From IndyCar:
INDYCAR announced today an update to the Verizon IndyCar Series car aerodynamic bodywork kits, effective for this weekend’s Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.
• INDYCAR will continue to be proactive in its review of aero kit performance.
• This process will be ongoing as INDYCAR is committed to delivering an entertaining on-track product throughout the Verizon IndyCar Series season.
• The first step in this process began with last week’s mandate of structural upgrades to both Chevrolet’s and Honda’s aero kit components and will continue as the season progresses and opportunities for improvements are identified.
• As a result of the ongoing development of aero kits, INDYCAR has requested the following actions:
o Chevrolet to add a tether to the winglets, or remove the winglets, from its front wing assembly.
o Honda to implement additional reinforcements to its rear wheel guards.
• These upgrades must be implemented prior to Sunday’s Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.
Speaking of changes
Huertas will not be fielding the #19 Coyne car this weekend, temporarily being replaced by Rocky Moran Jr., who according to Dale Coyne has been wanting to do this race (essentially his home track) for years. The "opportunity" presented itself rather late on Thursday afternoon(something tells me it's a funding issue with Huertas)and Moran got the nod. Thankfully he was able to grab his seat from his test with Sam Schmidt earlier this year. Still makes us shake our head that with all of the other drivers with experience in these cars and on this track, Moran Jr. got the nod. Tis the way of the industry.
Also on the sidelines this weekend, Simona de Silvestro (another head scratcher as she is 6th in the championship, and has won on this track in the ladder series. To have that car sitting dormant makes no sense.) According to team owner Michael Andretti, they did try to secure funding for this weekend, but were unable to make it happen in time.
Sage Karam taps out, and Saavadra makes his first appearance in 2015, following the announcement that they would be sharing that seat at Ganassi for the season.
Practice 1:
Rahal had mechanical issues with his car after only a few laps, leaving him to wait out the session and hope for the best in practice 2.
Filippe made light contact with the outside retaining wall in turn 2 near the end of the practice. While the damage appeared minimal, it took some time and maneuvering to get back to the pits, cause the rest of the field to take evasive action to get around the slow car.
Of note: All of the drivers, in particular the rookies, are really laying it out to see how the car is handling. Lots of rear ends swishing around the course as the drivers test the limits of their packages.
Top Chevy: Dixon(in 1st)
Top Honda: Hunter-Reay(in 3rd)
Pratice 1 Results
Practice 2:
Track temp much warmer in the 2nd practice.
As we mentioned, drivers are closing in on the track record, with Dixon being the first to drop into the 1:07's (just for reference, the pole time was 1:07.8219 in 2014 set by Ryan Hunter-Reay)
With 21:00 left in the session, Rocky Moran Jr. got nudged off course at the end of the straightaway going into turn 1 alongside Carlos Munoz, resulting in a spinning Moran backing into the outside wall, and sending Munoz back to the pits with wing damage. Ambitious. We'll chalk this up to a "they should have known better" moment for both.
Top Chevy: Power (in 1st)
Top Honda: Rahal (in 6th)
Practice 2 Results
Tidbits from the Track
In other news around the circuit, Thursday was a big day coming into the weekend, with Alex & Bronte Tagliani sharing the news that Eva-Rose had finally made her appearance in the world. Mommy and baby are both beautiful and doing well! Congrats!
Also deserving of congrats, Pippa Mann was announced for this years Indy 500, once again driving for Dale Coyne Racing in supoort of Susan G. Komen car. Color us "pink" with excitement for her. Congrats Pippa!
Lucky guests and dignitaries were treated to the premiere of the Adam Corolla directed Paul Newman documentary "Winning-The Racing Life of Paul Newman” A second premiere will take place in Indianapolis on May 22, (the weekend of the Indy 500) It also opens in select theaters nationwide that day and in video-on-demand format.
We've got a couple of shooters at the track this weekend, Volker Löhning from our German sister site, and Scott James, our west coast team member, so we're pleased to offer up some galleries. Here's a look at some of the action from day 1
Long Beach Friday Gallery
POST-PRACTICE QUOTES:
WILL POWER (No. 1 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, fastest of the day): “It was pretty good. A lot of cars were running and laying rubber, but with the new aero kits and everything, the cars were just faster. It’s always super tight around here when it gets to qualifying. The top six are usually separated by about a tenth and a half (of a second) or something. … (How do the aero kits change the way you drive this track?) “The braking zones are a little shorter and you carry more speed through the fast stuff. It’s little gains on tracks like this. It’s high-speed tracks where you get the biggest gains. The faster you go, the more benefit you get from the (additional) downforce.”
SIMON PAGENAUD (No. 22 Penske Truck Rental Chevrolet, second fastest of the day): (Is INDYCAR’s proactive, ongoing review of aero kits a good thing?) “Frankly, it’s really not my decision, it’s INDYCAR’s. For the safety of the fans, it’s great, but you’ve got to make it fair for the manufacturers as well. As long as it doesn’t slow down one manufacturer or accelerate the other one, then it just has to be fair.”
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA (No. 2 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet): “I was really happy with the No. 2 Verizon Chevy in the first practice. It had a lot of speed. We made a few changes for the second practice and it just didn’t respond like we hoped, but we have a pretty good car and we have something we can work with. Qualifying is going to be very important for us. We’ve made a lot of strides in that area this year and I’m confident that we can get a good starting spot tomorrow afternoon.”
HELIO CASTRONEVES (No. 3 Auto Club of Southern California Chevrolet): “Obviously all of the Chevrolet teams were thrown a little bit of a curveball this morning with the changes to the aero kits. We are all in the same boat on that and we will make the best of it. The four Team Penske Chevrolets are still very fast, at the top of the speed charts. We collected a lot of information in the first practice about how the downforce changed and we made some really good changes for the second session. We are still improving it and have another session tomorrow to make the No. 3 Automobile Club of Southern California Chevy better before qualifying.”
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS (No. 11 Team Hydroxycut-KVSH Chevrolet): “Obviously I’m disappointed. We are not where we want to be or thought we would be. The Hydroxycut – KVSH Racing team has a lot of work to do. We have to sit down and review all the dates, keep our noses to the grindstone and keep working hard. The good news is we have another practice session tomorrow before qualifying and I am confident we will come up with something to make the car faster.”
GRAHAM RAHAL (No. 15 Steak ‘n Shake Honda) : “I thought the crowd today was great but with this weather, why wouldn’t it be? We had a mechanical issue this morning and only got to run a handful of laps. The second practice was more of what I expected. Our car was good this morning but we just didn’t get to see it through before we had the issue. We are the fastest Honda but we have a little work to do to catch the Penske’s. I was on a lap that was about a tenth (of a second) and a half quicker but I just screwed it up, ate too much curb off in Turn 8 and lost it. I feel like there is a lot of potential. But we’re pretty close and if you put Will, Simon and a few others aside, we’re kind of the best of the rest but we’ll keep fighting hard to improve the Steak ‘n Shake car tomorrow. We’re in the hunt.”
FRANCESCO DRACONE (No. 19 Dale Coyne Racing Honda): “After a very difficult weekend in New Orleans it has been pretty hard to be back with the team and get my head straight with the tricky circumstances. It is taking a bit longer than my expectations to get back up to speed and be consistent coming into the pits. I have to admit that I’m a bit over concerned after what happened. On top of that, this track is very tricky being here for the first time. It is very narrow compared to what I’m used to. It is very bumpy and pretty technical. There are a lot of places where you can make mistakes. It seems to be especially important to have a good setup and have the shocks set up perfectly because of the bumps. I’m going to give it my best tomorrow and see what happens.”
LUCA FILIPPI (No. 20 Fuzzy’s Vodka CFH Racing Chevrolet): “It was a tough day for us. We had a lot to learn. Myself- I had to learn the circuit. From the set up point of view, we’re still exploring this new aero kit and working towards the best drivability for me. We are not where we wanted to be in terms of lap times, but Josef (Newgarden) proved that our car can be fast. The pack is so tight, tomorrow is going to be very tough qualifying. It will be important to have a fast lap to be able start at the front.”
MARCO ANDRETTI (No. 27 Snapple Honda): “I think as a team we kind of attacked it a couple different ways. It’s interesting because we are within a hundredth of a second, so we’re not really sure which way to go. But I’m quite pleased with the car. Unfortunately there’s still a gap to the Chevys and that’s frustrating but we’re chipping away at it.”
RYAN HUNTER-REAY (No. 28 DHL Honda): “We had a pretty good day going. We didn’t get a lap on our last new set of tires so hopefully we’ll be saving that for tomorrow. We’re making some strides. This is the position we were in last year after day one of practice.”
JOSEF NEWGARDEN (No. 67 Hartman Oil CFH Racing Chevrolet): “I think we’re finding our way. We started a little rough and were a little lost in the first session. We’re one of the best groups at recovering and I had a lot of faith in my guys. They’re very good at figuring it out and we recovered well in the second session. We’re a still a little on the back foot. When you roll off and you’re not great in session one you have a lot of catching up to do. We are still battling that right now and we’re much better, but we still need to find more.”
Volker Löhning / OpenWheelWorld.net
