made
an ill-advised run down the inside of Danica Patrick's car with at least
two wheels in the dirt when they weren't in the air. Briscoe cue-balled
Patrick into Helio Castroneves and all three drivers were done for the
day. Tony Kanaan would win the race followed by Buddy Rice.
This year at Infineon Raceway Briscoe
will make his 2nd road race start of the season for D&R Racing, using
the 2006 version of the Honda Indy engine instead of the Toyota of last
year. While Briscoe might not have been as spectacular in the D&R
Dallara at Watkins Glen, he was rock solid in the rain, giving the team a
3rd place finish, it's best results in several years.
While the IndyCar teams are all using
Dallara's for oval track racing, Target Chip Ganassi Racing and Rahal
Letterman Racing are expected to field Panoz Honda's at Infineon Raceway,
a chassis some figure has a road race advantage. One driver who needs any
advantage he can find right now is Buddy Rice, as mentioned above, a 2nd
place finisher last year at Infineon. Rice has struggled all season,
crashing too frequently and falling out with mechanical woes too often as
well. Buddy has been told by team owner Bobby Rahal that he is free to
explore other ride offers for 2007 while RLR searches for further
sponsorship for Rice's #15 car. Danica Patrick, Rice's RLR teammate has
already been signed to drive for Andretti Green Racing for 2007. Scott
Sharp is one other driver likely to return to the Panoz chassis for the
Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma.
I've said little about IndyCar's five race winners in 2006, Sam Hornish
Jr, Helio Castroneves, Scott Dixon, Dan Wheldon, the 2005 IndyCar Champion
(and their red and white car domination) and Tony Kanaan, mostly because I
look at road racing as an "equalizer." Hornish is an oval track
specialist who is learning to turn left and right very quickly, but he
still is too often prone to making unforced mistakes. I also think of the
Panoz as another "equalizer, and the track is yet another.
IndyCar usually has eight to nine winners
every season, so far there are five this year with two races to go. With
"more-of-the-same" expected as far as winner's go at
Chicagoland, if we are going to see a 6th winner this year it will
probably have to happed at Infineon Raceway. Likely contenders will come
from a list that will include Dario Franchitti (fast at Infineon), Bryan
Herta, a tough "downhill" road racer, Marco Andretti, who may
have won at Watkins Glen but for a "mistake (I'm not saying whose),
Buddy Rice, Ryan Briscoe, Danica Patrick, Kosuke Matsuura, Scott Sharp and
Tomas Scheckter. All of these accomplished road racers are capable of
winning under the "equalized" and hilly conditions at Infineon
Raceway.
The Sonoma 100 will be for the cars of
the Indy Pro Series, and Saturday at Kentucky Speedway the series may have
finally shown it's full potential to produce IndyCar style wheel to wheel,
side by side excitement safely. Saturday it was five cars in a pack headed
for the checkered flag in the most exciting pro Series finish ever. As
good as these cars can be on ovals, they are at their best on road
courses. While often running 25-mph or more off the IndyCar pace on the
fastest ovals, the Pro Series cars are often within 10-mph of them on roads
and streets. The Indy Pro Series Sonoma 100 will be more than just a
support race August 26th and 27th.
|
