Round 17: Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey, Laguna Seca, Monterey County, CA. Septemb

[bjohnsonsmith]

Round 17: Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey, Laguna Seca, Monterey County, CA. September 20 - 22.

After a fifteen-year hiatus AOWR/IndyCar returns to Laguna Seca, replacing Sonoma as the season finale.

Laguna Seca's origins go back to the sports car races held at Pebble Beach in the 1950s, which used public roads through the Del Monte pine forests on the Monterey Peninsular. When racing was abandoned on safety grounds in 1956, organisers sought an alternative, purpose built race track. $1.5 million was raised from local businesses and individuals, with the track being built in 1957, on part of the manouver area and field artillery target range of the U.S. Army's Fort Ord.

The first race was held on November 9, 1957 and was won by Pete Lovely driving a Ferrari. Sportscar racing has always been a mainstay but since opening, the track has hosted rounds, of other racing series, including Can-Am, Trans-Am, Formula 5000, IMSA GT, CART, American Le Mans Series, Grand American, Monterey Historic Automobile Races and Speed World Challenge, as well motorcycle series including the FIM Superbike World Championship and MotoGP.

The Monterey Grand Prix dates back to 1960 and has traditionally been held in the fall, either in September or October. The race was first run on October 23, 1960, as the final round of USAC Road Racing Championship and was won by legendary British driver Stirling Moss.

After USAC's road racing series disbanded in 1962, the event became a non-championship sports car race for three years and then became part of the Can-Am schedule from 1966-1973. After the demise of Can-Am in 1974, the event shifted to Formula 5000 for two years, then to IMSA for two more years. The revived Cam-Am series returned from 1978-1982 and then became a perennial on the CART/Champ Car calendar, from 1983 through 2004. The first CART race was won by Italian Teo Fabi, for Forsythe Racing, in a March 83C-Ford Cosworth DFX, on October 23, 1983. The last race was won by Canadian Patrick Carpentier, for Forsythe Racing, in a Lola B04/00-Ford Cosworth XFE, on September 12, 2004.

After a brief hiatus from 2005-2007, the race was set to return as part of the Champ Car World Series in 2008. However, after series unification between Champ Car and the IRL, Sonoma, which had been part of the IRL season from 2005, took preference.

Sonoma is roughly 115 miles, as the crow flies and held a "geographical exclusion" clause, which effectively precluded IndyCar races from being held at both venues. In 2018 Monterey County and the track owners, pushed for IndyCar to return to Laguna Seca and with Sonoma having run at a loss, Laguna Seca was added for 2019, signing an initial three-year deal and taking over the spot as the IndyCar season finale.

Some Trivia:
The driver with the most wins: Bobby Rahal, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987.
Team with the most wins: Team Penske, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1993, 1994, 2000.


Track layout
Since 1957, the track has undergone some very significant changes, the first one in 1988 being the most noteable, as it redefined the visual layout of the track. The original left-hander at Turn 2, became a 180º hairpin, which created an infield loop that also extended the track from its original 1.9-mile length to 2.214-miles.

The second most significant change, was in 1996, when Turns 9-10-11 were reprofiled. This had the effect of slightly extendended the start-finish straight, as well as the run-off for the final turns.

Further upgrades were funded by Yamaha, in time for the tracks hosting of the 8th round of the 2005 MotoGP season. An additional $7 million of major improvements were made in 2006, to boost safety and facilities for motorcycle races.

The entire track was resurfaced, while extra run-off was added to Turn One, which meant that a portion of the hillside, as well as the former media centre building that was above it, was removed and a state-of-the-art hospitality center with commanding views of the venue replaced it. There was also a change to the track from Turn 6 to Turns 8 and 8A, otherwise known as the Corkscrew, with run-off added to both sides of the straightaway and the dip just before the Corkscrew, flattened.

The Corkscrew is considered one of motorsport's most challenging corners. At the apex to Turn 8 (the left-hander and entry to The Corkscrew), the elevation change is a 12 percent drop. By the time a race car reaches the apex of Turn 8A (the right-hander), the elevation is at its steepest, with an 18 percent drop. In total, the course drops 59 feet between the entrance of Turn 8 to the exit of Turn 8A, in only 450 feet of track. From Turn 8 to Turn 9, the elevation falls 109 feet. It was at the Corkscrew, in 1996, that Alex Zenardi audaciously pulled of what became known as "The Pass", on Bryan Herta, on the last lap to win The Toyota Grand Prix of Monterey, in a Reynard 96i-Honda, for Target Chip Ganassi.

1957 original layout:


1988 layout:


1996 to now layout:




Length: 2.238 miles (3.602 km)

Lap record:
Hélio Castroneves. September 9, 2000. 1:07.722, 118.969 mph (191.462 km/h)
Reynard 2KI-Honda HRK
FedEx Championship Series

Previous winner:
Patrick Carpentier, September 12, 2004
Forsythe Racing
Lola B04/00-Ford Cosworth XFE,
Champ Car Series


Last year's season finale.
The 2018 season finale was the final race to be held at Sonoma for the foreseeable future.

Ryan Hunter-Reay took Pole and made a flawless start, taking the lead ahead of Dixon, followed by Josef Newgarden, Andretti, Harding Racing's debutant Pato O'Ward and Graham Rahal who had jumped ahead of Penske’s other drivers, Will Power and Simon Pagenaud. However, at the drop of the green, his Andretti Autosport teammates weren't so fortunate, as Rossi ran into the back of Marco Andretti at Turn 1, breaking his front wing and puncturing his right-front tyre and then had to limp back to the pits, via the escape road at Turn 4 and falling to the back of the field.

By Lap 7, Hunter-Reay’s lead over Dixon was 2 seconds, with Newgarden a further 2.8 seconds back and Andretti 2.5 seconds behind that, with O’Ward feeling the pressure from Rahal, who was followed by Power, Bourdais, Takuma Sato and Pagenaud breathing his exhaust fumes. At this point, Rossi was 61 seconds adrift.

Rahal had some difficulty passing O’Ward, who was struggling with his tires, when Power snuck past the pair of them into fifth, exiting Turn 11. O’Ward now plummeted down the order. Pagenaud pitted early, as did O’Ward’s Harding teammate and fellow debutant Colton Herta, along with James Hinchcliffe.

Rahal, Ed Jones and O’Ward stopped for more reds on Lap 14, while Pagenaud on his fresh rubber set his fastest lap of the race. Andretti stopped on Lap 15, Hunter-Reay and Dixon pitted on Lap 16, leaving Newgarden and Power running 1st and 2nd. Meanwhile Sato’s season ended with a blown engine. Newgarden stopped a lap later but stalled and Power stopped on Lap 17.

Hunter-Reay’s switch to blacks, saw him retain his lead but Dixon was starting to chisel away at it, getting it down to little more than 1.5 seconds.Meanwhile Andretti was within one second of Pagenaud and Power was a similar distance behind Rahal. Still 53 seconds off the lead, Rossi made his second stop on Lap 25 and fell a lap behind Hunter-Reay and Dixon.

Lap 27 saw Power exit Turn 9a on Rahal’s tail and slip down the inside at Turn 11 to take fifth and immediately closed in on the Pagenaud vs. Andretti battle. Bourdais passed Rahal for sixth on Lap 33.

The next round of stops came, when Pagenaud pitted from third on Lap 35, as Power tried to close on Andretti but fell 2 seconds behind on the next lap, meanwhile Dixon let Rossi unlap himself. Rahal and Newgarden made their second stops on Lap 36, Andretti on 37, moving Power and Bourdais up to third and fourth, 14s and 19sec behind Hunter-Reay respectively. These lead four all stopped on Lap 39, all except Dixon taking primary tires. Next time by, just before the half-distance mark in this 85-lap race, Hunter-Reay led Dixon by 5.4sec, with Pagenaud on blacks in third, still ahead of Andretti, Power, Bourdais, Newgarden and Rahal.

Dixon set a searing 1min 19.8646 second lap, at a time when only a couple of other drivers had broken into the 1min20s and within a couple of laps he’d halved his deficit to Hunter-Reay.

The only full-course yellow came out on Lap 42, caused by Rahal stopping on the exit of Turn 6, just after Rossi made another stop and emerging ahead of Hunter-Reay, putting Rossi back on the lead lap. Andretti Autosport strategist, Rob Edwards felt this was a good time to get his man back on red tires.

Up front, his teammate Hunter-Reay was going to have an interesting restart on blacks, with Dixon on reds, while Chilton could prove an obstacle for Pagenaud as he attempted to hold off Andretti.

The restart was relatively clean but at the back, Jones made a brave move into seventh and Newgarden got elbowed back to 11th by Hinchcliffe.

Power dived down the inside of Andretti on Lap 51 to grab fourth but Rossi was on a charge, muscling his way up to ninth, just a couple of laps after the restart, as the cars ahead of him slowed up and tangled with each other. On Lap 53, Kanaan waved him through at Turn 7 and a lap later Jones conceded seventh place to Rossi, who could make no more progress and pitted on Lap 59, with Dixon pitting next time, just in case a yellow turned the order inside out and left Rossi at the front and Dixon in midfield.

Dixon’s stop was fast and crucially pulled five seconds over Rossi. Andretti and Pagenaud stopped on consecutive laps, as did leader Hunter-Reay. Power pitted giving up his temporary lead on Lap 62, handing it back to Hunter-Reay. Power emerged 4.3 seconds behind Dixon, who was on blacks but ahead of Pagenaud and Rossi, also on blacks, closing to within 1.5 seconds of Dixon within 5 laps. Once he got within one second of Dixon, but Dixon kept his pursuer at arms length using his push-to-pass.

Into the final five laps, Hunter-Reay kept his lead over Dixon, at just over four seconds, as Power tried again to close in on the Ganassi driver, with Pagenaud right behind the pair of them. However, there was no real chance for the Penske drivers as Dixon kept his cool, finishing 2.7 seconds behind Hunter-Reay, with Power and Pagenaud in line astern in third and fourth, and Andretti fifth.

Bourdais passed Rossi, who was struggling on low fuel, a couple of laps from home to take sixth.

This was Dixon’s fifth championship and Ganassi’s 12th and elevated him to second, behind only AJ Foyt, with seven titles. It was also Hunter-Reay’s 18th IndyCar placing fourth in the driver's championship.

The final points standings were: 1. Dixon 678, 2. Rossi 621, 3. Power 582, 4. Hunter-Reay 566, 5. Newgarden 560.

Last year's Pole
Ryan Hunter-Reay 1:17.6277, 110.605 mph, (178.005 km/h)
Andtretti Autosport
Dallara IR18-Honda HI18TT V6 Indy

Last year's winner
Ryan Hunter-Reay
Andtretti Autosport
Dallara IR18-Honda HI18TT V6 Indy

Laps: 85
Distance: 202.725 Miles (326.254 km)
Race Time: 2:02:19
Average Speed: 99.44 mph (160.033 km/h)

Cautions 1
Laps 5

Broadcast: NBC. Sept 22, 2:30pm ET.