R13 IndyCar Sonoma, CA - Sun 22nd Aug

[Muzza]

Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma

Race Preview
The course is  2.6 mile long with 12 turns.

Infineon Raceway will mark 42 years of historic racing action in the Sonoma Valley during the 2010 season.  Opened in 1968, then-Sears Point Raceway was constructed on 720 acres of property that was a working dairy farm in the early 1900s. The facility hosted its first official event, an SCCA Enduro, on Dec. 1 of that year. Since then, the facility has grown to 1,600 acres and expanded into one of the premier motor sports venues in the country, hosting 340 days of racing activity each year, including the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing and the IZOD IndyCar® Series.

This is the sixth event at Infineon Raceway.  Only once has the winner gone on to win the championship (Dario Franchitti, 2009).

In 13 seasons, three drivers have won the 13th race of the season and also won the championship. Sam Hornish Jr. won at Texas in 2001, Dan Wheldon won at Pikes Peak in 2005 and Scott Dixon won at Ed¬monton in 2008.

This is also the last road course for this year.

Local Event Timings:

Friday 20th

3:00 > 4:00 – 1st Practice

Saturday 21st

11:30 > 12:30 – 2nd Practice
2:30 > 4:00 – Qualifying (including Fast 6)

Sunday 22nd

10:15 > 10:45 Warm Up
2:45 Race (75 Laps)

ESPN broadcast time in AEST is 7:00am Monday morning the 23rd LIVE and replayed at 4:30pm and 10:30pm that Night

Current time and weather in Santa Rosa (about 45mins north) is HERE 17 hrs behind AEST
For Live Timing/video log on to: RACE CONTROL

LINK to IndyCar website for more information




One Last Thing Go Aussie

[Mothers Worry]

Thanks Muzza.

Awesome as per usual!

[Muzza]

Go Will

Will Power earned his IZOD IndyCar Series-record eighth PEAK Performance Pole Award of the season. Advancing to the Firestone Fast Six shootout was the more difficult part of qualifications for the Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma.

Power posted a quick lap of 1 minute, 16.5282 seconds with 1:20 left in the 10-minute session on the 2.303-mile, 12-turn Infineon Raceway natural-terrain circuit to claim the pole for the 75-lap race. Helio Castroneves (1:16.5652) will join his Team Penske teammate on the front row.

Dario Franchitti (1:16.9437), who enters the race 42 points behind Power in the championship standings, will share Row 2 with Alex Tagliani (1:17.2068). Ryan Briscoe (1:17.2109) and Scott Dixon (1:17.3470), who extended his series-record streak to 45 consecutive top-10 starts, will be on the third row.

With a minute left in Round 2 of qualifying, Power was on the outside of advancing by four-tenths of a second to Justin Wilson of Dreyer & Reinbold Racing. The team waited on the time Power posted on a used set of Firestone alternate tires, opting to save a sticker set for the projected Firestone Fast Six pole run.

"I knew it was going to be really tight," said Power, referencing two practice sessions in which the top 16 cars in each were separated by less than a second.  "We took a risk in the second session and almost didn't get through. Us not getting through that second round would have been a disaster.

"I set a time on old tires I thought would get me through, went out and did a slow lap.  I said on the radio, 'You guys have to tell me, do you want me to go or not?' They said, 'Pit, because it looked fine.' Suddenly heaps of people went across the line and I went down to seventh. Through the pit lane out, you have one lap. That was on new tires, so I had to get it done."

The quick change was to the sticker set -- the softest tires in Firestone Racing's inventory.

"Halfway around that lap on my dash I was two-tenths down," Power said. "I figured I'm done. It's going to be tough to make that up. But I made it up, which was surprising. It was very tight."

The lap of 1:16.8072 put him fourth of the six advancing.

"It is important that we start up front here," said Power, who participated in all nine Firestone Fast Six sessions this season. "This is the toughest series I have ever raced in. It is just so tight now. You can’t leave anything on the table."

Wilson, who didn't leave anything on the track in the No. 22 Z-Line Designs entry, was left in the cold by 0.0088 of a second. He'll start seventh and be on Row 4 with Ryan Hunter-Reay of Andretti Autosport. Eight different teams were represented in the top 12.

Tagliani, driving the No. 77  was making his second appearance (the first since the opener in mid-March in Brazil) in the Firestone Fast Six. The effort followed his leading 30 laps and finishing a season-best fourth at Mid-Ohio on Aug. 8.

"Obviously, our challenge as a team is to try to play catch-up from a lack of information, preparation between the races," said Tagliani of the first-year team. "But at some point, what we're trying to do as a team is just to make sure that when we roll our car out of the trailer, it's good.

"We kind of changed our philosophy a little bit in Mid-Ohio in the middle of the weekend. We struggled on road courses. We found something pretty interesting. We kept with it. Now we're back on track. The car is definitely good because when you come here for the first time, it's a pretty challenging track. So I think the team has done a good job."

[Mothers Worry]

Awesome job Mr. Power!

[SLE355]

Dominating race from Power     

[Mothers Worry]

Dominating race from Power     

Awesome!

Results:

Pos  Driver               Team               Gap
 1.  Will Power           Penske             75 laps
 2.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi            + 0.7432s
 3.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi            + 6.6132s
4.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske             + 7.8607s
 5.  Helio Castroneves    Penske             + 10.4594s
 6.  Justin Wilson        Dreyer & Reinbold  + 10.9095s
 7.  Tony Kanaan          Andretti           + 11.5246s
 8.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti           + 11.8938s
 9.  Graham Rahal         Newman/Haas        + 17.5019s
10.  Alex Lloyd           Dale Coyne         + 18.2069s
11.  Mario Moraes         KV                 + 20.2411s
12.  Marco Andretti       Andretti           + 20.6759s
13.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM                + 21.8239s
14.  Alex Tagliani        Fazzt              + 22.4858s
15.  Vitor Meira          Foyt               + 24.2879s
16.  Danica Patrick       Andretti           + 46.1339s
17.  Hideki Mutoh         Newman/Haas        + 1 lap
18.  Takuma Sato          KV                 + 1 lap
19.  EJ Viso              KV                 + 1 lap
20.  Francesco Dracone    Conquest           + 4 laps
21.  Raphael Matos        De Ferran Dragon   + 8 laps
22.  Milka Duno           Dale Coyne         + 8 laps

Retirements:

     Bertrand Bagutte     Conquest           65 laps
     JR Hildebrand        Dreyer & Reinbold  38 laps
     Dan Wheldon          Panther            0 laps


So is this Power guy going to take out the title?

It is certainly looking pretty sweet at the moment.

[bpratt]

Retirements:

     Dan Wheldon          Panther            0 laps


So is this Power guy going to take out the title?

It is certainly looking pretty sweet at the moment.

I sure hope so 

Especially on the same track that nearly put him out for good last year too!


How was Weldon binning it before the start of the race... piroueting on his roll hoop whilst the field scattered around him. 

[kevrulezz]

How was Weldon binning it before the start of the race... piroueting on his roll hoop whilst the field scattered around him. 

after reading that I just had to go find it on youtube

[Joel]

Another great result. Will for Indy Car champ and Mark for F1.

[bradk12fan]

Dan Wheldon got hooked coming to the start, he's alright, but the poor guy never got to start the race:

[bpratt]

The way it looked to me was that Wheldon who was supposed to be on the right side of the grid for the start, moved over to the left on to the car next to him, and then they touched wheels sending Wheldon spinning upside down.

I'd call that Wheldon's mistake.

[Muzza]

Thats how the official's saw it as well, and when watching the telecast it was also pointed out that Dan was on the Push To Pass well before the lead cars had and the start of the race. This may have lead to him to think he was clear  to use that line.

Good race, Will led for all but 2 laps (when he pitted, dixion led) and was only challenged after the last yellow with 6 laps remaining. Chip got on the radio to Dixion and said to him "you know what you have to do", Chip is Heilo's race strategist and would/has not, normaly got on the raido direct.

There was quite a bit of passing going on behind the top 8. Simona de Silvestro caused a spin, cut Tags rear tyre, was hit and spun in turn 3 that pushed her back to 20th, she then had a great drive to get back up to 13th passing all in her way.

I have been following this girl all season and she is going to go a lot further then Patrick ever has or will IMHO.. (Sorry to the Dentacar fans)

  Will Power for the championship....

[f1engineer]

(Sorry to the Dentacar    fans)

Love your work Muzz!!!!