Pruett’s cooldown lap: The Thermal Club

It wasn’t a dumpster fire. It wasn’t much to behold. But it did serve its intended purpose.

IndyCar and The Thermal Club deserve a round of applause for trying something new and different. The series is often faulted, and rightly so, for having a failure of imagination and sticking with the same-old-same-old, and with that in mind, I’m appreciative of IndyCar for attempting to create an event to infuse the series with energy and excitement with its $1 Million Challenge.

And that’s where the downside of an experiment comes into play. Some experiments work and others do not, and the on-track product the experiment produced on its first try wasn’t compelling in any capacity.

The first lap of the first heat race offered some drama when Scott Dixon and Romain Grosjean tangled, but that was caused by a simple mistake. Colton Herta’s elephant crawl to open the finale was painful to watch, and he was soon joined by half of the field — six of the 12 drivers — who channeled their inner St. Petersburg fuel-saving selves in limping through the corners and conserving their tires until the halftime break.

My heart sank for the series the moment that began; it was a brilliant strategy for those who tried it, but it also made IndyCar look like buffoons for allowing it to happen. It had the look of a heavily promoted boxing match where the fighters spend half the rounds circling each other without throwing a punch. Talk about anti-climactic.

Folks tuning in to watch an all-star race, only to find some of IndyCar’s best drivers crawling around at 8-10 seconds off the pace, with the broadcasters semi-apologizing for what was being aired, was as big of a backfire as you can get. Thankfully, things slightly improved afterwards.

When the race resumed, the top three of Alex Palou, Scott McLaughlin, and Felix Rosenqvist who led the first 10 laps, went on to lead the final 10 laps in a processional jog to the podium.

After months of hype about the big spectacle that would come from the ‘dash for cash,’ the end result was a $1 million nothingburger. If it weren’t for Herta moving through the field but coming up well short of winning on his way to fourth, and a bullish Alexander Rossi putting on a mid-pack show, it would have been another St. Pete-style snoozer.

Although most of us who work in the series were rooting for the racing portion of the event to be a thriller, it wasn’t. And that’s not meant to be a critical statement; it’s just an assessment of what it was. And that’s OK. That’s the risk that exist with experiments. In its first run, the competition format did little to make the event stand out as something special or memorable among other IndyCar races, and if the series and the circuit elect to try this for a second time, there’s no shortage of ideas for how to add some spice to the show.

We could spend another 5,000 words dissecting all of the things that didn’t work, but it would be a waste of time. IndyCar tried something different with its racing format, learned a ton about what it should do differently in the future if it were to give it another try, and it’s time to move onto more important things, like the rest of the points-paying season.

Aside from a first heat, first lap, first turn kerfuffle, on-track drama was sparse. Joe Skibinski/IMS Photo

There are other aspects of the event that do warrant a deeper dive, which we’ll do in a moment, but The Thermal Club event needs to be treated in the manner for which it was created: A temporary distraction.

What was the genesis of the $1 Million Challenge? To fill a six-week gap in the schedule after the season opener in St. Petersburg. That’s why it existed; to trim an unacceptable period of inactivity to a less-bad four-week wait until Long Beach, and it succeeded in its mission.

It served its purpose — a distraction was created — and I hope IndyCar won’t be afraid to try more new things. But now it’s time to turn the page and get back to real racing.

AS EXPECTED

With the exception of Dixon’s mistake in the brake zone, the rest of the running in both heats, and the 20-lap $1 Million Challenge went exactly as teams and drivers told me it would go in the weeks leading up to the event.

With $500,000 available for the winner, they said the cash on offer wasn’t enough to make them drive like animals and smash their way to a huge payday, and they were true to their words. Sure, there were some feistier-than-usual moments, but all involved were generally well-behaved, and for those who were sure it would be carnage throughout, that lone caution to clean up the strike Dixon threw with Grosjean as the bowling ball was the only interruption to the action on Sunday.

ON THE GROUND

I spoke with quite a few fans who bought the $500 tickets to spend three days at Thermal, and I didn’t hear a single complaint about the cost, the amenities, or any other aspect of the event. I’m not saying all of the fans who turned out were 100-percent satisfied, because that would be impossible, but for the dozen or so I chatted with, it was an overwhelmingly positive experience for them, and for varying reasons.

The all-inclusive food and drinks was a huge hit, thanks to the food trucks that offered everything from ice cream to tacos to sandwiches to churros to barbeque. I don’t know if we’ll get a crowd figure from the event, but I’d guess 200-300 fans were in attendance, and the semi-exclusive nature of the event was also mentioned as a positive — something akin to a private concert held for the biggest fans (who also have the financial means to make the trip and pay $167 per day to be on the grounds).

If I had to use the thoughts from one person that best represents what others told me at Thermal, it’s Adam Schrack, who was there with his wife Adrianna, who attended her first IndyCar race last weekend, and wrote:

I completely understand why the ticket cost priced out a lot of fans. But I can’t begin to explain how amazing this event is. They are 100 percent running this like a VIP experience for the fans here, and doing a great job at it. Drivers everywhere and accessible. Because of the limited fan attendance, you can hardly turn around without seeing another driver to go right up to. Plenty of drivers came down to the food trucks to grab lunch and were waiting in line with the fans. Not sending team members to get food for them, or hiding in the team trailer eating catered food. They just came and got in line with us. I was standing by TK, Malukas, and a bunch of McLaren team members.

The venue has way more shuttles than they need to ferry everyone around, so there is almost no wait time to get one. And in fact, rather than having to flag them down, they will pass by people walking and offer rides. The food trucks are really good. Beer, wine, cocktails, soda, bottled water all available in the big bar area by the food. Have as much food or drink as you want, it’s all free. And speaking of free, you are basically free to wander wherever you want. It’s almost one big open area of pits and paddock.

Considering what people will pay for tickets to see Taylor Swift or Beyonce, I find it hard to complain about $500 for the aforementioned VIP experience for an IndyCar race.

The fan experience was well-received, and the value for money was decent once the pricing was revised. Chris Jones/IMS Photo