Round 8: Sonsio Grand Prix of Road America, Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. June 10-12.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Round 8: Sonsio Grand Prix of Road America, Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. June 10-12.

In 2016, after an eight year hiatus, the Kohler Grand Prix was the first major AOWR event to be held at Road America, since the Champ Car Generac Grand Prix of Road America on August 12, 2007, which was won by Sébastien Bourdais, driving for Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing, in a Panoz DP-01-Cosworth XFE. With the exception of 2005, when the race was dropped due to sponsorship issues, it was a perennial event on the CART/Champ Car calendar from 1982 - 2007. Héctor Rebaque won the innaugural Road America 200 on September 11, 1982, for Forsythe Racing in a March 82C-Ford Cosworth DFX.

With the unification of Champ Car and the IRL in 2008, the race was subsequently dropped. However, since 2016 Road America has been back on the racing calendar, even hosting a double-header in 2020 in order to bring the calendar up to a 17 race schedule, as a number of races had been cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The very first race to be held at Elkhart Lake was in 1950. It was organized by the Chicago Region and Milwaukee Region of The Sports Car Club of America. It was the first of three races from 1950 - 1952, which were held on courses layed out on public roads. However, after a fatal accident at Watkins Glen in 1952, it was decided to discontinue motor racing on all public roads and the event was moved to a private, purpose built road course.

The tracks history began, when highway engineer Clif Tufte, got together with the Chicago Region of the Sports Car Club of America, as well as local citizens, to develop and build a permanent racecourse. In October 1954, Road America, Inc. was formed with the members of the Chicago Region SCCA largely financing the project, which had an estimated cost of $175,000, through the sale of shres. In April 1955 a bulldozer broke ground and on September 10, 1955, Road America held its first SCCA national race weekend. Since then, the track has hosted many major American motorsport's series, including the American Le Mans Series, CART, NASCAR and the United States Road Racing Championship.

The track itself has undergone a number of upgrades, including the installation of gravel traps and the enlargement of run-off areas, particularly at Turn 1 and the removal of the bridge at Turn 13, at the end of 2006 season. Despite this the actual layout has hardly changed, apart from a chicane that was installed for AMA motorcycle competitors at The Kink.


Original track layout:


Current track layout:



Length: 4.048 miles (6.515 km)
Turns: 14

Lap record:
Dario Franchitti, August 19, 2000. 1:39.866, 145.924 mph (234.84 km/h).
Team Kool Green,
Reynard 2KI-Honda HRK.
CART FedEx Championship Series.

Some trivia:
The driver with the most wins: 3.
Mario Andretti: 1983, 1984, 1987.
Emerson Fittipaldi, 1986, 1988, 1982.
Michael Andretti: 1991, 1992, 1996.

The team with the most wins: 10.
Newman/Haas Racing: 1983, 1984, 1987, 1991, 1992, 1996, 1999, 2002, 2003, 2007.

Last Year's Race:
https://www.motorsport.com/indycar/n...issue/6590841/

Pole:
Joseph Newgarden, 1:46.0186, 136.301 mph (219.355 km/h).
Tean Penske,
Dallara IR18-Chevy IndyCar V6.

Winner:
Álex Palou
Chip Ganassi Racing.
Dallara IR18-Honda HI21R Indy-V-6.

Laps 55
Distance 222.64 Miles (358.30 km)
Race Time 1:50:55.0534
Speed 119.424 mph (192.194 km/h)
Fastest lap: Álex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing. Lap 43, 108.5653 sec, 133.103 mph (214.209 km/h)

Cautions 4
Laps: 16-18, 24-26, 35-38, 52-53.

Practice and Qualifications
Friday, Jun 10. Practice 1, 4:30 PM - 5:30 PM ET

Saturday, Jun 11. Practice 2, 10:45 AM - 11:45 AM ET

Saturday, Jun 11. Qualifications - Round 1 Group 1, 1:45 PM - 1:55 PM ET
Saturday, Jun 11. Qualifications - Round 1 Group 2, 2:05 PM - 2:15 PM ET

Saturday, Jun 11. Qualifications - Round 2, 2:25 PM - 2:35 PM ET

Saturday, Jun 11. Qualifications - Firestone Fast 6, 2:45 PM - 3:00 PM ET

TV Broadcast
Sunday, Jun 12
NBC, IndyCar Live!, 12:35 PM - 3:00 PM ET, 4:35PM UTC
Sky Sports F1, 5:35PM BST

[fieldodreams79]

Love that the original track layout matches the current with the only difference being a 'motorbike chicane' at The Kink.

Should round the Le Mans weekend off nicely. And yes, joeb, you can watch both without conflict!

[rwintle]

Originally Posted by fieldodreams79

Love that the original track layout matches the current with the only difference being a 'motorbike chicane' at The Kink.

Should round the Le Mans weekend off nicely. And yes, joeb, you can watch both without conflict!

I like to think of it as an "amateur sportscar driver not stuffing it into the wall at the kink" chicane.

Agree on the layout - the only other difference I guess would be the longer pitlane (and entry to it). What a legendary place.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by fieldodreams79

Love that the original track layout matches the current with the only difference being a 'motorbike chicane' at The Kink.

Should round the Le Mans weekend off nicely. And yes, joeb, you can watch both without conflict!

thats earlier than i though, maybe i can see it!

[bjohnsonsmith]

Qualifying has started. If you have an IndyCar Live! account you can watch it live. Doesn't cost anything and it is easy to set up. The feed is from NBC, so if you don't want the NBC commentary, you can listen on IndyCar Radio Network.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Qualifying Result:

Alexander Rossi's on Pole but can he convert that to a win? The last time he won at Road America was in 2019 and that was the last time he won a race.

Josef Newgarden is 2nd, with Penske team mates Scott McLaughlin 9th and current points leader Will Power 12th. Reigning driver's champion and last year's winner Alex Palou is 3rd.

[joeb]

I wish i had more time to devote to this race, if nothing else i will be recording tomorrows action.

I don't know who will win, but my prediction is Palou takes the points lead when all is said and done.

And the rookie continues to be the top Rahal car.....

[bjohnsonsmith]

Clean start but Johnson goes at Turn 2. FCY.

[bjohnsonsmith]

2nd FCY as Palou goes off.

[bjohnsonsmith]

3rd FCY as Power got tagged by Defrancesco, losing his nose and front wing.

Edit: Defrancesco got a stop-go for that.

[joeb]

I turned to NBC at noon when the race was listed as starting, and it was already lap 4!

I can watch for a bit here but then I'm going to have to record the rest.

So sloppy at the start , nobody was behaving.

Really good looking crowd though!

[joeb]

Lots of different strategy's with stops and tires at the moment, could be an unexpected finish if there is an I'll timely caution.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Pato O'Ward grinds to a halt, bringing out the 4th yellow. Can Rossi take advantage of the restart and beat Newgarden?

[bjohnsonsmith]

5th FCY on the restart as Castroneves spins.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Congrats to Josef Newgarden. That was a solid drive.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Race Result:

Despite the first three cautions coming in quick succession, they didn't impinge on the race and overall I thought it was good. That win, since Rossi last won at Road America in 2019, still eludes him.

Detroit was Chevrolet's 101th win since joining the series in 2012, and they topped that today, though there were 4 Honda powered cars in the top 6.

Going into the break before Mid-Ohio, Ericsson's 2nd place finish puts him on top of the table on 293 points. Power is 2nd on 266. Newgarden's win puts him 3rd on 261. Both O'Ward and Palou retired and are 4th and 5th.

[broadrun96]

Somehow 3 different news outlets who have NEVER covered Indy decided this race was the one to ruin because of the million prize bonus. No actual coverage of the race or info sadly, just hey this dude won an extra million bucks

[fieldodreams79]

Way too many cautions in this one for my full liking. Enjoyable but too many stops when it was getting a rhythm, which took forever to find with the start/restart/restart at the beginning.

Holy Moment from Simon at The Kink! I saw they were reaching 170 plus at entry to that corner.

And I'll make a hot take for me Will Power might want to think a little more about not blocking so early. Yes, DeFrancesco punted him at T5; fully his fault, but it was after how many double moves from Power? In two corners in a row? Way too early in the race, especially while he was leading in the championship, but you know, Will never does anything wrong...

And I still can't get over it being 61 degrees at the start of the race. We'll be getting close to triple digits here today

[joeb]

Originally Posted by fieldodreams79

Way too many cautions in this one for my full liking. Enjoyable but too many stops when it was getting a rhythm, which took forever to find with the start/restart/restart at the beginning.

Holy Moment from Simon at The Kink! I saw they were reaching 170 plus at entry to that corner.

And I'll make a hot take for me Will Power might want to think a little more about not blocking so early. Yes, DeFrancesco punted him at T5; fully his fault, but it was after how many double moves from Power? In two corners in a row? Way too early in the race, especially while he was leading in the championship, but you know, Will never does anything wrong...

And I still can't get over it being 61 degrees at the start of the race. We'll be getting close to triple digits here today

It was my least favorite race of the season so far - and at my favorite track!

Driving standards across the board were pretty poor. I think the long runs into 1 and 5 get people anxious and just start moving all over the track. How can a street race in Detroit have no cautions and yet here with lots track width and no walls was a caution fest.

[PointDSM]

Originally Posted by fieldodreams79

Way too many cautions in this one for my full liking. Enjoyable but too many stops when it was getting a rhythm, which took forever to find with the start/restart/restart at the beginning.

Holy Moment from Simon at The Kink! I saw they were reaching 170 plus at entry to that corner.

And I'll make a hot take for me Will Power might want to think a little more about not blocking so early. Yes, DeFrancesco punted him at T5; fully his fault, but it was after how many double moves from Power? In two corners in a row? Way too early in the race, especially while he was leading in the championship, but you know, Will never does anything wrong...

And I still can't get over it being 61 degrees at the start of the race. We'll be getting close to triple digits here today

It'll be 95 here tomorrow, normal Wisconsin weather.

[PointDSM]

Originally Posted by joeb

It was my least favorite race of the season so far - and at my favorite track!

Driving standards across the board were pretty poor. I think the long runs into 1 and 5 get people anxious and just start moving all over the track. How can a street race in Detroit have no cautions and yet here with lots track width and no walls was a caution fest.

JJ - Engine Restart
Palou - Broken suspension and stuck in gravel
Power - Engine Restart
Pato - Blown Engine
Helio - Engine Restart


We need onboarded starters in these cars!

[fieldodreams79]

Originally Posted by PointDSM

JJ - Engine Restart
Palou - Broken suspension and stuck in gravel
Power - Engine Restart
Pato - Blown Engine
Helio - Engine Restart


We need onboarded starters in these cars!

I was thinking about that recently and more so during this race. I'd say put them on the cars for road courses and turn up the boost a little for the added weight. I'm sure the engine suppliers would love that! But it'll be a moot point once they are changed in 2024