Will Power led a Penske clean sweep at the Infineon Raceway (Sears Point) road course on Sunday. The IndyCar Series title hopeful qualified on pole and led all the way, save for pitstops, to score his fifth win of the year ahead of team-mates Hélio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe. Power’s victory allowed him to close to within 26 points of championship leader Dario Franchitti.

It was the first top three sweep for Team Penske since 1994 when Al Unser Jr, Emerson Fittipaldi and Paul Tracy scored no fewer than four 1-2-3 finishes for Roger Penske’s CART team. Meanwhile Brad Keselowski won again for Penske’s NASCAR team at the half-mile Bristol bullring on Saturday night. Roger himself was on the scoring stand in Tennessee, and after flying west to California did the same at Sears Point.

‘The Captain’ is one of America’s leading entrepreneurs as well as one of its top team owners, and he was delighted to see his NASCAR and Indycar teams perform so well. “It’s been a long time since we’ve had this kind of run on the Indycar side,” said Roger. “And then for Brad and Kurt [Busch] to run so well and Brad picking up that win it’s an awesome time and a credit to all our people, whether it’s the Indycar or NASCAR side. What a run here, I just can’t believe it. There’s a lot of competition [in IndyCar] and I think we had a good set-up this weekend, just a little bit better than Ganassi.

“But we’ve got a lot of work to do. We want to win this championship. We’ve been ahead and fell behind and now maybe we’re making a surge. But Dario and [Scott] Dixon are outstanding and when you get on the [Sprint] Cup side, man, it’s a whole other story.”

Four races remain in the IndyCar championship – two street or road races and two ovals. Franchitti has 475 points to Power’s 449, while Dario’s Ganassi team-mate Dixon is third and another 49 points behind Power. Franchitti and Dixon qualified fourth and fifth at Sears Point and finished in the same places, unable to offer a challenge to Penske’s cars.

Giorgio Pantano, the 2008 GP2 champion, stepped into the injured Justin Wilson’s Dreyer & Reinbold car and drove an excellent race to finish sixth. Pantano did so without the benefit of testing and was able to shoulder out Sébastien Bourdais in one of Dale Coyne’s cars, but was penalised for diving inside the Frenchman to steal sixth place on a late-race restart. Pantano was unaware of IndyCar’s strict restart rules, which don’t allow such aggressive manoeuvres, and the disappointed Italian then found himself moved back to the tail of the unlapped finishers.

IndyCar races again this weekend at a new street circuit in Baltimore, followed by a visit to Japan Motegi’s road course and two oval races in October at Kentucky and Las Vegas. It will be interesting to see if Power can run down Franchitti to win his first IndyCar title and stop the Scot from taking his third championship in a row.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

Last weekend’s Edmonton IZOD IndyCar race was exactly what Will Power needed following collisions in Toronto two weeks earlier with Dario Franchitti and Alex Tagliani. Power rebounded from that unhappy day to score a clean victory in Edmonton, his fourth of the year. The Australian led most of the race after passing polesitter Takuma Sato and held on to win by 0.8 seconds from Penske team-mate Hélio Castroneves and championship rival Franchitti. Thus did Power pull himself to within 38 points of the Scot with seven races to go in this year’s championship.

“We really needed to come here and win, just to get the confidence back in the team,” said Power. “That was so hard at the end, certainly under braking trying to keep Hélio behind. Man, I’m really, really happy. I thought I had to be more aggressive in the race because we can’t lose any more points to Dario. A good day – I just drove every lap like qualifying. We’ve got to keep chipping away, just like Dario did with us last year.”

Following the race Power and Franchitti talked for the first time since their collision in Toronto. “I just went up and said ‘Good job’ to Will and then we talked about the race,” said the Ganassi driver. “For me, Toronto is in the past. I totally screwed up the last restart today and that got us back to 10th. But when I got into clean air I went a second a lap quicker and caught the five seconds up on Will and Hélio. But once I got there I couldn’t do anything with them.”

Castroneves enjoyed his best result of the year so far. He and Power ran into each other in this race last year and Hélio was fined for physically assaulting race officials. But this year the Brazilian kept his nose clean. “I had a chance to do something with Will but it was a bit tough,” he said. “I needed a solid result and we got it.”

The reconfigured Edmonton track left most drivers cold. The old track was much faster and challenging, but the new layout is littered with slow corners resulting in a number of incidents although they were fewer in number than in Toronto. Pole-winner Sato fell to fourth after he was passed in one fell swoop by Power, Franchitti and Scott Dixon before he was hit and spun by Ryan Hunter-Reay. But the biggest loser from these incidents was Dixon who looked like a top-three finisher until IndyCar’s resident wild man EJ Viso drove into him. Dixon lost five laps while his car was repaired and although Scott retains third in the championship he’s now 108 points behind team-mate Franchitti.

“You get sick and tired of people doing bonehead moves,” said Dixon. “I saw it coming in the mirror but I had nowhere to go. Coming from six cars back and taking out somebody – I don’t know if [Viso] was looking at somebody in the stands or not really paying attention. It ruined a good day for us. We had a great car that I think had possibilities to win as long as everything went right, but unfortunately this has been the way our season goes this year. We’ve been qualifying well and been up front but it hasn’t been going our way.”

So this year’s championship battle is a repeat of last year’s duel between Franchitti and Power, although this time the situation is reversed with the Australian playing catch-up. Can Franchitti win his third title in a row and fourth consecutive crown for Chip Ganassi? Or will Power come through to take Penske’s 13th title and the first since Sam Hornish in 2006?

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

Another week, and another ‘week in motor sport’! This time I sit down with editor Damien Smith – despite the fact that the magazine is on deadline – and chat about possible driver movements in the McLaren camp, the possibility of the BBC dropping Formula 1, the situation at Citroen in the WRC and Dario Franchitti’s run of form in the IndyCar Series.

We are creating an audio file at the moment so if you don’t want to watch it, just download that on Wednesday 22nd…

As always though – let us know what you think about all the news.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

At the historic Milwaukee Mile on Sunday, Dario Franchitti scored his third win of the year and the 29th of his career, moving him into a tie with Rick Mears for ninth place on Indycar’s all-time winners’ list. The Scot is now also tied with Will Power for the points lead in this year’s IZOD IndyCar Series after qualifying on pole and leading most of the Milwaukee race. Franchitti was challenged only by Tony Kanaan and Hélio Castroneves, but the former crashed with 30 laps to go and Castroneves was forced to pit from the lead when his left rear tyre started losing air.

Franchitti won the title in 2009-10 with Chip Ganassi’s team, having first claimed the crown in 2007 with Michael Andretti’s outfit. So he’s chasing his third consecutive and fourth championship in the last five years. At 38, Dario is in his 14th season of racing Indycars, and following an unhappy experiment with NASCAR in ’08 he’s resoundingly established himself as IndyCar’s man to beat.

“The championship will take care of itself if we can keep winning races,” he said. “The car was fast all day but that was a tough race. Kanaan was really strong and it was a typical race with Tony. You can race with him inches apart. He gave me room and I gave him room. There’s a lot of respect.

“But then you race with Hélio and you’d think after last year’s penalty the guy would quit the blocking stuff. But he pushes you one way down against the wall and if you try the outside he pushes you up into the marbles. I don’t know what it takes for this guy to understand that blocking is not allowed.”

Graham Rahal enjoyed his best race of the year to finish second at Milwaukee while Oriol Servia kept himself in the title hunt with a strong run to third. Will Power recovered from a poor qualifying run to come through the field to finish fourth, good enough to keep Franchitti from passing him in the points.

After seven of 17 races, this year’s IndyCar championship is shaping up as a reprise of last year’s battle between Franchitti and Power. They’re both on 271 points, followed by Servia in third with 198 points and Scott Dixon in fourth with 195. In recent years Franchitti has quietly emerged as one of the most accomplished drivers in the 100-year history of Indycar racing. If he can win a third title in a row his place among Indycar’s greatest drivers will be assured.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

This year’s 100th anniversary Indianapolis 500 turned into one of the most exciting races anyone has seen at the historic track. The outcome was impossible to predict through the closing laps as the field shuffled itself while fuel strategies played out. For a while it looked like Dario Franchitti and Chip Ganassi’s team had played their cards perfectly, with the Scot stopping for fuel under a late yellow and then moving towards the front as the leaders peeled in for their stops.

But then Franchitti started running low on fuel, and instead of assuming the lead had to make another visit to the pits. That left rookie JR Hildebrand to lead the chase and he looked set to score a surprising win before it all went wrong as he lapped Charlie Kimball’s car into Turn 4 on the final lap.

“Knowing that the cars in second and third were coming [on] pretty strong I decided that rather than downshifting to risk slowing the car down coming onto the front straight,” said Hildebrand. “It was a move I had used earlier in the race to get around some slower cars but I guess with the tyres worn there were a bunch of marbles on the outside. Once I got up there, there wasn’t a lot I could do.”

In a flash Hildebrand was in the wall (below), and as his car skated toward the start/finish line Dan Wheldon shot past to lead the race’s final few hundred yards. It was the first time Wheldon had led all day but it was the right time to be in front as he scored his second Indy 500 victory, crossing the line two seconds ahead of Hildebrand’s churning wreck.

Wheldon first won at Indianapolis in 2005 when he was driving for Michael Andretti’s team. This year the Briton found himself without a ride but was hired a few months ago by Bryan Herta to drive his car on a one-off basis at Indy. Wheldon may not be the world’s greatest road racer but he’s an ace on ovals, finishing second at the track the past two years. He qualified on the outside of row two for this year’s 500 and was in the hunt all the way, running third or fourth for most of the distance in company with poleman Alex Tagliani, Chip Ganassi team-mates Franchitti and Scott Dixon, and Oriol Servia in Newman/Haas’s lead entry.

In the closing stages Wheldon and Herta’s team, led by veteran engineer Steve Newey, played their fuel strategy perfectly. As the 200 laps ran out Wheldon was in second place, closing fast on Hildebrand, and when he crashed Wheldon was perfectly placed to score a popular victory for a small team with only one race in its schedule this year.

“With 20 laps to go they said on the radio, ‘You’re one of the guys that can make it to the end, but you’ve got to make sure you get everything out of the car that you possibly can’,” explained Wheldon. “So I said to myself I’m going to move the weight jacker every lap to optimise every corner and adjust the rollbars to maximise everything. I was able to catch traffic without having to lift and I started pressing the overtake button. On the last lap I was trying to deal with some lapped cars in turns three and four and in the corner of my eye I saw JR hit the fence. I just carried on by and at that point I knew it was mine.”

Dan Wheldon cools down with the traditional quart of milk after his Indy win

A great win for Wheldon then, and a jump-start surely for his stalled career. Former driver Herta says his plan is to concentrate on putting together a full season for Wheldon in 2012 rather than trying to add some races this year.

As Wheldon took the flag Hildebrand scraped home in second followed by Graham Rahal, Tony Kanaan and Dixon, while a deeply disappointed Franchitti was 12th, the last driver to complete the full race distance. Team Penske’s three cars were surprisingly uncompetitive with Will Power and Hélio Castroneves finishing a lap down in 14th and 17th and Ryan Briscoe eliminated in a collision with Townsend Bell.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

Mike Conway truly arrived in IndyCar racing last Sunday by scoring a convincing win for Andretti Autosport in the Long Beach Grand Prix. The former British F3 champion and Macau GP winner took the lead during the final round of pitstops and drove away from Ryan Briscoe and Dario Franchitti to record his first IndyCar Series victory, beating Briscoe by six seconds. Will Power led the opening laps but was punted into a spin by Penske team-mate Hélio Castroneves. Power recovered to 10th but lost the championship lead to reigning champion Franchitti.

Mike Conway wins at Long Beach

Conway started racing Indycars two years ago but was sidelined by a back-breaking accident on the final lap of last year’s Indy 500. He was out of action for the rest of the year before being signed to drive one of Michael Andretti’s four cars. Conway is a man of few words but a fierce racer who showed his stuff at Long Beach with a great drive through the field following a poor first pitstop while running third. The Brit locked his brakes and slid into his pit, losing time with a tyre change.

“From there it was a case of trying to pass as many cars as I could,” he said. “It was tough but we came out on tyres the car liked. On restarts it was awesome. The rest of the guys were struggling for grip and we were just charging through. It was nice to fight for the lead with Ryan and Dario.

Will Power and Ryan Hunter-Reay

“At the beginning I was just controlling the gap between Ryan and Will and saving fuel, and once we dropped back in the pack it was a fight to stay where we were. The restarts and the strategy worked out for us and we were on fire at the end. We were able to push by the guys and before I knew it I was in the lead.”

Conway said he had been fully motivated to recover from his accident. “Initially when I saw the injuries I had I wasn’t sure when I’d get back. Things like that can definitely stop your career, but I was determined to get back to fitness and back in the car. To win in my third race back is awesome and I can’t thank Michael enough for believing in me and the team for doing such a great job.”

Andretti said he had no doubts Conway would produce results. “Mike showed signs of brilliance last year at the beginning of the season. There was no question in my mind that he’d come back. I felt he was going to be hungrier than ever. The first time he got in a car with us he was up to speed in about four or five laps.

“Not only is Mike a great talent but he fits in with the other three drivers. We have great chemistry between the drivers and because of that I feel really good about the rest of this year. I think we’re going to be strong.”

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

We may be one of the oldest motor racing magazines in the world, but we do like trying new things. Our latest idea was to record a very brief round-up of the news each week so that every Monday you can log on to the Motor Sport website and watch a video clip that neatly sums up all that’s happened in the motor racing world over the past seven days.

Well, we’ve given it a go. It may be a little longer than we anticipated and our attempt at a newsroom feel – recording it in front of everyone in the office – may not have been 100 per cent successful, but it’s a work in progress. If any of you heard our first audio podcast you’d be amazed…

So, hopefully the days of reading hundreds of news stories every Monday morning are gone. Maybe…

Let us know what you think as this really is a first attempt. We hope you enjoy it.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Or, if you want to download it…

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

After crashing during Saturday’s practice session, Dario Franchitti bounced back to drive a perfect race at St Petersburg on Sunday. The double IndyCar champion took the lead from pole winner Will Power early in the race and drove away to win the IZOD IndyCar Series season-opener in the streets of the Florida city. Once the race got underway nobody could match Franchitti’s pace and the Scotsman – a recent Motor Sport Hall of Fame inductee – won comfortably from Power and Tony Kanaan. It was the first time Dario has won the opening race of the season and the 27th victory of his IndyCar career, pushing him into a tie with Johnny Rutherford for 10th on the all-time winners’ list.

“I want to thank the Target team for keeping fighting,” said Franchitti. “They definitely taught me never to give up. What a brilliant team! Anybody who questions their fire and motivation to go for it saw what we did today. The will to win goes right through the team.”

Power was Franchitti’s primary championship rival last year and is expected to play the same role this season. “Dario was so quick,” he said. “I didn’t have the car for him. He was just crazy fast.”

A multi-car melee at turn one on the opening lap seriously delayed Franchitti’s team-mate Scott Dixon and Power’s team-mates Hélio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe. The collision also eliminated Andretti Autosport’s drivers Marco Andretti, Mike Conway and Ryan Hunter-Reay. Young Andretti appeared to be the culprit.

It took a few more tries to get the race going and among those to profit from a series of early accidents were Tony Kanaan and Simona de Silvestro. In his first race with KV Racing Kanaan came through to finish third, chasing hard after Power for much of the distance. But in the closing laps he was fully occupied keeping de Silvestro behind him. The Swiss woman drove a great race for Keith Wiggins’s little HVM team to finish hard on Kanaan’s tail and well clear of fifth-placed Takuma Sato.

So Franchitti has cast himself once again as IndyCar’s title favourite. Can he win a third consecutive crown and a fourth in a row for Chip Ganassi’s team? It’s a tall order, but the erudite Scotsman clearly is up for the challenge.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

Roger Penske further expanded his retinue of sponsors on Tuesday. In the wake of previous announcements over the past week, Penske’s NASCAR and IndyCar teams confirmed that the Automobile Club of Southern California (AAA) would be an associate sponsor of Kurt Busch’s NASCAR car and Hélio Castroneves Indycar in 2011. Also, the AAA will be Busch’s primary sponsor in three races at the California Speedway (known these days as the Auto Club Speedway), Kansas and Texas Motor Speedways, and Castroneves’s primary sponsor at Long Beach and the Texas Motor Speedway.

The Automobile Club of Southern California is part of Auto Club Enterprises, which has more than 13 million members in 22 states and is the largest member of the AAA’s federation of America’s motor clubs. The Auto Club sells automobile, home and life insurance policies and provides emergency roadside assistance to its members. The AAA has been in business for more than 100 years and was the original sanctioning body for the Indy 500 and Indycar championship from 1909-55.

As we said earlier this week, Team Penske is thriving in a time when many other American race teams are struggling to find sponsorship. The Captain continues to set the pace.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

You have to take your hat off to Roger Penske. At a time when many American race teams are struggling to sell sponsorship, Penske has announced a string of new deals in the past week. Using the power of the Penske brand both within motor racing and beyond, as well as his superb ability as a salesman, Roger has completed a skein of new agreements for his NASCAR and IndyCar teams.

Last week Penske announced that Shell and Pennzoil would replace long-time backer Miller Beer as the sponsor of Kurt Busch’s NASCAR car (below). Both companies will also act as primary sponsor of Hélio Castroneves’s Indycar at next year’s Indianapolis 500 and on other selected events, as well as associate sponsors of Roger’s entire IndyCar team. On December 1 Roger announced that Meijer (a thriving Midwestern grocery and superstore chain) would be another associate sponsor of his three Indycars. And this week Penske announced IZOD (a clothing brand which is the IndyCar Series’ title sponsor) as an associate sponsor of his Indycars and the primary sponsor of Ryan Briscoe’s car.

From 1990-09 Penske’s IndyCar team was sponsored primarily by Marlboro, but in recent years restrictions on tobacco advertising progressively reduced the company’s involvement with the team. Although Penske Indycars continued to appear in Marlboro’s familiar red and white colours, the cars were not allowed to carry the cigarette manufacturer’s brand. Last year, after the arrangement finally came to an end, Roger’s cars were painted black and white with Team Penske logos, while Verizon came on board as the primary sponsor of Will Power’s car.

Now the team’s post-Marlboro age has arrived. In recent years Shell and Pennzoil have backed Richard Childress’s NASCAR car driven by Kevin Harvick (above), while IZOD became the IndyCar Series sponsor last year and also backed Ryan Hunter-Reay’s Andretti Autosports car for the most of the season. Grocery chain Meijer has been active for many years as an associate sponsor of a variety of Indycars, and with Verizon continuing as the primary backer of Power’s Indycar, Team Penske will enjoy a full slate of sponsorship in 2011. There’s also a chance that Sam Hornish will return to Indy racing to drive a fourth Penske entry in the Indy 500.

It was revealed last month that a new Ilmor/Chevrolet Indycar engine will appear in 2012 and of course Penske is the driving force behind the latest Ilmor/Chevy partnership. RP started his race team in 1966 and has established himself as one of American racing’s most successful and influential figures. Over the years his teams have won 332 major races – including 15 Indy 500s – and 23 national championships in numerous categories. Then there’s the Penske Corporation, described as a diversified transportation services company, which operates in more than 1800 locations worldwide with more than 36,000 employees and annual revenues exceeding US$16 billion.

Roger will celebrate his 74th birthday in February and his role in the sport remains as pervasive as ever. Other US team owners like Rick Hendrick and Chip Ganassi have achieved their share of success, but in the big picture Penske stands in a class of his own.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

Dario Franchitti kept his IndyCar title hopes alive by finishing fifth at the 1.5-mile Kentucky Speedway last Saturday night. The Scot edged closer to championship leader Will Power, who led for more than 80 laps but finished eighth after almost hitting the wall late in the 300-mile race. Power and Franchitti were among those who had to stop with only a few laps left for a splash of fuel, allowing Hélio Castroneves through to a smart win. Castroneves stalled while trying to leave the pits during his last stop, but Penske team boss Tim Cindric then advised him to save fuel so that the Brazilian made it to the finish without stopping again.

Castroneves thus scored his second win of the year, while Ed Carpenter was second in Kentucky after employing a similar fuel-saving strategy. Carpenter drove his first race since the Indy 500, teaming up with Dan Wheldon and Panther Racing, and surprised many people by taking pole from Power and his team-mate. Carpenter is former IRL boss Tony George’s nephew and an oval specialist who finished a close second at Kentucky last year. He again showed his stuff last weekend, heading the first 10 laps and running with the leaders all the way.

Wheldon also ran well, leading half the race until having to make an eleventh-hour stop for fuel with five laps to go. He rejoined to finish third ahead of Tony Kanaan and Franchitti. The 2005 Indy 500 winner and IRL champion is hoping for similar strong runs in IndyCar’s remaining two races – he will be replaced next season by Graham Rahal and is looking for work.

IndyCar’s remaining races are at Motegi, Japan on September 19 and Homestead-Miami Speedway on October 2. As it stands Power leads Franchitti by just 17 points, 552 to 535, with Scott Dixon (469 points) and Castroneves (448) in third and fourth.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

On Monday the IndyCar Series fined Hélio Castroneves US$60,000 and put him on probation for the rest of the year after he ignored a black flag in the closing laps of the July 25 round at Edmonton, and heaped invective on a couple of IRL officials immediately after the race. Castroneves was black-flagged while leading following the race’s final restart. Chief steward Brian Barnhart said the Brazilian had weaved to block team-mate Will Power and violated IndyCar’s one-move-only rule.

“This rule is unique to Indycar racing,” said Barnhart. “It was put in place to protect our competitors, officials and fans, prevent unnecessary damage to these cars and allow for more passing opportunities. Bad things happen when these cars touch and there have been serious incidents with major consequences on temporary circuits throughout Indycar history. With the new wheel interlocking prevention technology that is coming in our 2012 formula we will be revaluating the rule in the future.”

But many people saw it as just good, hard racing. Castroneves squeezed Power at the apex of the first turn but gave the Australian room to race and enjoyed a better line into the next sequence of corners, while Power took a tight line and lost momentum and a place to Scott Dixon. Compared to the aggressive moves we’ve seen from Michael Schumacher in Formula 1, Castroneves’ manoeuvres in Edmonton were fair and sportsmanlike.

Things began to go wrong for the emotional Castroneves when he refused to pull in for the black flag. He was penalised 20 seconds and placed at the end of the lead lap in 10th. After clambering out of his car Hélio allowed his feelings to overflow, scuffling with two officials in the pitlane and declaring on TV that IndyCar should talk to his lawyers.

“This sport is so close and competitive that emotions are always on display,” said IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard (below). “However, that does not justify the post-race conduct of Hélio toward series officials. This is a very serious matter and we weighed all the options, including suspension. But we felt suspension would hurt the fans more than anyone else. Fans have paid money to watch the best drivers in the world and many bought their tickets for upcoming events with the expectation of watching Hélio. He is a great ambassador for this sport and we know his actions after the Edmonton race are not indicative of his normal behaviour.”

Castroneves issued his own statement: “I want to thank Randy Bernard for taking the time to meet with me in Indianapolis today. I regret what occurred following the race in Edmonton and I apologise for my behaviour as I let my emotions get the better of me. Although my disappointment with being black-flagged while leading the race with a few laps to go will probably remain with me, I understand and accept the league’s decision to penalise me for my reaction. I am ready to move forward and I’m hoping to add to Team Penske’s success at Mid-Ohio.”

Over the past 20 years as F1 has moved too far in one direction, IndyCar has moved too far in the other. As first Ayrton Senna and then Schumacher rewrote the code of conduct in F1 which became a much harder sport, IndyCar tried to put on as nice a face as possible as the CART/IRL war dragged the sport down. It was the antithesis of what once made USAC and then CART a tough, unique form of racing.

I remember Bobby Unser raging at Gordon Johncock after a wheel-banging episode at Milwaukee in 1981. Unser was the archetypal hard man of Indycar racing and he called Johncock every name in the book to both Gordie’s face and the media. But Johncock was an equally hard man and he just smirked at Bobby. It was great theatre and helped sell plenty of tickets, and that kind of controversy is part of what today’s Indycar desperately needs rather than Castroneves being reduced to a foot-shuffling, naughty college boy.

Instead of following the old USAC way, contemporary Indycar racing has gone down the path of the SCCA, which was renowned for its gentlemanly rules of conduct rather than the rough and tumble manners of USAC and NASCAR. In fact, all forms of American road racing have been infected by the SCCA’s amateurish ways, so that every young European racer who comes to the US has a tough time adapting to our more gentlemanly rules, while any young American going to Europe has an equally difficult time adjusting to the harsher cut and thrust of the racing.

But the fact remains that in a country where NASCAR’s ‘Have at it boys’ philosophy sets the standard and dominates the market, IndyCar is becoming an increasingly irrelevant form of motor racing.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

Ryan Hunter-Reay scored a first-class win in Sunday’s Long Beach Grand Prix Indycar race. He chased hard after early leader Will Power and got ahead when the Australian’s gearbox jammed momentarily in first. Power recovered to finish third behind Hunter-Reay and Justin Wilson, and therefore retains his championship lead over Penske team-mate Helio Castroneves. Hunter-Reay’s win moves him up to third in the points ahead of Wilson.

Hunter-Reay becomes the first American driver to win an Indycar race in 21 months since he last won at Watkins Glen in July 2008 driving for Bobby Rahal’s team. He is also the first American to win at Long Beach since team boss Michael Andretti achieved the feat in 2002.

“Long Beach means so much to me,” said Hunter-Reay. “This is where I had my first race in Formula Atlantic and in CART. This race has so much history and I’ve lived here the past six years in Dana Point just down the street. I love it here. It’s like my home race.”

Hunter-Reay’s win was fortuitous because his sponsorship package with Andretti Autosports extends only until Texas in June. Clothing firm Izod sponsors his car and is also the IRL series sponsor. Ryan and Andretti hope this latest victory will persuade Izod to extend its support until the end of the season.

“I’m just so appreciative of what Michael’s done for me,” said Hunter-Reay. “He’s put a lot of faith in me and this programme. It started as a small programme and I feel like we’re just beginning to work with the team. The chemistry is building and it’s so much fun. I wake up early every day because I’m just so excited to get to the race track and get to work.

“What Izod is doing for this series is huge. You probably won’t see the results for another few months or maybe even a year. But what they’re doing for the series and what they’ve done for me is great. They have absolute faith in me.”

Andretti said he’s working hard to extend Hunter-Reay’s sponsorship deal. “I couldn’t be more excited for Ryan,” he said. “He’s worked his butt off and he’s fit right into our team. He works really well with our other three drivers. They’re all getting along well and pushing each other hard, and you’re seeing the results on the track.

“I’m just hoping we can get the support we need to get Ryan through the rest of this year. We can’t let his car stop running and I can assure you we’re working hard to [stop that from] happening. If Ryan keeps doing what he’s doing he’s making it a lot easier for us. We’ll have to see what comes out of this after the dust settles. All I can say is I hope that sooner or later we’ll be able to announce a full season for him.”

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

After the usual two weekends of qualifying the 93rd Indianapolis 500 takes place on Sunday. This year’s race looks like being another Penske versus Ganassi battle, but with everyone aboard roughly similar Dallara-Hondas there’s sure to be a long line of cars in the hunt. And, of course, almost anything can happen in a 500-mile oval race with an inevitable multiplicity of full-course yellows.

Team Penske has three cars in this year’s 500, with Hélio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe starting first and second and Will Power on the outside of row three. Penske’s cars are very strong and the team is chasing its 15th win at Indy to compliment its 15th pole earned by Castroneves.

The Brazilian is in his 10th year with Penske and is looking for his third 500 victory. He scored back-to-back wins in 2001-02, and Hélio is highly motivated following his acquittal on federal tax charges. Team-mate Briscoe is in his second year with Penske’s Indycar team and this will be his fourth 500. The 27-year-old Australian has won on ovals and has the experience and equipment to chase victory.

Countryman Power makes his second start at Indy and his first with Penske. At this stage, having been hired to fill Castroneves’s seat while the latter was occupied with his tax case, Power will not race again in this year’s IRL after the 500. So the taciturn but talented Power will be eager to do well on Sunday.

Chip Ganassi’s team is as strong as ever with the 2007 and ’08 Indy winners, Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon, starting from third and fifth on the grid, while 2007 Indy Lights champion Alex Lloyd starts from row four in a third Ganassi satellite car run by Sam Schmidt Motorsports.

Franchitti and Dixon were slightly off the pace in qualifying but are sure to be in the thick of it on race day. Both have the experience, speed and are race-savvy, while team manager Mike Hull and team owner Ganassi are equally as good as Roger Penske and his racing chief Tim Cindric at playing the strategic games required as the race and yellow flags unfold. So Castroneves, Briscoe, Franchitti and Dixon are equal favourites to win this year’s 500, with Power on slightly longer odds.

The IRL’s third big team is Andretti-Green Racing, winner of the 500 with Franchitti in 2007 and Dan Wheldon in ’05. But the four-car AGR team has looked second best at Indy this year, with team leader Tony Kanaan struggling for speed in his car and resorting to a back-up in qualifying. Still, Kanaan starts from the outside of row two and is a racer who’s entirely capable of stealing his first Indy win.

The odds are longer on AGR’s three other drivers – Marco Andretti, Danica Patrick and Hideki Mutoh, who will start the race respectively from eighth, 10th and 16th. Young Andretti came close to winning in 2006 but has been less impressive over the past 18 months, struggling in the midfield on most road circuits and in street races. Marco is at his best on ovals, Indianapolis in particular, and needs a solid result. Patrick is also at her best on the big speedway and will be trying hard for a good result in what many believe will be her last 500 before switching to NASCAR next year.

Newman/Haas/Lanigan’s Graham Rahal is most likely to cause the biggest upset of the day. The mature Rahal, 19, has done an excellent job in his second year at Indy to qualify fourth, splitting Franchitti and Dixon. I’ve known Graham since he was a kid, so I’m prejudiced, but I believe he’s the most talented, disciplined and most complete of today’s young American open-wheel racers. With any luck he’ll show all those strengths on Sunday.

New NHL team-mate Robert Doornbos had a rough initiation, crashing twice after looking good through the opening days of practice. He recovered well to record the fastest qualifying run on the second weekend and starts 23rd.

Who else might figure in the 93rd 500? Paul Tracy is an obvious choice. He will make his second Indy start in 14 years from 13th, in the middle of the field. Paul finished an unhappy second to Castroneves in 2002 and is trying to salvage his career with Kevin Kalkhoven and Jimmy Vasser’s KV Racing team.

Other dark horses include Brits Justin Wilson and Dan Wheldon, who will start 15th and 18th, and Brazilian Mario Moraes, who makes his second Indy start aboard a KV Racing entry from the inside of row three. Neither Wilson nor Wheldon are with first-class teams, but the unheralded Moraes looked good in practice and qualifying and may surprise on race day.

Also worth watching are fastest rookie qualifier Raphael Matos, who starts from the outside of row four, and Champ Car veteran Oriol Servia, who qualified Bobby Rahal’s car after minimal practice. He starts from row nine.

The only practice session this week is Friday’s ‘Carburetion Day’ followed by an Indy Lights race and pitstop competition. The 200-lap, 500-mile race takes the green flag on Sunday at 1pm EST.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

Hélio Castroneves and team-mate Ryan Briscoe traded the top spot back and forth during the six hours of Pole Day qualifying at Indianapolis last Saturday. On a windy afternoon nobody could challenge the Penske pair, with Castroneves eventually edging his team-mate by half a second over the four qualifying laps. Hélio averaged 224.864mph to Ryan’s 224.083mph.

Briscoe was faster than Castroneves on their first qualifying runs early in the afternoon, but both went quicker later in the day after withdrawing their original cars and speeds. This is Castroneves’s third Indy 500 pole and the 15th time that one of Roger Penske’s cars will lead the field away at the Brickyard.

“The car was too comfortable on our first run,” said Castroneves. “We worked together and made the cars a little more on the edge, a little quicker. It’s a lot of fun when you push the limit and everybody works together to do it. This is a team effort and this team is the best.”

Added Briscoe: “The cars were so good straight off the truck and that gives us a lot of confidence to really trim out the cars for qualifying. It’s been exciting and it’s such a great feeling knowing we’re going into the Indy 500 with very strong cars.”

Castroneves was acquitted on federal tax evasion charges last month and is delighted to once again be a free man able to pursue his chosen profession. “I feel at home here at Indianapolis,” he said. “I just have to thank everybody for the warm welcome I’ve received. It’s like a big family. Racing is my life – it’s what I love and I have to thank all the fans. It means a lot.”

The biggest challenge to Penske came from Chip Ganassi’s cars. Dario Franchitti completed the front row with a run at 224.010mph while last year’s winner Scott Dixon was fifth fastest, just 0.1sec slower than Franchitti over the four laps.

“It would have been nice to be on pole,” said Dario. “But we’ve won from third on the grid before, so hopefully it’s a good omen. Honestly, that was most of the speed the car had in it today. We got hit by a couple of gusts of wind which cost us, but we just didn’t have the speed to match the Penske cars. Those were definitely the craziest qualifying laps I’ve driven here. With the wind and everything, we were hanging it out today.”

Graham Rahal qualified an impressive fourth, splitting the Ganassi pair for Newman/Haas/Lanigan. Rahal had to scrub his original qualifying run because the team wanted to run a slightly different configuration for the race, and he was without a spare car after team-mate Robert Doornbos crashed two – one on Friday and the second on Saturday morning. As a result Doornbos will have to qualify next weekend.

“The car was really nice,” said Rahal. “It had maybe a bit too much understeer. But we got through our run safely, which is what we needed to do. It says a lot for the work this team has done and how much we’ve improved the car over the last year.”

IRL points leader Tony Kanaan was the fastest of Andretti-Green’s four cars. Kanaan qualified sixth and will start the 500 on the outside of row two. Team-mates Marco Andretti and Danica Patrick will start from the third and fourth rows respectively. Also among the first-day qualifiers was Will Power, who put Penske’s third car on the outside of row three.

Fastest in Sunday’s qualifying was rookie Raphael Matos, who lapped his Luczo-Dragon entry owned by Roger Penske’s son Jay at 223.429mph. Matos starts the 500 from 12th on the grid. Paul Tracy was second fastest on Sunday at 223.111mph and will start the race from 13th. Tracy made a couple of qualifying runs on Saturday but was bumped from the top 11. He made two more runs on Sunday before he was satisfied.

Justin Wilson was fourth fastest on Sunday at 222.849mph, qualifying behind Vítor Meira. After making the field on Saturday, Wilson was disqualified for being underweight. Justin re-qualified in good order on Sunday and will start from 14th place in the middle of row five. Also among Sunday’s second-day qualifiers was 2005 Indy winner Dan Wheldon, who crashed on Saturday. Wheldon came back to qualify at 222.777mph and will start from the outside of row six.

The final 11 places in the 33-car field will be determined next weekend, and the race takes place the following Sunday on May 24.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

The opening rounds of qualifying for this year’s 93rd Indianapolis 500 take place this weekend, with the first 11 starting positions determined on Saturday and the next 11 on Sunday. Practice for the 500 started on Tuesday for rookies and experienced drivers who haven’t competed in any IRL races so far this year. The rest of the field was scheduled to start practicing yesterday (Wednesday) but steady rain for most of the day resulted in a washout.

Fastest in practice so far therefore is Paul Tracy, who has raced at Indianapolis only once in the past 14 years. A CART/Champ Car stalwart, Tracy ran the Indy 500 in 2002 and appeared to have won the race when he passed Hélio Castroneves with two laps to go as the yellow light came on. But Castroneves was awarded the victory.

Since Champ Car’s failure at the start of last year the 40-year-old Tracy has been without a regular ride, but he’s been entered at Indianapolis by KV (Kalkhoven-Vasser) Racing on a one-off basis in a car sponsored by Geico Insurance. On Tuesday Tracy showed he’s gathered little if any rust as he jumped into the KV/Geico Dallara-Honda and quickly got up to speed.

By the end of the day Tracy was clearly the quickest driver, turning a fast lap in 40.3462sec (223.089mph). Fastest of the rookie drivers was Dutchman Robert Doornbos (above), who lapped his Newman/Haas/Lanigan entry at 221.735mph.

“The car felt good and I felt great,” said Tracy. “It was no problem. All I was hearing all week from the press here in Indianapolis was how long do you think it’ll take you to get up to speed? Well, I was up to speed in five laps and then we got with the programme.

“We had a high-mileage motor in the car, race-level downforce and we had heavy, race day gearbox oil,” added Tracy. “We didn’t have the good wheel bearings or any of the little go-fast stuff in the car. It was a race set-up and we’ve got a lot of speed left. If it rains [today] like they’re predicting and nobody gets to run, then we’ve got a leg up on everybody.

“The team has done a lot of work and all the good stuff is going on the car for Friday. We’ll see. I don’t know if we can make the front row, but I think we can qualify in the top 11 on the first day.”

Tracy is the cat among the pigeons at Indianapolis this year. He has raced Indycars since 1992 and is the most successful active North American open-wheel racer with 30 wins to his credit. But with Champ Car’s failure and Jerry Forsythe’s withdrawal from racing, Tracy found himself without a ride in 2008. He ran the final Champ Car race at Long Beach last year in one of Forsythe’s cars and also raced at Edmonton in July, where he finished fourth in his only IRL start of the year. Dario Franchitti would love to see his former team-mate and old friend in action in all of this year’s races.

“PT is 40 now but in his mind he’s 21,” said Franchitti. “He’s got a hell of a lot of enthusiasm and confidence, and he’s worth the price of admission.

“Paul was very, very loyal and really stuck by everybody in Champ Car,” added Dario. “Sadly, that’s been to his detriment because he was [left] sitting there with nothing. Paul deserves to have a competitive ride and it’s great that he’s at Indy this year. I hope it works out so he can race in the IndyCar series on a regular basis.”

It will be interesting to see where Tracy qualifies this weekend and even more intriguing to see if he can steal some thunder from the IRL regulars in the 500 on May 24.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

Plenty of drivers are on the market this winter looking for work in a cash-strapped environment. One of the most notable is 30-year old Brit Justin Wilson who has proved his worth in America over the past five years. Wilson was a frontrunner in the dying years of Champ Car, regularly winning races and finishing third in the ‘05 Champ Car series and second to four-time champion Sebastien Bourdais in ‘06 and ‘07. Justin did these things despite a series of internal upheavals in the RuSport team, which was sold by team founder Carl Russo at the end of ‘06 to Paul Gentilozzi and Dan Petit.

After challenging Bourdais for the ‘06 and ‘07 Champ Car titles Wilson was hired last winter by Newman/Haas/Lanigan. The tall, gentlemanly Brit seemed to have found the right home at last and sure enough he helped lead the team through a tough first year in the IRL with a lack of parts, testing and resources. Still, the team was competitive in most road or street races with Graham Rahal scoring an excellent win at St. Petersburg near the start of the season and Wilson driving a relentless race to beat Helio Castroneves at Belle Isle in Detroit near the end of the season.

But because of Indy car racing’s poor position in the US media market in these difficult times Carl Haas has been unable to sell any sponsors on backing his team. As a result Haas had to let Wilson go at the end of last season. Many people believed Justin was a natural to fill Castroneves’s seat at Team Penske but with that job going to Will Power there’s a chance that Wilson will be without a competitive ride this year.

“Right now, there are lots of things cooking, but nothing’s too hot,” Justin remarked this week. “All of these things are in the early stages. There’s nothing very advanced. Every team’s in the same boat. There’s a number of them that would love to run me but they’re all looking for money. It’s quite frustrating.

“I’ve just got my head down working away on things. I’m trying to make sure I don’t leave any stone unturned and cover every angle. Obviously, the goal is to be back in IndyCar and I want to be in a team so I can go and win races. I feel I’m capable of winning the championship but you have to have the full package to do that. It’s so competitive that you can’t turn up with a weak car with a strong driver or a strong car with a weak driver. So I’m just working away at it and trying to stay fit and healthy.”

Justin went to the Rolex 24 hour test earlier this month to see if there were any prospects of a drive in the Grand-Am series. “I talked to a few people there but it’s the same situation,” he commented. “Everyone’s looking for money. It’s quite interesting what’s happened. The Grand-Am paddock has shrunk a little bit, but it’s the most stable of the three series I’ve been looking at. It’s the most cost-effective of the three series and I guess that’s why it’s the most stable right now. IndyCar has shrunk a little bit, but there are still things happening, but with the ALMS it’s hard to get in touch with anyone right now. The ALMS field has shrunk considerably and there’s a lot of uncertainty there.”

Wilson does not plan to go to Daytona next week as a spectator for the Rolex 24. “I’m probably not going to go to Daytona unless I have a drive, which doesn’t look likely,” he added. “There’s nothing more frustrating than being at a racetrack watching when you want to be in the car.”

Justin is an excellent driver. He’s a fluid stylist who’s very sharp technically and a natural team leader. He’s also a true racer and it will be sad for both Wilson and the sport if he’s left on the sidelines this year or compelled to drive for a second or even third-rate team. Here’s hoping some good luck shines its light on Justin. Nobody is more deserving.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

Aussie Will Power has been selected by Roger Penske to replace Helio Castroneves in Team Penske’s two-car IRL team pending the outcome of Castroneves legal battle with the Internal Revenue Service. Power, 27, from Toowoomba, Australia, joins countryman Ryan Briscoe in Penske’s team. Power won two races in the 2007 Champ Car series and also won last year’s Long Beach GP, the final CART/Champ Car race at the California street track.

At this stage Penske says Power will drive in the pre-season test sessions prior to the IRL season-opener at St. Petersburg on April 5. Penske Racing’s president Tim Cindric says the team hopes Castroneves (below) will be able to successfully resolve his legal issues with the IRS and return to action with Penske. Castroneves’s court case begins in Miami on March 5.

“We remain hopeful that Helio’s situation will have a positive outcome and the team is fully behind him,” Cindric (below) said in a statement. “While Helio prepares for his court case, we’re excited to welcome Will Power to the team. Will has already proven that he’s a terrific racer and we think he’s going to be a good fit with Team Penske.”

Said Power: “It is a tremendous opportunity for me to join one of the best teams in all of racing. I’m looking forward to the start of the season and assisting Team Penske in its preparation for 2009.”

Power drove for Kevin Kalkhoven and Jimmy Vasser’s KV Racing team last year but the team needs sponsorship to stay in business this year. Earlier this week KV Racing announced that Brazilian Mario Moraes (above) has joined the team. A second, paying driver is expected to be announced in the next few weeks.

Among those appearing to be without rides in this year’s IndyCar series are Justin Wilson (below) and Ryan Hunter-Reay, both of whom won races last year, as well as Power’s KV Racing team-mate Oriol Servia and of course, Paul Tracy, who’s given up on Indy car racing. It would be terribly sad if Wilson is left without a ride. Newman/Haas/Lanigan didn’t renew its option with Justin because the team lacked sponsorship to run two cars and Penske’s seat was the only remaining paying job available in the IRL.

It’s been reported that Newman/Haas/Lanigan has done a deal with Dutchman Robert Doornbos to drive for the team this year beside Graham Rahal. Doornbos brings US $3 million to the table, but Haas this week refused to confirm the rumour.

“I’ve never been in this situation before,” Haas said. “We’ve never taken a paying driver. We pay our drivers to win. But these are different times.”

Haas admitted he’s been talking to Sebastien Bourdais about the four-time Champ Car champion returning to his team but lacks the sponsorship to pay Bourdais. “We’d love to have Sebastien back in the team, just like we would have loved to have kept Justin,” Haas remarked. “But we don’t have the sponsorship to run him or pay him. I’ve never seen it this bad before.”

Power is one of the few out-of-work Indy car drivers who’s landed on his feet. In these hard times, he’s a lucky man.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

The 92nd running of the Indy 500 takes place on Sunday with Scott Dixon and Dan Wheldon favoured to score Chip Ganassi’s first win at the ‘Brickyard’ since Juan Montoya turned the trick in 2000. Dixon and Wheldon will start from the pole and the middle of the front row with Penske driver Ryan Briscoe on the outside. Penske team-mate Helio Castroneves starts on the inside of row two with Danica Patrick beside him and Tony Kanaan on the outside of the second row, and this year’s 500 is expected to be a three-team race between Ganassi, Penske and Andretti-Green.

Meanwhile, I had the great pleasure to sit beside four-time Indy 500 winner Rick Mears at the Speedway on Wednesday afternoon as we signed copies of my new book, ‘Rick Mears – Thanks, the story of Rick Mears and the Mears Gang’. Rick was one of the finest oval track racers of all-time and more than a few respectful fans congratulated him on being, ‘the best driver I ever saw at this place.’

Rick Mears and author Gordon Kirby sign copies of the new book, “Thanks. The Story of Rick Mears and the Mears Gang”

In fifteen starts at Indianapolis between 1978-92, Rick won four times, finished second once and come home third two times. He also took six Indy poles and led 492 laps in all. Rick deliberately used his natural inclination to be as silky smooth as possible to keep pushing the limit.

“I always tried to be smooth and I think that helped on the faster tracks, on the speedways,” he says. “By not being erratic you can run closer to the limit more consistently without stepping over it. If you’re erratic, you’ve got to give yourself more of a cushion, so your average overall isn’t going to be as quick. If you’re smooth and run closer to the limit, lap after lap, it adds up. I think that was more my natural style.

“The cars talk to you and you have to listen to them. If you don’t listen to them, you’re going to step over the limit.”

Incredibly, Rick did not spin a car during his first five years with Penske. “It was making me nervous that I hadn’t spun one because I saw other guys doing it, and I thought, ‘What am I leaving on the table?’ I knew I was going to spin sometime. Obviously, I didn’t want it to happen. Back then, if you spun, they frowned on it. Today, they frown on it if you don’t spin once in a while. That’s the difference in the competition level today and the mindset, which is if you don’t do something wrong once in a while you must not be trying hard enough. But back then; it was the other way around.

“So I didn’t want to spin and when I did finally spin it, I realised that I had been very, very close a lot of times, a lot of times! I was just fortunate it hadn’t happened. That was when I realised I wasn’t leaving a lot on the table.

“That’s what this sport is all about and always has been,” he adds. “It’s a continuous learning curve, no matter how long you’ve been doing it. If you quit learning, that’s when it’s time to get out.”

Which is what he did in the middle of 1992 when he realised he was losing the desire to push to the maximum. Mears made the decision to retire from racing at the height of his powers, an uncommon and sage decision from one of the greatest oval racers we’ve ever seen.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

This weekend should be quite a thrash at Indianapolis as everyone who failed last weekend to make the field for this year’s 92nd Indy 500 tries to take one of the remaining twenty-two places in the starting line-up. Chip Ganassi’s drivers and team put on a great show last Saturday to beat Team Penske and Andretti-Green Racing to this year’s Indy 500 pole. Scott Dixon (below) and Dan Wheldon qualified one-two with a pair of mid and late-afternoon second attempts which pushed Ryan Briscoe to the outside of the front row ahead of team-mate Helio Castroneves who will start the race from the inside of row two.

This was Dixon’s eleventh IRL pole but his first at Indy and the first time a Ganassi car has been on the pole at Indy since Bruno Junqueira (below) turned the trick in 2002. The team’s one-two sweep also was a bit of redemption for Ganassi’s team after enduring an unhappy pole day last year.

A disappointed Andretti-Green team couldn’t hit the right combination for qualifying but the team’s four cars will still start fifth (Danica Patrick – below), sixth (Tony Kanaan), seventh (Marco Andretti), and ninth (Hideki Mutoh). With last Sunday’s rainout only the first day’s eleven qualifiers are set for the 92nd Indy 500. The other three are Panther Racing’s Vitor Meira in ninth, Vision’s Ed Carpenter in tenth with Luczo-Dragon’s Tomas Scheckter completing the first day’s qualifiers. Only eight other drivers made full, four-lap qualifying runs on the rain-shortened opening weekend at Indianapolis and despite the unification of Indy car racing it will be a struggle to fill the field with thirty-three reputable cars and drivers.

Meanwhile, Ganassi’s team appears in good shape to make a serious run at winning its first Indy 500 in eight years, since Juan Montoya dominated the race back in 2000. Dixon was second last year, of course, and Wheldon finished fourth in ’06, his first year with Ganassi’s team. Ganassi’s managing director Mike Hull (below with Scott Dixon) compares the working partnership enjoyed by Dixon and Wheldon to the team’s great days ten years ago with Alex Zanardi and Jimmy Vasser.

“Zanardi and Vasser were meant for each other at that point in time, and I think Dixon and Wheldon are meant for each other at this point in time,” Hull remarked. “They aren’t anything alike, except for one common thread – they both want to be better today than they were yesterday. They haven’t lost sight of where they came from and they don’t feed off each other. They learn from each other. Their diversity in approach is probably a benefit. That’s certainly helped us in the past, like with Zanardi and Vasser.

“The more unselfish you can be as a team-mate, or for that matter, a team member, the more your eyes are open each day to learning. And that’s what Scott and Dan have in common. If they can continue down that path, no matter what they do with their lives, they can look back and say they achieved a lot, and that’s where they are as two people racing for us today. Their driving styles are a bit different, but they’ve learned to compare their styles to understand how to help each other.”

Hull says Dixon and Wheldon (above) have learned to drive their cars loose with the tail out in qualifying.

“In order to achieve a really fast lap at Indianapolis it takes a lot of experience,” Hull observes. “You can give somebody the setup that Chip Ganassi Racing had on Saturday afternoon and the driver may be able to drive the race car, but can he drive the car across the short chutes the right way to get the speed that he needs? Scott and Dan have got to the point in their careers where they can do that and they’re doing it together and that compounds your ability to get to the next level.”

As Dixon, Wheldon and the other top eleven qualifiers prepared this week for May 25th’s 500-mile race, the rest of the field – all the former Champ Car teams included – have been preoccupied with simply finding the speed necessary to make the race. Don’t expect any of them to come close to challenging the established IRL teams at Indianapolis this year.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

The opening weekend of qualifying for this year’s 92nd Indianapolis 500 takes place this weekend. Favourites for the pole must be Scott Dixon and Dan Wheldon who have been the men to beat on oval tracks so far this year in Chip Ganassi’s pair of Dallara-Hondas. Other pole contenders include 2001 and ‘02 race winner Helio Castroneves and new team-mate Ryan Briscoe with Team Penske, and Tony Kanaan, Marco Andretti (above) and Danica Patrick (below) at Andretti-Green Racing.

Thanks to the unification of IndyCar racing thirty-four drivers are entered at Indianapolis this year and the field is a little stronger than in recent years. On the other hand, the previous two winners Dario Franchitti and Sam Hornish are missing from the field as they have moved their careers, for better or worse, to NASCAR. The only previous winners entered this year are Wheldon, Castroneves and Buddies Rice and Lazier.

Five Brits are entered – 2005 winner Wheldon, Darren Manning, Justin Wilson, Jay Howard and Alex Lloyd. Wilson, Howard and Lloyd are rookies, although Wilson has some oval experience from his four years in Champ Car and is the number one driver of course, at Newman/Haas/Lanigan, replacing Sebastien Bourdais in the team’s McDonald’s car.

This has been a tough week for Newman/Haas/Lanigan because the team’s most experienced and respected man Davey Evans was brutally murdered in an Indianapolis bar last Saturday night. Evans, 63, had worked for Carl Haas’s race team for forty years, going back to the original Can-Am and Formula 5000 series. Born in Sudbury-on-Thames, Evans started his working life in 1959 as a teen-aged engineering apprentice with HWM Motors. He moved on to Maranello Concessionaires before finding work at Lola Cars and then becoming a key man in America in Haas’s Can-Am and Formula 5000 teams before the creation in 1983 of the Newman/Haas CART team.

For many years Davey worked at Lola during the winters building Haas’s cars. Evans was an old-school artisan who could construct almost anything. He was not only Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing’s most experienced crewman, but also probably the longest-serving man in the contemporary IndyCar garage area.

“I have a tough time accepting it and I’m sure everyone else feels the same way,” Mario Andretti commented. “It’s such a waste of a wonderful life. For some meaningless human being to take another life that meant so much is a total travesty. There are very few people that I’ve known in my life who you could say, ‘I don’t think this guy had an enemy in the world.’ All the years that I’ve known and worked with him, whether it was with Carl’s Can-Am team or through Formula 5000 to all the years with Newman/Haas, Davey was always there with a smile, always kind. What can you say? He was a friend for life.”

Two memorial services were held in Indianapolis this week for Evans as many who knew him paid their respects to one of the sport’s most-liked men, fated to lose his life in deeply tragic circumstances.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine