Yahoo Autos The RACER Mailbag, April 26
Welcome to the RACER Mailbag. Questions for any of RACER’s writers can be sent to mailbag@racer.com. Due to the high volume of questions received, we can’t guarantee that every letter will be published, but we’ll answer as many as we can. Published questions may be edited for length and clarity. Questions received after 3pm ET each Monday will appear the following week.
Q: The Long Beach Grand Prix was a fun race to watch, and good to see Andretti finally get to finish up front. I’ve been going to the Grand Prix for about 40 years and I’ve been sitting down from the starter stand, and this year I noticed on the few restarts they were waving the green flag before the leader even left the hairpin. Was this to prevent stacking up and possible crash at the end of the front straight? Normally the yellow helps to punch everybody up but this was basically single file.
CAM in LA
MARSHALL PRUETT: The consensus so far is the race starts and restarts at Long Beach were epically bad. Considering how we’re receiving letters about it for a second consecutive mailbag, there’s no way we’ll get more.
Q: The start of the race last Sunday in Long Beach was absurd. Only six of the 27 cars were lined up properly. Six! That means the other 21 cars were single file and most of them hadn’t even hit the last turn at the green flag. How many turns into the race was the Kirkwood when last place hit the start/finish line? I know it’s tough to bunch the field up for the start at LB, but really? This is why there should be standing starts at street and road courses. It puts everyone on a level playing field. They’re big boys, figure it out.
Bill Phypers, Brewster, NY
MP: Well, so much for that idea. When we go hybrid next year and the ERS units fire the motor, I’m going to lobby for a return of Le Mans-style running starts, and in a modern twist, the car won’t start until all belts are connected.
Q: Can you shed any further light on exactly where things went wrong with the 2.4L hybrid system? Were there problems with individual hardware components, or was the integration process more difficult than anyone expected? Will it ever make it to the track?
I’m thinking I might just want to forget about it if I were R.P. since it didn’t attract a third manufacturer, and it seems like Chevy’s engine program is on hold while the Honda engine is getting valuable track experience behind the ARX-06s.
John M.
MP: There were no problems with the 2.4L motors themselves; Chevy and Honda invested heavily in the new engines and did track testing with them in anticipation of going hybrid in 2024. The main problem was that IndyCar failed to deliver a third (or fourth) engine manufacturer to share in the costs of supplying the field. The knock-on effects were significant.
Although both brands refused to say so on the record, Chevy and Honda held firm to supplying approximately eight full-season 2.4L leases apiece, and with that in mind, IndyCar would have seen a massive year-to-year loss to its grid. It’s easy to paint the two brands as the villains here, but they weren’t. They went into the 2.4L agreement with the full expectation that IndyCar would bring a third manufacturer to the formula to make it something close to a three-way share, with each brand covering eight leases in a 24-car field. It could have been 27 cars if each went to nine leases, but the only way that made financial sense was if the supply was shared three ways. Chevy and Honda didn’t have budgets to keep doing what they’ve been doing and splitting a 27-car field with 12 or more leases per side.
When the series came close but didn’t land Toyota, it became clear that a third supplier wasn’t going to happen and without some form of change, IndyCar’s teams would take a huge hit and some might be at risk of falling out of the series. The costs to develop, build, and support the new 2.4L motors was decidedly more expensive than the 2.2Ls, so it wasn’t a case of Chevy or Honda not wanting to continue taking care of their current teams. They simply didn’t have the budget to do more than single-digit leases for the season.
The decision to put IndyCar’s 2.4L engines on ice had very little to do with the formula itself, and quite a lot to do with the lack of a third supplier to help Honda and Chevy offset the costs. Michael Levitt/Motorsport Images
Additionally, MAHLE, IndyCar’s chosen energy recovery system vendor, signaled that it would not be able to supply the full grid with ERS units in time to go racing in 2024.
So, faced with two troubling dilemmas, and one of the two manufacturers being less interested in pressing forward with the 2.4L formula than the other, a proposal was made to halt development on the 2.4Ls, keep the trusty old 2.2Ls around for an indefinite period and, to bail out the series and its hybrid supply dilemma, Chevy and Honda agreed to put some of its 2.4L budget that would go unused in making the costly new motors into developing the MAHLE-inspired ERS units.
Hard to say if those 2.4Ls will see the back of an open-wheel car anytime soon, but if that decision is taken, I’d think it would be packaged with the announcement of a third brand joining the series. Here’s the main takeaway: If a third manufacturer was signed from the time the 2.4L formula was announced in 2018 to the latter stages of 2022, we’d be going to 2.4Ls in 2024.
Q: After reading about Kevin Kalkhoven’s share of the Grand Prix of Long Beach being put up for sale, I found a news article from 2005 (just before the purchase) when it wasn’t clear whether CCWS or IRL would be racing at the 2006 GPLB:
“…Kalkhoven said, should Champ Car lose the event, there is already a
contingency plan in place for another street race at an unspecified
location in the Los Angeles area.”
I’m very curious — where would this street race have been?
Brendan
MP: Best that comes to mind was a proposal — and I’m not sure if it ever reached anything close to being formally pitched to the city — to race around the Los Angeles Dodgers’ MLB stadium.
Q: This is a letter to you, someone passionate about American open-wheel. Even if I do not always agree with your opinions on the sport (although I often do), I know that you love this sport and want to see it remain healthy. I know you have access to contact members of series leadership as well as drivers and team owners. I would like to ask you to communicate to these people a message from at least one IndyCar fan. Yours truly.
The type of behavior displayed towards Callum Ilott was reprehensible and unacceptable. It needs to be discouraged in the strongest way possible. It needs to be called out more explicitly than it has been. A generic “be civil” tweet from series leadership is not strong enough. It needs to be specified that the type of behavior towards Callum Ilott was not acceptable.
It needs to be conveyed in more than just the English language. It needs to be conveyed directly and explicitly, from the series, from Augustin Canapino, from Ricardo Juncos, and frankly from other drivers and team owners, that death threats, threats of bodily harm, and any other threats are not acceptable.
If individual fans can be identified, they need to be banned from attending IndyCar events. If specific members of the media or of the driver/team fraternity are identified as having fomented, condoned, or encouraged such behavior, they need to have any relevant certifications and permissions revoked. I hope those in a position to influence the behavior of others do so with conviction in the best interests of the sport at as a whole.
(Let me be clear I do not believe Canapino or Juncos have any ill intentions; they are also victims of this incident in a way.)
This goes beyond any Canapino-Ilott incident. It needs to apply to any incident or behavior moving forward. We can always say fan(atics) are just blowing off steam. But all it takes is a single unhinged person to put their words into action for a tragedy to occur. All around us in the world news we can find tragic and deadly examples of devastation caused by sick and unhinged people.
There is no reason it cannot also occur in the IndyCar world…
Proactiveness is vital. Let the series take these incidents as seriously as they do other matters of driver safety, where our series is the world leader.
Also, I hope people who have the power to influence the story lines of the upcoming documentary, not to mention the story lines of series coverage in general, realize that hate has no place. Sportsmanship, friendship, and compassion can coexist with competition and rivalry.
IndyCar’s hallmark is its fan friendliness. Many say this. But I think also a hallmark is, generally, a driver-friendly attitude on the part of fans. And lastly, there is the community minded attitude between fans. Let’s not take this for granted, let us all behave responsibly.
A Fan
MP: I’ll bounce around here a little bit because it’s not exactly a linear issue. Whether it’s nasty comments on social media or forums, I take that stuff in a very different way than real, direct threats. I’m not saying that posting vile things about Callum, Pato, or any other IndyCar driver from highly partisan fans is ever acceptable, but I do think of it as an extreme version of venting. Some people can’t stop sharing every damn thought they have on Twitter, IG, etc., and the people doing the venting have the luxury in many cases to yell/threaten/accuse/belittle without fear of repercussion. It’s today’s way of life, and certainly isn’t reserved for IndyCar.
It’s the direct messages where threats are made that take things in a different direction. I had someone threaten my wife and I directly last year prior to the Indy 500 — didn’t care for her race, our marriage, etc. — and I can tell you now that I was alert and prepared to handle the situation if the person tried to carry through with the threat. All the other stuff makes me laugh. People vomiting their threats and idiocy on social media? Happens constantly. People taking the time to threaten you, your partner, and your mother, via DM, as Callum experienced? That’s the stuff that will change your views on personal safety and protection.
I’m glad the series and some drivers took a public stand, but I’m also not particularly swayed here. I feel confident that every person knows it’s not OK to treat Ilott, O’Ward, or anybody else the way that they were treated, but people still do it. If I believed the folks threatening and barking at our drivers didn’t know it was unacceptable, I’d agree that harsher messages should have been sent to them. But let’s be honest here: The person telling Callum he’s going to kill his mom has a clear understanding of what’s being written before hitting the send button, but doesn’t care if it’s disgusting, and still hits send. That’s not the kind of behavior a “be nice” posting from IndyCar or an influential driver is going to change with a tweet.
If there’s a place for education, it would be with kids who don’t know any better, but I don’t think that was the problem here. It’s adults being intentionally dreadful, and not caring.
Fan friendliness is one of IndyCar’s calling cards. Does toxicity and threats directed towards drivers by some fans just come with the territory? Chris Owens/Penske Entertainment
Q: What is the nature of the alliance between Andretti Autosport and MSR? What sort of data might the two teams share with each other?
Tim Shipp
MP: MSR pays Andretti Technologies for every aspect of its engineering for both cars. Andretti supplies all setup info, race engineers, dampers and associated proprietary items, and all Andretti and MSR data is shared along with all drivers taking part in group debriefs. The tough thing of late is Andretti has been highly competitive at every round while, so far, MSR has not. The chassis builds are to the same specification, so in theory, there should be no difference in the output of Romain Grosjean vs Simon Pagenaud, for example. It’s a perplexing issue that has MSR looking hard at itself.
Q: My question is about the O’Ward/Dixon incident at Long Beach. There is a curb at that corner and it seems to me O’Ward had all four tires on the inside of the curb. Is that legal? If it is, why bother having the curb at that corner in the first place. As for the hate on social media, all I have to say is sports betting. Wasn’t there a reason we outlawed most gambling back in the ’70s or earlier, because it destroyed families and lives?
Mark
MP: There were proper curbs there in the past, but they’ve been removed so drivers hugged the inside wall all weekend in every series except for the jumpy trucks.
The Long Beach social media stuff had nothing to do with betting. Zero.
Q: What the hell is this world coming to when an IndyCar driver is receiving credible death threats and the entire organization has to release a statement about it? I’m hoping that it’s a bunch of absolute morons behind a computer spouting off. That said, it is concerning and I sincerely hope that IndyCar steps up security for fans and provides the drivers with added protection.
Drivers like Pato O’Ward got mobbed on pitlane by supporters, too Perhaps IndyCar and its promoters should cease allowing fans to grid walk. I would hate to see this leading to fans being unable to have autograph sessions or paddock access. That’s the Catch 22: IndyCar loves fans to be up close and personal with drivers and their machines.
In light of what happened after Long Beach, maybe that will change because of nutcases like the ones behind these threats. I’m getting ahead of myself perhaps but congratulations (sarcasm) to them for ruining a great thing. Some would like to see the No. 78 parked for a few races. That’s a bit harsh but if it would teach his fans a lesson it may be something for IndyCar to think about.
As far as grid and paddock access goes, I have an idea. Perhaps promoters and IndyCar can get together and require ticket holders to upload a photo and have a laminated credential sent out with picture, seat location, barcode to let them into the event and paddock areas etc. At least that way you’ll know who people are. Metal detectors may be another idea. This is just nuts. It’s evident these people are not true IndyCar fans.
David Colquitt
MP: I think we’ve made up an issue that doesn’t exist. Pato gets mobbed because he’s the most popular driver in the series, and that’s happened for decades with whomever was the big star of the day. Anybody who suggested Canapino should be parked is an idiot.
It wouldn’t be the worst idea for IndyCar to spend some of the money it took from its teams’ Leader Circle contracts and put it towards a dedicated security guard for Ilott, O’Ward, and any other driver who was threatened, at the next few rounds. You can be a true IndyCar fan and be a terrible human being.
Q: Whatever happened to Carlos Munoz? His results over the entire course of a season were nothing crazy, but it seemed at IMS he was always up front. I confirmed this with a quick search. He was top 10 in five of his six 500 starts which included two second-place finishes. For someone who seemed so successful there and an event that typically extends drivers careers for success there, why did teams never scoop him up for the 500 one-off deals?
Kaleb Hartman, Anderson, IN
MP: I loved Carlos; always fought like hell. His parents were able to bankroll his racing for a while, but they weren’t infinitely wealthy. Last thing I heard was he could burn the last of his trust fund to go racing or use it elsewhere in life and he chose the latter.
Classic deal where they hoped he’d get picked up by a paying team and have a long career, but it didn’t happen. He was special at the 500, but there’s never a lack of talent to pick from.
One of the coolest things about the entire 2013 season was Munoz — who was racing full-time in Indy Lights — making his IndyCar debut at the 500, qualifying the thing on the front row and leading 12 laps before ultimately finishing second. He also led the most laps in that year’s Freedom 100 but was the “four” in a four-wide photo finish. Michael Levitt/Motorsport Images
Q: I was wondering why Indy NXT did not race at Long Beach, being it is a feeder series to IndyCar. Also, is tire stagger still a thing, or are the tires more consistent than the old days?
Tom Corso, Rancho Mirage, CA
MP: They weren’t invited. It’s been a long time since Lights was on the bill. Tire stagger isn’t a thing used on road and street courses.
Q: Was there any discussion at the LBGP about the pace car that crashed in Turn 1 on Saturday morning? It was a white sedan that I think was a BMW, but it happened pretty fast. It looked to us from grandstand five like the driver accelerated past the next car in line (in retrospect, a possible brake failure) and they went through two sets of tires sideways, driver’s side first. No tire squeal/lockup at all that we remember.
The passenger appeared to get out soon after help arrived and it took longer to get the driver out and tires reset. We didn’t see anyone leave in an ambulance and it looked like the driver should have been OK. My pictures show more fence and a bit of tow truck than car, but an AMR safety vehicle found its way down soon afterwards to help out and the marshals who ran down there came back with their fire bottles.
There’s been nothing obvious in news or searches that I’ve tried but again, maybe this is more of a thing on social media since I wouldn’t know. We’ve been at Long Beach and several other races for 30 years and never saw a pace car ride crash before. They’re typically really controlled. We do hope everyone’s OK.
Steve
MP: First I’m hearing about it, Steve. But I did hear about the active shooter on Ocean Blvd after the race; had to find a creative way to leave the parking lot because it was all yellow tape and police cars and fire trucks.
Q: How do teams monitor other team’s radios during a race? Do they have people assigned on the pit stand to do that? How many do they typically monitor?
Stu
MP: They use scanners with each other’s frequencies programmed in, just as NBC’s pit reporters and spotters do as they walk up and down pit lane. All depends on the team; some make a serious effort to monitor with dedicated staff, and others don’t bother and focus on their own race.
Q: I haven’t been to a NASCAR race in 21 years, or an IndyCar race, Are all the tickets to a NASCAR or an IndyCar race mobile entry only? And is the stuff you buy in the tracks cashless where you can only pay with a credit card?
Chris Fiegler, Latham, NY
MP: It’s one of those things where tracks have different owners and promoters, so there’s no single answer here because they all do things their own way. Mobile ticketing is pretty much the standard, but paper tickets are also still a thing.
Q: What is with the late start time for the Detroit GP? I was very interested but I am seeing a start time of 3:45pm. That means I won’t get home until 10pm in the Grand Rapids, Michigan area.
Steve, Rockford, MI
MP: I’m told last year’s start time of 3pm was due to the race being on USA, and with its return to NBC, that’s the broadcast window they were given.
Q: A lot of great comments in last week’s Mailbag about Santino Ferrucci, as well as the article on RACER.com. I listened to Santino’s radio via the IndyCar app and was able to follow along with the team and what they had to do to get the result they did at Long Beach.
There was also a lot of talk about how well Santino was doing in the previous event at Texas, where his clutch issues ultimately resulted in a DNF. I was also listening to Santino’s radio at the Texas event, and early on he was dealing with the headrest actually getting ripped out of the car by the wind… at effin’ TMS! I was able to listen to Santino describe the situation to the team over the radio at racing speeds, and then listen to them converse back and forth about how they were going to go about fixing the situation under the next caution. And then the team telling Santino to just hang in there! And he’s just like, “10-4”! Great stuff from that team on the radio!
Bob Fay, Seymour, CT
MP: Ferrucci is a gamer. Give him a semi-decent car, and he’ll go forward and place higher than it deserves. I don’t know if it will ever happen, but the closest thing he’s ever had to a top seat was with RLL in an extra car being run as an experiment, and while there, he was an animal, so I’m left to wonder what he could do in a full-time RLL seat, or an Andretti seat, etc.
Q: Who was the bravest driver you ever worked with in IndyCar? Also, who would you rate as the bravest driver currently racing?
Jim in Michigan
MP: That one’s easy: The often maligned Greg Ray. Started working with Greg in 1994 at Genoa Racing with our Formula Atlantic program and he was absolutely fearless. Then he left for the Team Kool Green Indy Lights team, and came back to use in 1997 and on a shoestring budget, we assembled the Thomas Knapp Motorsports/Genoa Racing IRL effort and we did some decent things for being a tiny Indy Lights team masquerading as an IndyCar operation. I put most of that on Greg, who delivered a couple of performances in qualifying for the Indy 500 that were breathtaking. Never had to question whether Greg was giving 100 percent or was going to attack everything in sight. I wish he was more fondly remembered by the sport.
Today, it’s Pato and Josef. O’Ward reminded us of that at Long Beach — twice — and Newgarden is the absolute last driver you want to see in your mirrors because he’s going to get by and, he’s not afraid to scare the crap out of you (see Penske’s Newgarden vs Penske’s Pagenaud at Gateway for the win) while doing so.
Greg Ray gets ready to go out and kick some ash at Indy in 1997. As an aside, I’m not sure if this is the only photo ever taken of Marshall wearing a red tartan cap, but it very well might be the only one ever taken of him wearing long pants. IMS Photo
Q: Question about RLL: I am a huge fan of Graham Rahal and was hopeful to see a turnaround this year. But so far just a few top 10s and they don’t seem to have anywhere close to the pace of the other teams. Is this a case of them trying too hard to be a three-car team and should they have kept it at two so they are not stretched so thin in some areas?
Eric
MP: Drop Graham into an Andretti/Ganassi/Penske car, and he’s winning races and fighting for a championship. Three is a good number, so I don’t see any issues with the size of the team. They rolled the dice in going with a new engineering structure during the offseason by hiring a new technical director with no IndyCar experience, so that was always going to require some extra time to get settled and make gains.
What I’ve been wondering of late is whether we’re in the midst of that early jelling process and should give them more time to hit their engineering stride with all of the changes (new/old engineer on Graham’s car, new engineer for Harvey who was Graham’s engineer in recent years, plus the new TD), or if they’ve simply missed the mark again and what we’re seeing is a slightly better version of the team that faceplanted to open the 2022 season.
Having just gotten home from the Indy Open Test, I had to look and see where the four RLL cars ran because I couldn’t recall seeing any of them featuring towards the top 10. Placed 23rd, 26th, 28th, and 32nd. If they don’t have a strong Barber race and Indy 500, it’s going to get ugly.
Q: When you were in Long Beach, were you able to speak to Evi Gurney or anyone else at AAR about the Dan Gurney autobiography? If so, what’s the latest update?
Rick Johnson, Lynnwood, WA
MP: Yes, I spent a few hours on Wednesday with Justin Gurney and Kathy Weida and Terry Malone, and it was marvelous. On the topic of the book, nothing new to add, other than it’s still being assembled and the great John Zimmermann is assisting Evi and the boys in the process. Got to see and hug Evi on Sunday; it was her first trip to Long Beach since Dan died, and she got to visit with Kathy and Justin and her granddaughters.
Q: Regarding Alan HummeI’s post from the April 19th Mailbag about the issue of not being able to understand the commentators. I had the same frustrating problem and always blamed the sound technicians. A few Mailbags ago, in the comments section, someone mentioned the problem could be the TV sound settings are set to surround sound, but the setup does not include surround sound speakers. I checked my TV setup and sure enough, it was set to surround sound. I turned off surround sound. Problem fixed! Now I can hear the commentators just fine!
Brandon
MP: Thanks, Brandon. Also, I’m going to tell Diffey there’s a letter in the mailbag where people say they turn on surround sound only when he’s speaking…
Q: I have been going to the LBGP since its inception, and attended about 75% of the events over 48 years. It seemed to me that last Friday was uncharacteristically overcrowded, likely due to a large amount of complimentary tickets that seemed to have been handed out, while Saturday and particularly Sunday morning were far less crowded than most previous years.
The Expo was also decidedly underwhelming in the number of vendors and booths. The grandstands on Sunday looked about 3/4ths full, at least in the Turn 1 area. What was your feeling? I find it very hard to believe the stated attendance of 192,000 over three days, even considering fans like me likely being counted three times (once for each day), and particularly wonder what the actual paid attendance was.
Given how much it costs to put on a street race like this, and the noticeable decrease in sponsor spending and marketing changing from Toyota to Acura as title sponsor, I worry about the long-term viability of the event. I know the media always says Long Beach is second only to the Indy 500, but the lack of teeming weekend crowds post-Covid was decidedly concerning. What are your thoughts?
Also, to the writers that have complained about sound on Peacock streaming, check the settings of your TV sound system and turn OFF any kind of Dolby or DVX sound processing. On some channels/platforms those features cause audio sub-channels to be dropped, often ones carrying commentary or live stadium audio (Fox Sports over YouTube TV particularly). May not be the culprit all the time, but certainly worth a try.
Greg Naive
MP: Lots of assumptions — mostly negative — being made here. I’m not aware of large swaths of free tickets being given out for Friday. I do know the increased crowd size was a topic of conversation on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday among teams and drivers. It was as vibrant a LBGP as I can recall; one thing that never came to mind while walking throughout the property each day was that it lacked fans. In fact, I used some of the lesser-known short cuts to get to certain places because it was too packed and too slow using normal routes.
I never believe crowd numbers, but whatever it was, it was a lot. Thanks for the sound advice (sorry, couldn’t resist).
Q: I’m curious about your thoughts on the STP-Paxton Turbo car, the gas turbine engine that almost won the Indy 500 in 1967. Do you think USAC was right to ban it? How do you think oval IndyCar racing would have evolved if they had allowed it?
Doug, Stafford, VA
MP: One of the greatest racing vehicles ever conceived. There were a few turbine-powered cars that were sublime, but none of them were as finely executed as Parnelli’s near-winner from ’67.
I hate any sanctioning body that wrote rules to kill innovation, so no, USAC wasn’t right to regulate turbines out of being competitive, but I understand why they did it. New things are scary, and in a form of racing where the automobile — even open-wheelers that look nothing like road cars — are the basis of the sport, I can see how helicopter and airplane technology would be perceived as too far removed from what a Ford or similar might want to get out of racing Indy cars.
Audi brought all-wheel-drive technology to the SCCA Trans Am series in 1988, destroyed the rear-wheel-drive dinosaurs, and were regulated out of competitiveness. They went to IMSA the following year in GTO, mopped the floor with everyone, and were run out of there as well. And like the STP Turbine, those who saw the Audis in action will never forget them because they were so amazing to watch and listen to as they went up against older technology.
The turbine works in limited numbers; it was so crazy and unique that it had to capture the world’s imagination. A full field of them? I’m not sure the fascination lasts for more than a year or two because teams will always gravitate towards the winning concepts and if they were allowed to continue, that’s where everyone would have migrated.
Whoosh! Motorsport Images
Q: I would like to put out three questions that are on my mind lately. 1) Is there a particular reason that Felix Rosenquist’s Indy livery is in McLaren orange instead of the iconic Marlboro red? 2) What is Cristiano da Matta up to these days, and is he ever seen at IndyCar events anymore? How realistic is it to anticipate a return of the Milwaukee Mile to the IndyCar calendar as early as 2024 (as had been rumored)?
Wiscowerner
MP: On the first question, I’d assume it’s because there are laws against tobacco advertising in sports, and going with the full period-correct Marlboro red and white with the Marlboro chevron made famous by Phillip Morris Inc., would probably get the attention of agencies Penske Entertainment wouldn’t want to show up in the paddock. Also, the team is sponsored by RJ Reynolds, the big and longtime tobacco rival to Phillip Morris, whose VELO product is prominently displayed as a primary sponsor, so there are limits to how far they’d want to go to celebrate McLaren’s Marlboro-era.
Haven’t seen Shorty in a few years but have heard he’s working in the family business. We wrote about Milwaukee as the leading new (old) track to return to the calendar back in December and I’ve heard nothing since to suggest it’s lost its place in the queue.
Q: Couple questions relating to two-time Indy champ Arie Luyendyk. One, I vaguely remember him saying back in 1996 that his Treadway Racing team had planned to try to practice at Indy with the rear wing taken completely off. Has any current team ever thought of trying that next month at the Brickyard?
And second, has Luyendyk had any reactions or comments yet to possibly having his track records from the same 1996 year being overtaken by someone in May?
Matt Embury, South Bend, IN
MP: That was an idea they discussed, but it wasn’t tried. I’m forgetting who, but it was tried once — I’m thinking in the 1980s, possibly at Michigan. Haven’t spoken with Arie about it yet, but I’m sure he’s been prepared for it to fall more than once.
Q: For decades, I’ve heard it said that on superspeedways IndyCars corner at speeds too high for human reactions to exert real car control. Bourdais’ 2017 Indy crash would tend to confirm that. But I saw Sato get squirrely in Turn 2 there last year, and he gathered it up. Was he just lucky? What’s the truth today?
Anthony Valdettaro, Indianapolis, IN
MP: It’s not too fast but it’s close, and as drivers have told us, a lot of what they do while rocketing through a corner at 235-240mph involves prediction. Their backsides feel the faintest twitch from the rear of the car, and they’re feeding a millimeter or two of opposite lock into the steering wheel because by the time that miniscule amount of oversteer arrives, it would be too late to correct it if they waited for the car to truly slew sideways.
I’ve been doing this for almost my entire adult life, but I’ve never lost sight of how extraordinary the top Indy 500 drivers happen to be. Perfect example was last week at the Indy Open Test. Newgarden had just posted his test-leading lap, climbed out of the car at the end of the day, and I still look at him and others like him and think, “You were just doing 240mph, and minutes later, you’re standing here, talking to us, as a normal human being. How is that possible?” I can’t fathom how their minds process warp speeds, their hands and feet and eyes move almost as fast as the car to keep it under control, and then they hop out and can speak intelligible words to us. I’d be drooling or curled up in the fetal position afterwards. There’s nothing like it in sports.
Q: I noticed in the IMSA race at Long Beach the AO Racing Porsche and Racer’s Edge Acura never did start the race. I presumed the two teams could not fix their cars in time after crashing in qualifying. That Porsche looked absolutely smashed up. In that scenario, what are some of the things teams take into consideration when deciding whether to fix the cars in the paddock or pack up and head home? While on the subject, how often in your mechanic career have you helped a team in an overnight thrash to fix a car, and was there one that you remember the most?
Brandon Karsten
MP: For production-based GT cars like the Acura and Porsche, it would be a bent chassis or a lack of spare parts that keeps a car from making the next session or the race altogether. I can also recall one scenario at Long Beach where a GT team suffered a huge crash the day before the race, and while they had the money and resources to have the chassis straightened, they didn’t want to go through all of that effort to risk racing a car that might not be truly straight with a busy stretch of racing coming up in the months ahead, so they chose to pack up, return to their shop, and get a head start on proper repairs in a proper environment.
The one from my own career that jumps out was the last one when my little factory Scion endurance racing team went into the 25 Hours of Thunderhill in 2008 with a freshly-painted tC done with a full AAR IMSA GTO Toyota Celica livery — with graphics done by the same company that did them for AAR in the 1980s — and had one of my drivers, a solid SCCA World Challenge pilot, barrel roll the thing at the fastest corner in testing the day before qualifying.
We didn’t get much sleep, but we did manage to scavenge all kinds of things from a local wrecking yard and spray painted as much as we could to make it look less like a Frankenstein car. Funny part was when I had whatever mobile windshield repair company — Safelite or something like that — show up at a racetrack to try and fit a new windshield after we spent hours hammering and bashing the crumpled corners of the a-pillars and roof back into place so the windshield would fit. The guy ended up using a lot of sealant to fill the gaps.
My crew were absolutely invaluable and filled with determination to take this once-pristine Scion tC and get it back in running order with all kinds of new bodywork, suspension, and ancillaries in the engine bay. Ended up placing third in class and won $1000 for our effort, which went to them for being amazing.
The AO Racing Porsche team’s Long Beach trip ended early when the car tried to take a bite out of the barriers on Friday. Gavin Baker/Motorsport Images
Q: A year ago or so, you wrote that Don Cusick was wanting to start a new IndyCar team but wanted to wait for the new engine. Is that still a possibility, or has he had a change of mind and only wants to sponsor cars for the Indy 500?
Paul, Indianapolis
MP: Great question. As I understand the situation, it’s somewhat open for Don. Would he be up for buying all the equipment and running a standalone team? Yes. Would he be up for buying into a team and functioning as a true partner? Yes. The part that isn’t up for debate is how Cusick has limited interest in being a non-equity guy who brings all the funding to a team and leaves after the race with nothing but memories. I’d say that if the relationship with Dennis Reinbold continues heading in the right direction — and Reinbold’s a quality person and businessman — I could see something more formal come to fruition.
Q: Kelly, I was wondering what would your opinion be on a simple change for races that have multiple race dates in the calendar. Like Bristol dirt and the night race.
I know the NHRA holds two races at Las Vegas and Charlotte. Both four-wide races are in the regular season that sell pretty decent in ticket sales and then two lane racing during their countdown to the championship. They are obviously trying to make the two separate race dates different.
When it comes to NASCAR and races that have two separate dates, why would it be a bad idea to maybe just do something slightly different/ Especially after the previous weekend at Martinsville. Maybe make the 400-lapper a stage break-free race and leave the 500 in the fall with breaks since it’s a playoff event.
It’s a simple change, and now with road courses without stage breaks maybe NASCAR could try to differentiate some of the ovals with multiple dates and see if that would potentially drum up more ticket sales for the old school fans, or just to see how the race would play out more organically.
Joseph K., Berlin, NH
KELLY CRANDALL: I do like the idea of race weekends having different meaning or a different feel. Bristol dirt and the night race is a good example. Darlington talks a lot about that when it got its second date back, promoting that throwback weekend is early in the year, and then the focus is on the playoffs when the series returns in September.
I’m not a big fan of many tracks having two dates because there are times when the season feels so long, and it just lags in the summer when the schedule would have two Michigan races and two Pocono races spread over a few weeks. But I’m not a fan of having different races with different rules, and NASCAR doesn’t like doing that either. The sanctioning body has talked previously about trying to have consistent rules and policies across the board because it wants to keep it simple. If NASCAR — or the tracks — are going to try to mix things up, I doubt it would be through different rules for different races.
Q: I want to start out my question with a statement that I am only a casual NASCAR fan. I’ve been to a few races and I try to catch one every other year or so in person. I watch Daytona and a few others throughout the season, I have a favorite driver and I always take a look at race results and standings on RACER.com. With that baseline set, I do not understand the logic behind green/white/checker finishes.
I don’t want to judge the hardcore NASCAR fan, but for me, it’s not racing — it’s random and it is very expensive for the teams to run those “last two laps.” (Plus, it is very time-consuming for the fan at home.) Have there been any surveys done to determine if GWC really moves the needle with fan engagement/enjoyment of the sport? I, for one, would rather see the most deserving driver win under yellow, than for the GWC randomizer to pick the winner.
Andy R., Brighton, MI
KC: I disagree that GWC finishes make the winners random, but it does get ridiculous and it does get expensive. But it’s the drivers’ fault, right? This kind of goes back to the talk after the COTA race about why it was so ugly — because drivers know they have to get what they can get when they can before someone gets them. Cautions breed cautions. The pushing and shoving and running through each other get worse and worse as the race goes on, especially when it comes down to overtime restarts.
The whole idea behind a GWC is that NASCAR heard from fans for years that they didn’t want to see a race won under the yellow flag. If a caution came out within 10 laps to go, there was a good chance the race was going to be over, and those final few laps were going to be run under pace car speed. Fans wanted to see a winner, so NASCAR implemented the GWC rule to try and make that happen. However, the law of unintended consequence is that they tried it, and it’s messy, so the rule reads that after the white flag is taken, the next flag ends the race, or these attempts will keep going and going.
It’s dirt, baby! More than any other Cup track, Bristol has drawn a clear distinction between its two races. Motorsport Images
Q: We have seen changes with designers moving and departing from McLaren and Mercedes. Namely, James Key and Mike Elliott are departing. So, my question: what skill is missing from these technical leads? Is it organization, vision, or competency? Will they work again?
Steve
CHRIS MEDLAND: Not so fast, you’ve jumped the gun with Mike Elliott — he isn’t departing and is very much still working for Mercedes. He’s effectively been promoted to chief technical officer in a role swap with James Allison, so Mercedes clearly sees value in him and he has been a major contributor to the team’s success in the past. The impression there is that Elliott is better suited to a more strategic overarching role rather than the (slightly) more immediate and public-facing technical director position, and Allison is willing to return to his previous post.
When it comes to James Key, his stock rose at smaller teams than McLaren — impressing at a young age with Force India and setting Sauber up for a very strong 2012 season before joining Toro Rosso — but his impact at McLaren had been limited. In a bigger structure the results weren’t trending in the right direction, and Key didn’t have the previous success with the team in the same way that Elliott did so was replaced. At McLaren it seemed to be a combination of the underwhelming last two cars and not fitting into the structure that Andrea Stella wanted when he took over as team principal.
That said, I’d still expect to see Key join another team in F1 at some stage if he wants to. He has good experience and has shown he can be a technical director at multiple teams before McLaren, while he could also be attractive in a different role at bigger teams.
THE FINAL WORD
From Robin Miller’s Mailbag, April 23, 2014
Q: Is there any chance you could obtain the rights to write the definitive biography of A.J. Foyt? I have the one that was issued in the late ’70s and it is rubbish. You know A.J. quite well and nobody loves open-wheel racing more than you. You are truly the best writer when it comes to Indy.
Joe Thoms
ROBIN MILLER: Well, thanks for the compliment but Bill Neeley wrote a book in 1983 (“A.J.”) that’s a pretty good read about Super Tex, so go on Amazon and see if you can pick one up. A.J. asked me once why I hadn’t written a book yet and I told him I couldn’t until he’s passed on. He wondered why and I said: “Because after you read one of the chapters you’d want to kill me.” He called me an a**hole, I agreed and said that’s why we were pals.
