One of the best and most interesting tracks in the US — Road America (Wisconsin) — took the ninth stage of the championship (he was supposed to be a tenth, but the last stage is not held and was postponed to August). For a long time the circuit was absent in the IndyCar schedule, and all the time there was talk of the return of Road America in the championship. I expect «in indycar way» incendiary race with a tight struggle on the road, but the first 40 laps were not rich in events. It was only an accident Conor Daly revived the struggle, when the safety car brought back of the field, removing the sometimes huge gaps between drivers.
Six and a half kilometers of the old and slippery asphalt, high-speed turns and elevation changes — Road America is often compared with the track at Spa. They look not only at the configuration as on the «philosophy»: long, rather narrow, very dangerous... and beautiful. These components are often not enough new tracks, released from under the bulldozer of the famous «track builder». A large number of spectators came to watch the competition with sun loungers and picnic sets. The crowd was also not empty. Those who are not interested in watching, could drive on go-cart track, which is located inside the main racing ring. While IndyCar drivers fighting for positions in his race for kratodrome also seething struggle.
Training and qualifications held on a dry track, but on Sunday morning it started to rain, just in time for warm-up races. Only two drivers brought their cars to the track, and it is likely to check the condition of the vehicle after repair. The forecast for the race was «dry», so the team considered it prudent not to let the racers on the track.
It was expected that some intrigue will make a great consumption of tires. But it turned out that hard and soft tires work on the highway and about equally long. The first race on the pit stop took place in six (out of 50) laps. Mass arrivals and crush the pit lane is also not observed. Team «juggled» tire tactics, but it almost does not affect the overall balance of power.
Will Power won the pole position and throughout the race felt pretty comfortable, leading the back of the field. Even the pit stops do not move it to the leading position. On the second lap Sebastien Bourdais actually out of control, damaging the car to fight with Charlie Kimball. Three leaders in the early races were Power, Dixon and Kanaan. Scott Dixon came in seventh circle: could not stand the engine. Championship leader InsyCar Simon Pagenaud in the second part of the arrival sharply intensified. He first took Graham Reyhela to the third position, and later Tony Kanaan — for the second. For leaders back of the field stretched out quite strongly. There were moments when the gap between the fireballs was second, and more. In such circumstances, an active struggle on the road, however.
By the end of the race there were only ten laps, and it seemed that all too boring and over, as well as the question. But Conor Daly «corrected» the case. In direct start-finish line under braking for the first corner on his wheel the car explodes and broken rear suspension. Conor flying safety zone and safely landed on the fence from the back of the tires of his car. On the track there was Safery car. Marshals took four laps (6.5 km) to remove the broken car. The use of American-style evacuation delayed the continuation of the race well. Marshals barely finally defeated Daley machine, because it mercilessly swinging, hanging on a hook a tow truck. It is not clear why in the IndyCar do not use equipment with a platform where you can quickly submerge the car and take it to the track. As a result, the marshals somehow dragged wrecked car and the race continued.
The last 10 laps actually did the whole race. Even the leader Will Power could lose the victory. Tony Canaan did not have a couple of laps to impose Power active struggle. Worst of all had to restart after Simon Pagenaud. He not only lost his chance to fight for victory, but to finish even dropped out of the top ten. Apparently, the fall in the rate of Pagenaud was due to the tires.
Russian driver Mikhail Aleshin IndyCar also failed to show a good result at the finish. Starting from 13th position assumed break-up, but on the contrary, Mikhail lost two positions. Then he balanced between the 12th and 15th place, but was unable to keep pace after the restart. He eventually finished 16th.
The next race will take place on the oval track at Iowa on July 10.
Photo: Chris Jones, Joe Skibinski, Shawn Gritzmacher
