— by Raymond Wintonyk
(All photos courtesy of Chris Jones)
Birmingham, Alabama, April 27, 2012: Well it wasn’t hot & sunny. That was what was promised yesterday. Maybe the delivery tags got mixed up. Race Control manged to keep the weather just fine in Long Beach, I don’t know whats gone wrong today.
But the track crews did a remarkable job clearing the water off the track after that huge thundershower finally went on it’s way. It’s still a wet track for the start, but it’s drivable, and drying under a bit of a wind. The field moves off the line with rain tires all around; A few extra pace laps to maybe try to make a dry line, but this track’s going to be wet for a while. Standing water at the top of 4 and a big puddle running across the track in the already tough corner at 10.
They pair up around the horseshoe, and swing onto the front straight. It’s an incredibly clean start given the conditions. Ryan Hunter-Reay looks to the inside on 1, but wisely doesn’t push it too hard. Hinch gives him room, but holds him off on the next right hander, then drops the hammer & pulls up right beside Will Power in the first spot. He could have tried to dive under in the hairpin, but he and Hunter-Reay both, wisely choose wisdom over valor.
Pagenaud slid off the track in 7, but got it back on again, Muñoz did about the same thing in the water at the top of 10, but Sato spun in that water and stalled his car. Full Course Yellow to get him restarted. Still, it was a remarkably good start in the wet, and there was one heck of a lot of racing in that one lap.
Tony Kanaan, who has started in last place, picked up 5 spots in that lap. Kanaan had been having a tough weekend. Before the race he’d said that he didn’t really know the what problem was, but he was working with engineer Chris Simmons to get the car the way he wanted it. Dario Franchitti had a completely different setup that what he was used to, and it was taking him longer than he had expected to get used to the car.
“The rain might give us a few more chances to move forward in the race”.
Takuma gets re-fired, and the field comes around to do it all over again. Hunter-Reay is all over Hinch again in 1, but again doesn’t push it; but he sticks side by side around the outside in 2 and 3, and finally punches by on the way up the hill to turn 4, to take second spot behind Power.
Aleshin, with Montoya in tow both come around Newgarden, who’s struggling with conditions, in the hairpin at 5, then Montoya lines him up and blasts by Aleshin on the outside on 13/14. Juan Pablo is a man on a mission. He’d started in eighth spot, but on the next lap he added a notch for Marco Andretti, and in just 3 more laps had gotten around Dixon for fifth.
And meanwhile, Sébastien Bourdais had moved up 4 positions, and Tony Kanaan just kept on charging up through the field to 14th place behind Pagenaud. This all in just the first nine minutes of racing.
Bourdais, now in ninth spot on his charge to the front, comes across Aleshin. He’s around him in the hairpin, but Aleshin comes back under at the exit. Bourdais continues to work on the Russian rookie, while Kanaan keeps trying to get around Pagenaud. The field at the front is spreading out; Power with a comfortable margin over Hunter-Reay, and both pulling away from Hinchcliffe. And Hélio Castroneves had worked his way up to fourth position from his start in sixth. The track, by now, has a fairly clear dry line, but there’s still lots of standing water in places around the circuit.
Aleshin is driving a pretty wide car in front of Bourdais, but it’s “proactive”. At the hairpin, there’s an exact repeat of the exchange of a few laps ago, and Aleshin stays in front. Bourdais is all over him trying every trick in the book, but can’t get by him.
Montoya’s still on a charge, and gets around Castroneves on lap 12. He’s moved up to fourth from his start in eighth. He’s looking at the back of Hinchcliffe’s car.
Lap 15, and Will Power has a 4 second lead over second place Ryan Hunter-Reay, when he brings just a bit too much speed into the hairpin. He’s turning his front wheels, but they have a plan that differs somewhat from his. The car keeps going straight through the water onto the grass, and on through the gravel trap on the outside. He’s lucky to make it through the gravel, and just barely squeaks by the barrier without losing his front wing. He manages to get back onto the track, but not before Ryan Hunter-Reay has left him well back in 2nd.
Behind them in the hairpin, Aleshin and Bourdais both get around Marco Andretti in the 25 Snapple car: Aleshin on lap 15, Bourdais on lap 16.They’re now running 7th and 8th. Newgarden has dropped back to 10th spot by lap 17. The track is drying to the point that there are few places left to cool down the rain tires. Those tires are starting to fall off.
With Bourdais behind Aleshin coming into the hairpin on lap 20, Bourdais tries to make a move around the outside. Aleshin drives a “proactive” wide line. I frankly don’t know whether it caught Bourdais by surprise under braking, or if, perhaps, Bourdais tried a bit of the “chrome horn”, but he’s into the back of Aleshin and spins him around. Aleshin ends up hung up on the curb. That brings out another Full Course Yellow, and will eventually bring on a penalty for Bourdais.
Pit Stops and red tires for all. Hunter-Reay and Power get out cleanly, but Hinchcliffe and Montoya both lose 2 spots. Dixon, Bourdais and Muñoz all gain 3 positions. It’s now Dixon in third place followed by Bourdais, Hinchcliffe, Montoya and Muñoz. But Muñoz pushed too hard on the still damp track. He came off the track in 7, and bent his suspension on the Aramco barrier. He’d been running a great race, but just got caught out trying to warm up his slick reds on a slick track.
During the pit stop, Hélio Castroneves stopped his car in Justin Wilson’s pit stall. It was right behind his own, and the Wilson crew was dressed almost identically to Hélio’s crew. A moment of confusion, and one of the tire changers almost went to work on the car. But Hélio figured it out and scooted ahead to his own stall. To add insult to injury, Castroneves would get a penalty for that miscue.
The field went green after Muñoz’s car was cleaned up. Saavedra in the 17 AFS car had stayed out, and he now led the field, still on rain tires. He holds that position for a few laps. It’s a desperate last ditch strategy. Worth a try, perhaps, but it comes to nothing in the end. Montoya and Hinchcliffe battle for the fifth spot, but it’s all for naught as well. Montoya got around Bourdais but spun into the gravel on 11. Bourdais was called in to serve his penalty for his contact with Aleshin. It was a great day for both these seasoned drivers — for a while, at least.
There’s just one lap of green before Carlos Huertas spun himself out and stalled on the exit of the hairpin. Hinchcliffe is starting to have trouble, and drops back a few spots, but Marco Andretti is picking up the pace. Rookie Jack Hawksworth has clawed his way up to 10th position after starting from the back of the field just in front of Tony Kanaan. He’s now behind Kanaan who by now is up to ninth.
By lap 37 Marco Andretti had worked his way up to Will Power, and picks him off for second spot. Andretti hasn’t looked this good all season, and you can tell that Michael Andretti’s having a hard time containing himself. Power looks like he’s flagging a bit. Dixon makes it by him 10 laps later, and Pagenaud will eventually get around him as well. Justin Wilson in the 19 Scouting car has worked his way up to sixth from his sixteenth place start. With the changing conditions, and the different levels of driver experience, there’s hard racing throughout the field all the way around the circuit. This is a fun race to watch.
For the last quarter of an hour, the order settled down a bit, and with just 5 minutes to go Mikhail Aleshin went way wide on turn 14, caught the grass, and slid hard into the tires. Holmatro Safety and the track crews did handstands trying to get the mess cleaned up in time to go back to green, but it was just too much to clean up in five minutes. The day came to an end under yellow.
It’s a “one-two” finish for Andretti Autosports after a great drive by Hunter-Reay, and a “hell of a job” (Michael Andretti’s words) by Marco Andretti. Dixon came in a solid third in front of Pagenaud, Power, Wilson, Hinchcliffe and Newgarden. Kanaan had finished in ninth with Kimball and Brisoce who’d gotten around Hawksworth behind him. Hawksworth finished a respectable P12.
It was a hard-fought day of racing for everyone, on rain tires and on reds. Though mostly dry, even by the end of the day there were spots of water lurking about the track. Ryan Hunter-Reay drove a “perfect race” (Michael’s words again), and looked to be displaying something remarkably akin to “patience” at the beginning of the watery contest.
But the story of the day has got to be Marco Andretti. He’d worked his way up to P2 from a ninth place start, but more than that: Marco’s not really looked all that racy for the last couple of years. He’s looking damned racy now.
For complete race results, and current driver standings, go to Indycar.com