Big challenge for IndyCar in Honda's American backyard
There are drivers in Sunday's IndyCar Series race with experience at Mid-Ohio, but none in an IndyCar. Running in the American backyard of series engine supplier Honda, the tough and technical road course presents a special challenge, writes John Oreovicz.
This weekend's American Le Mans Series/Indy Racing League doubleheader at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course is a celebration of all things Honda.
The ALMS kicks things off Saturday afternoon with the three-hour Acura Sports Car Challenge, followed by the Honda Indy 200 for the IndyCar Series on Sunday (1:30 p.m. ET, ABC).
Although Honda's U.S. corporate offices are in Southern California, the company's American heart and soul lie in the state of Ohio. Honda built its first American motorcycle and automobile assembly plants in the Buckeye State, and the company's facility in Anna, Ohio, is its largest engine manufacturing plant in the world. Honda also builds transmissions in Ohio, and its seventh U.S. factory (set to begin production in 2008) is in the planning stage in Greensburg, Ind., -- less than 40 miles from the Ohio border.
More than 60 percent of Honda's U.S. associates (around 16,000 of 25,000) are based in Ohio, and many of them will likely turn out this weekend at Mid-Ohio, a challenging 2.2-mile road course located about halfway between Columbus and Cleveland.
Honda has enjoyed a long-term corporate partnership with Mid-Ohio -- the track's driving school exclusively features Honda and Acura cars -- so the company's title sponsorship of this weekend's events is a natural extension. And Honda will have a significant presence in both races; it provides the ethanol-fueled spec engines for every car on the IndyCar Series grid, while the upscale Acura brand has made a major impact in its first season of competition in the ALMS' LMP-2 class, winning on its debut in the Twelve Hours of Sebring.
The ALMS program itself is an extremely important undertaking for Honda Performance Development, the California-based racing think tank that started in 1993 as a rebuild facility for the company's Japan-sourced CART engines. Under the leadership of Robert Clarke, HPD's capabilities grew throughout Honda's Champ Car era, which produced 65 race wins and six driver's championships. When Honda switched open-wheel formulas to the IndyCar Series, it was a key element in Clarke's plan to grow HPD into a stand-alone facility capable of designing and developing entire cars -- not just engines. The Acura ARX-01 sports car campaigned by Andretti Green Racing and Highcroft Racing in the ALMS is the first fruit of that endeavor.
This marks the first time that the IndyCar Series has staged a race at Mid-Ohio. Sunday's race is a key event for the IRL as the league continues to embrace road racing. Make no mistake, Honda's influence is a major factor in the IRL's decision to retreat from its initial all-oval strategy; had the league not guaranteed a greater focus on road racing, it is unlikely Honda would ever have jumped on board with Tony George's series in 2003. And now that the IRL is utterly reliant on Honda, the manufacturer is calling the shots more so than it ever did during its highly successful decade as an engine supplier in the CART/Champ Car series.
CART last raced at Mid-Ohio in 2003, but surprisingly, only six of the 18 drivers in the IndyCar field competed there in a Champ Car. Team Penske's Helio Castroneves is a two-time winner at Mid-Ohio, and no male driver in the IndyCar Series needs a victory more than the frustrated Brazilian. By his normal standards, Castroneves has had a terrible season; since winning at Motegi, Japan, in April, Castroneves' best finish was third at the Indianapolis 500. Things got so bad recently that HCN was tempted to climb the fence to celebrate his sixth-place finish at Nashville last weekend.
"I can't say a single bad thing about Mid-Ohio -- I love it there," Castroneves said. "The last two times we raced there in CART (in 2000 and '01) we found victory.
"Obviously in 2007 we will be returning with different cars and tires, which will make a big difference. But I can't wait to get back because I enjoy the challenges the circuit presents. There is a great deal of shifting and braking, along with some very difficult turns. It's a great technical course."
Even though the IndyCars are slightly heavier and less powerful than the CART Champ Cars of the early part of the decade, lap times in testing have come close to the lap record of 65.347 seconds established by Dario Franchitti in 1999 (that record was remarkably, exactly duplicated by Gil de Ferran a year later). That works out to an average speed of 124.394 mph, which is amazingly quick for such a twisty and technical road course. The track was recently repaved, which only made it quicker.
"The speeds were impressive at the test and I think we'll see even more this weekend," said Franchitti, who claimed pole position at Mid-Ohio in 1998 and '99 and finished third to Juan Pablo Montoya in the '99 race. "We are going to see better grip levels with the smoother surface and I am looking forward to getting back there and trying to get the Canadian Club team their first road-course win."
Franchitti's Andretti Green Racing teammate Tony Kanaan and Ganassi Racing's Scott Dixon are two of the four other pilots who have raced high-horsepower open-wheelers at Mid-Ohio. Dixon has emerged as IndyCar's most successful road racer, so he is naturally excited about heading to a course where he is expected to excel -- even if his best result in two CART starts there was a fifth-place result in 2002.
The championship battle between Franchitti and Dixon, who trails by 34 points, will be the key subplot this weekend.
"The last two weeks have been good for our momentum," Dixon said. "When we rolled off the truck at Watkins Glen, the car was fast in every session and you can see it in the guys, too. The pit stops are much smoother and it's like clockwork at the moment.
"When you're winning, everyone is happier. You don't have any bitching going on and people aren't feeling sorry for themselves. Everyone is on a roll and we've just got to carry that through to the end of the season."
Darren Manning of A.J. Foyt Racing is the only driver in the field who participated in the last CART race at Mid-Ohio. He finished eighth for Walker Racing in 2003, when rookie Danica Patrick finished 10th in the Toyota/Atlantic support race.
Other Ohio-related storylines:
• Sam Hornish Jr. and Sarah Fisher both hail from the Buckeye State -- Hornish grew up in Defiance and Fisher in Commercial Point. Hornish is coming off his best road racing performance in the IndyCar Series (a second-place finish at Watkins Glen) and sits 105 points behind Franchitti, the Team Penske driver needs another podium if he wants to remain in championship contention.
"Mid-Ohio is only a couple of hours from home and it's a fun little track," Hornish said.• Bobby Rahal is a certified Ohio legend, and though he is no longer driving, his suburban Columbus-based Rahal Letterman Racing team still boasts a large local fan base. RLR driver Scott Sharp finished 11th at Mid-Ohio in his lone full-season CART campaign, back in 1994 for PacWest Racing.
Rahal Letterman Racing was set to announce Thursday morning that Ryan Hunter-Reay will replace Jeff Simmons in the team's No. 17 Ethanol Council-sponsored car immediately. Hunter-Reay was a two-time winner in the Champ Car World Series but has been without an open-wheel ride since mid-2005. The 26-year-old Floridian started second and finished third at Mid-Ohio during his rookie Champ Car campaign.
John Oreovicz covers open-wheel racing for National Speed Sport News and ESPN.com.
