Indy Racing League - 2015

The Motorsport season of the New World is reaching full speed this weekend. After the two classic endurance appointments
of Daytona and Sebring, it's time now to welcome the IndyCar Series 2015 together with the little sister IndyLights

Following is a brief update on the most reverred open wheels series in the U.S.

TEAM and DRIVERS

With almost every team making changes for the upcoming season, a little summary can be very helpful:
A J Foyt will race two cars this year for the whole season, with Sato confirmed and Hawksworth moving from Bryan Herta Autosport.
Andretti is committing with four cars for the whole season. Hinchcliffe is leaving the family to join Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, while Simona De Silvestro and Justin Wilson share car n. 25
Bryan Herta doubles his presence with two cars appointed to Howard, coming back in the series and Gabby Chavez, fresh winner of the last Indy Lights season.
CFH Racing is born from the merging of Ed Carpenter and Sarah Fisher and it will have three cars for carpenter, newgarden and filippi. Mike Conway is leaving to join the Toyota team in the WEC.
Ganassi doesn't change much except for Briscoe leaving the seat to the young Karam, already involved in the 2014 Indy500.
Dale Coyne will partner with Huertas and the Italian rookie Francesco Dracone, while Wilson is joining Andretti for at least the Indy 500.
KV Racing is relying on European drivers for this season with Sebastian Bourdais and the other rookie Stefano Coletti from GP2. The other Sebastian, Saavedra, won't race this season.
Rahal Letterman is downsizing, leaving only one car on track for Graham and Filippi moving to CFH.
Schmidt Peterson changes both drivers: Jakes and Hinchcliffe for the Russian Aleshin and Pagenaud moved to Penske.
Penske expands to four cars and welcomes Simon Pagenaud.


CALENDAR

The calendar has been shortened from 18 to 16 race. Actually it was supposed to be 17 but the last minute cancellation of the
season opening race in Brasilia, Brazil, due to some sudden political changes has further reduced the number of races.
The only race entering the 2015 calendar is the Gran Prix of Louisiana, while the double race of Houston won't take part in this season
as well as one of the 2 in Toronto.  


RULES

On the field we'll see much more sofisticated looking cars, due to a new aerodinamic
package provided by Honda, which reminds us of the F1 aerodynamic kits for the years
2008-2010.
Several are also the changes that we will notice on track. First of all no standing starts
in 2015. Too many, in fact, the failures during the starting procedure in the last couple
years, some of which led to dangerous pile ups (last of them at the Indianapolis Gran Prix
with Saavedra walking out of a completely destroyed car). Pit selection will be based on the
team performance in the previous race and not more on the driver's performance
Prior to the race, the qualification groups will be based on the last session of practice
and not anymore on the first one.

The point system has also been revisited by moving the double point assignation from MAVTV
and Pocono to Sonoma that will be the only one beside the Indy500 to award double points.

 
Time now to get ready! The Firesonr Gran Prix it's just around the corner!!



Picture from bu30sports.com

Will Power

The 2014 Indycar season ends here, in Fontana, with the last race in calendar, the last of three 500 miles races in this year.
Tony Kanaan finally finds his way back to the highest step of the podium, after a season of struggle and pain, in the only race where all the eyes are not so much on the race winner but mostly on the Champion.
Anyway, good boost of confidence for the good Brazilian in a race not less though and close than all the rest.

The weekend starts unfortunately in a way that we really don't want to see. The brilliant rookie Aleshin looses control of his car during practice, while following a very low and dangerous line around the Fontana oval, and crashes against the wall before getting hit by the unlucky Kimball who project him up in the fence. As a result, the young Russian will be hospitalize with multiple fractures, in stable condition but with a long recovery ahead.

On Saturday, the race unfolds itself as expected. Power, ahead in the Championship standing, starts from second last position and sets his race in "safe mode" keeping his distance from the pack and avoiding any risky situation, at least for the first half of the race. Castroneves, who has to bridge the gap of 51 points from Power, starts in pole position and has only one goal: win and hope to put enough cars between him and the Australian.
Pagenaud, the last contending for the 2014 throne, has problems since the beginning and he is out of reach of good points from the first laps of the race.

The race goes on smoothly for 176 laps (a record by itself) with Power picking up positions and with Castroneves performing strong, always in eye contact on the first positions. For the drivers not involved in the championship this is, after all, the last race of the season and everybody wants to leave Fontana with a good result for the fans, for the teams, for the sponsors and for the chance to live the next six months without any regrets.

It is Kanaan that goes home at the end of the day with one of the biggest smiles in the paddock after being the 11th winner in the season (another record).
Tears and smiles is what you can find inside the helmet of Will Power in the last laps of the race. It took four times for the Australian to finally end the season at the top of the standing. Well deserved after a season (actually five) that saw him being the most consistent driver out there.

Castroneves, after finding himself another time in second position in the championship at the end of the year, has smiles for everyone, knowing that, after all, this season has been exciting for him and c'mon, what are the odds of losing again the championship in the last race again next year?




So this was the end of the 2014 season. It's time to see what the next season will look like. New races, new drivers, new rules. One thing is undeniable: this is one of the most spectacular racing leagues around the world. We will wait until 2015 and we'll be ready to enjoy the show again. Together.

VIDEO - IndyCar Last Round Fontana - 2014

IRL Sonoma 2014 - Recap

Sonoma, Aug 24th. With only the double appointment at Fontana left in the calendar, the rush to the championship gets fiery.
Will Power, starting from the pole, has a real opportunity to weaken Castrovenes (who starts in P6) dreams of glory.
However, the windy road course of Sonoma is famous for the ability to shuffle driver's ambitions and results.

The green lights are on and it takes only a bunch of seconds to witness the first episode of the race. At the top of the hill there's a pile up and Castroneves, at that point in the middle of the pack, gets involved and needs to pit right away.
Power leads now with even more advantage on the Brazilian. Everything goes smooth for about 30 laps, where Power keeps the lead after the first round of pit stop, but then Huertas goes wide and a caution is called.
Lap 36, we get to the green and after only half of a lap there's another contact between Saavedra and Bourdais and another yellow comes out. This time Power stops and when he gets back he's in the middle of the group, the green is deployed and, at the same hairpin that caused the previous yellow, he spins.
Conway is in the lead now, followed by Kanaan. Power is second last while Castroneves is 18th.

After lap 60 the last session of pit stops is already on the go and Rahal gets in first position. Conway, Kanaan and Dixon follow.
Kanaan stops for the last time, while Dixon is getting very close to the back of Conway.
Three laps to go and Rahal can't stretch the fuel anymore. It's time for a very painful pit stop that means giving up the leadership.
Dixon sees the leader entering the pit lane and takes the chance, all he needs is to get a good exit from the last hairpin before the finish line and to push to pass Conway right in from of him right now. Everything goes as planned for Scott that closes the second turn of the track in first position.
Conway is probably being told to cruise to the end and he finds himself in third position, not able to reply to Hunter-Reay's attack.
The last lap sees the duo Dixon Hunter-Reay confortably getting to the finish line. The same can't be said for Conway that runs out of fuel at the very end of the lap, giving away the third place to Pagenaud and closing his race at walking speed in 14th position.

For the Championship, Power closes in P10 and Castroneves in P18. Nothing has been decided yet, given the double points yet to be assigned in Fontana, but something tells me that Castroneves would happily trade his position at -51 pts for the Power's one.
Stay tuned!

Indy Racing League - Sonoma - 2014

Watch the full Indy Car race from Sonoma

Busy Weekend Ahead!

Right, this week we have enough material to close ourselves in the living room for the next four days!!

It all starts today with the youngsters of  the Indy Lights tasting the ground in Sonoma for a very busy four day schedule, and with the World Rally Championship stopping in Germany for one of the most iconic appointments of the season.
Then tomorrow the mayhem begins, with the next categories (rigidly listed in alfabetical order) going down on track for their practice sessions: Blancpain GT Series, F1, GP2, GP3, IRL, Tudor United Sportscar Championship and V8 Supercars.

Enjoy the races and keep an eye on our session On track this Week to keep up to date on the upcoming events!

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