Thermal Club – Syndication Server

Plans coming together for full IndyCar race at Thermal Club

The Thermal Club is making progress in its planning to host the return of the NTT IndyCar Series for a full championship event at the private road course in Southern California. IndyCar made its first trek to the facility in the Coachella Valley in …

The Thermal Club is making progress in its planning to host the return of the NTT IndyCar Series for a full championship event at the private road course in Southern California.

IndyCar made its first trek to the facility in the Coachella Valley in 2023 for pre-season testing, headed back in March of 2024 for a non-points exhibition, and is set to be hosted in 2025 for The Thermal Club IndyCar Grand Prix where the country club-style property will expand on its offerings from earlier in the year.

“IndyCar has been great to deal with and work with, so they’ve been really helpful with Jay Frye and his whole team,” Thermal GM Nicholas Rhoades told RACER. “We’re excited to be able to bring in a lot more spectators in next year. We learned a lot from things to make it work efficiently, so we’re gonna build off of that, try to bring in quite a few more spectators and make it make sense for us and hopefully fun for everybody. I think everybody last season really enjoyed it, the people that were here. We’re a little bit of a different vibe than your normal IndyCar weekend with more intimate settings. We’re not going to have Long Beach-size crowds.”

The non-points $1 Million Challenge was Thermal Club’s first venture into pro racing. Jake Galstad/Motorsport Images

The non-points $1 Million Challenge was a first for Thermal in two regards as network television was brought to the facility to broadcast the event, and with the need to include IndyCar’s followers in the venture, the circuit opened its gates to fans for the first time by making a maximum of 2000 tickets available for purchase.

Initially listed at $2000 apiece, few tickets were sold, but weeks prior to the event, a 75-percent price drop was applied as new sales went for $500 per ticket; those who bought tickets at the full $2000 level were refunded the $1500 difference.

Although attendance figures weren’t provided, an estimated daily crowd in the low hundreds was seen at the event, and with plenty of lessons taken from the experience, Thermal is targeting the sale of 5000 general admission tickets which RACER understands could be set at $450 apiece for the Friday-Sunday event set for March 21-23. If all are sold, it would allow the club to generate north of $2 million and cover most of the sanction fee paid to Penske Entertainment and other event-specific operating costs.

“5000 is a manageable number, and then we can gradually ramp up from there as we do it in the future,” Rhoades said. “We want the experience to be better for everybody. But we don’t want to bring in too many people and not be able to deliver.”

Access to the paddock and the food trucks set inside the final corners of the 3.0-mile, 17-turn circuit will return as an option, and higher ticket tiers will also be made available for those who want to spend the three days in more exclusive settings on the property.

“We’re going to have a little bit different hospitality; it’s going to be a little closer to where all the spectators are. We’re going to have more spectators in that area where it overlooks the entire track up on the berm,” Rhoades said of the Turn 15-17 complex.

“We’re going to have more grandstands in that area, so there’s better viewing because you can see the cars go by four or five times there. It’s not just seeing them go by once like most tracks, so the fan experience will be better.”

One item that won’t be returning from the 2024 event is the meme-generating podium that was universally panned by IndyCar teams.

“We tried something a little different, and it didn’t seem to work very well on TV,” Rhoades said with a laugh. “We’re working with IndyCar on doing something different.”

Gimmicks or not, some have ideas for a Thermal Club redux

If IndyCar and The Thermal Club choose to hold another $1 Million Challenge non-points all-star race, what kind of changes might the series consider to make the format more entertaining from start to finish? Andretti Global’s Colton Herta, Arrow McLaren team principal Gavin Ward and Meyer Shank Racing podium finisher Felix Rosenqvist shared the following with RACER after the inaugural event’s conclusion.

“Qualifying,” Herta said. “Standing start from pit out, single-car qualifying. Just see who can get around to the start/finish line the fastest. This is not my idea. [Team Penske president] Tim Cindric said this. And I agree; that sounds awesome. That’s fun.”

Herta has an idea which has roots in rallycross.

“Turn 1 to Turn 6, there’s a road that connects it. Joker lap,” he said with a big smile. “If we’re gonna do gimmicks, you might as well go all the way through the whole thing. So if you add more of these things, it might make the racing a lot better. Add more gimmicks and make it an awesome all-star attack race. The last thing would be push-to-pass with no response [from the following driver].”

Like Herta, Ward started with qualifying where IndyCar made a limited duration of push-to-pass available for the first time.

“I think for starters, with the qualifying format, if you’re gonna allow overtake to be used, having more than enough overtake so you can do more than one lap with overtake would have been nice,” he said.

Ward’s next topic was the race itself and the split 10-lap segments where drivers were limited to using the same set of tires — on a track where they dealt with extremely high tire degradation — that inspired the bottom half of the 12-car field to cruise at the back and save their tires during the opening stanza.

“I was definitely pretty happy with the performance of our cars, but it’s still pretty hard to make much progress in the race format,” he said. “Not being able to change to new tires at halftime really lent itself to a lot of people trying to save tires because you effectively knew you were gonna get paid back a bunch in the last 10 laps. We need to put some thought into how we can avoid that, because for the 10 laps to start the race, it was not terribly exciting.”

Only race winner Alex Palou was able to maintain a quick pace and prevent his tires from being rooted before the 20 laps were complete. Ward knows why.

“The track layout, to be honest, makes it so you’re going to destroy your tires by following people through high-speed corners due to the understeer it creates, so leading is probably the best tire-saving strategy,” he explained. “But if you’re at the back, there’s almost no penalty to driving slowly in the corners to save the tires for the last stint.”

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1408]

With the steep drop off in prize money after the $50,000 for fifth place, where sixth place through last earn the same $23,000 apiece, Ward provided the answer on why his lead driver on the day — Alexander Rossi, who placed seventh — didn’t go wild trying to improve one or two positions before the checkered flag.

“The thing is, you only incentivize racing in the top six because everyone else gets the same prize,” he said. “So down in seventh, poor Rossi was like, ‘Oh, we could be under pressure here from Newgarden (who ended up eighth),’ but we’re like, ‘Well, doesn’t matter.’”

Rosenqvist likes the idea of making the bisected 20-lap finale an all-skate.

“We all had an open mind going into it, but I thought, overall, it was successful,” he said after bringing $250,000 to MSR. “The biggest thing for me is all cars should race in the main race, There’s no real reason why we wouldn’t have all the cars out there. Maybe the heat race guys who transfer are the only ones who can go for the money, but I think it sucks for the guys who don’t make it (into the final 12). I think part of IndyCar is that you can go from the back to the front.

“Maybe everyone should be out there racing — I think maybe part of why people thought it was a bit stale. If you have more cars it’s more excitement, more variables and strategy. The push-to-pass stuff was pretty interesting — something to learn from for our real events as well. Maybe the Fast Six should have push-to-pass. I thought it was fun trying that kind of stuff; it was a fresh experience.”

One question raised by quite a few folks was why a live pit stop for refueling wasn’t used instead of the 10-minute halftime where they were topped up to be able to complete the last 10 laps. Asked if a pit stop and a new set of tires is something he’d be in favor of, Rosenqvist likes half of the concept.

“Even if the first part of the race was a bit boring,” he said. “I actually like that Colton, for example, had a massive charge in the second part of the race because he was like, ‘I’m just gonna scrap my first part of race and save tires.’ It’s easy to be ‘Captain Hindsight’ but I think actually it was pretty interesting that way with only the one set of tires. I do think pit stops are always a huge contributor to excitement.”

The Swede hopes to share his thoughts with the series on how a future all-star race, if it were held, might be improved.

“We’ll talk to IndyCar about it,” he said. “I think it’s really cool that they had the balls to do something like this.”

Palou dominates unconventional Thermal Club tire chess match

Alex Palou led from pole to start the opening 10-lap frame of the $1 Million Challenge for Chip Ganassi Racing and had Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin and Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist close behind him in third as they went into the 10-minute …

Once the all-star race was over, the same top three stood atop the podium as Palou controlled the non-points race from start to finish, capturing $500,000 for first place. McLaughlin got $350,000 for second, and Rosenqvist delivered $250,000 for his team.

It was a masterful performance by the reigning IndyCar champion who crossed the finish line with 5.7s in hand over McLaughlin and demonstrated his incredible ability to make speed while saving his tires. The opening race of the year at St. Petersburg was all about fuel conservation, and at The Thermal Club, the trick of the day was tire conservation.

“The car was amazing,” Palou said. “Super proud. All weekend it’s been amazing. I was a bit surprised how the competitors treated the first 10 laps with tire conserving.”

At the back of the 12-car field during the initial 10-lap stanza, Colton Herta went into instant tire-saving mode as he completed the first lap a full 12s off Palou’s pace. With drivers required to use a single set of tires for the two-part 20-lap finale, the strategy deployed for the Andretti Global driver—who started last—was to finish last and start the 10-lap closer with the freshest rubber in the field.

He was soon joined in the heavy slow-down by Agustin Canapino in 11th and Alexander Rossi in 10th. The entire Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing team—Graham Rahal, Christian Lundgaard, and Pietro Fittipaldi—also added their name to the tire-saving brigade.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1408]

Fittipaldi, whose No. 30 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda was not fully fueled by his team, was disqualified during halftime for failing to follow IndyCar’s instructions to fill the tank. Teammate Rahal was also out of the race after a sticking throttle—believed to be caused by a faulty throttle position sensor—made driving the car nearly impossible.

The sleep-inducing first-half affair set the stage for a proper fight to see who would claim the dollars on offer for the winner. Would Palou, McLaughlin and Rosenqvist, who maintained a faster pace, pay for using too much of their tires’ life in the part of the event that mattered least? They would not.

Palou led the 10 surviving drivers to the green flag in the single-file start with McLaughlin, Rosenqvist, Marcus Armstrong, Josef Newgarden, and the forward-moving Alexander Rossi. Newgarden actively defended Rossi’s advances and made contact but lost the position to him on lap 11.

The Newgarden/Rossi exchange gifted fifth to Linus Lundqvist and the charging Herta, and on lap 12 Herta took fifth from Lundqvist. Rossi was next to go by, but went off track and ceded the position back to Lundqvist.

Out front, Palou held 2.7s over McLaughlin and Rosenqvist was a full 6.5s arrears in third. Herta and his fresher tires were fifth after passing Lundqvist with a 7.8s deficit to Palou with 13 laps complete. By lap 16, Palou’s remarkable ability to make speed without compromising his tires provided a 4.4s margin of comfort over the retreating McLaughlin as Herta attacked Armstrong for fourth. One lap later, Herta was through.

No significant changes happened afterwards as Palou cruised to victory.

RESULTS

Rosenqvist, Palou convert poles to wins before Thermal feature

Felix Rosenqvist earned Meyer Shank Racing’s first IndyCar pole position and held onto it for the entirety of the first heat race and captured the team’s first win, albeit in a non-points heat race, as the Swede held off Team Penske’s Scott …

With the heat race transfer moving the top six drivers into the $1 Million Challenge, it was Rosenqvist, McLaughlin, Penske’s Josef Newgarden, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Christian Lundgaard, Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Agustin Canapino, and Andretti Global’s Colton Herta playing through to the finale.

Contact happened before the 14 drivers arrived at Turn 1 as Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon tipped JHR’s Romain Grosjean into a spin, who pirouetted across the Turn 1 apex and hit Ed Carpenter Racing’s Rinus VeeKay who in turn hit Lundgaard. Grosjean and VeeKay were out on the spot.

“Who’s going to pay for the damage?” Grosjean asked. “We do nothing wrong and the car is completely smashed.”

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1408]

Dixon was given a drive-through penalty for the infraction, which ended his chances of transferring through to the final. Due to the caution period needed to remove Grosjean’s car, the 10-lap (or 20-minute) race format saw the first heat limited to eight laps.

The second heat was similar to the first, minus the Turn 1 contact, as polesitter Alex Palou led Ganassi teammate Marcus Armstrong, RLL’s Graham Rahal, Ganassi’s Linus Lundqvist—in qualifying order—across the finish line.

The battle in the 10-lap contest was over the final transfer spots as Pietro Fittipaldi, who started sixth, improved to fifth and Arrow McLaren’s Alexander Rossi, who started seventh, barged his way past MSR’s Tom Blomqvist and sealed the all-important sixth place to take part in the run for the money which starts at 10:59am PT.

HEAT 1 RESULTS

HEAT 2 RESULTS

IndyCar to evaluate Thermal return after event

The $1 Million Challenge at The Thermal Club was a perfect concept to shorten the long six-week span between IndyCar’s first race of the season at St. Petersburg and its second in late April at Long Beach. The series’ debut at Thermal in 2023 came …

The series’ debut at Thermal in 2023 came as a pre-season testing event, and it’s been upgraded to an in-season test and non-championship race for money this year, so where does it go from here? Penske Entertainment CEO Mark Miles says it will be a topic of discussion once the final day of the $1 Million Challenge is run.

“You could list the things that we will take on board: How the drivers and the teams felt about it; how the racing turns out; the calendar going forward,” Miles told RACER. “Is there a whole there, and what’s the optimal way to fill it? But really it’s the sum of the takeaways from the experience. We had a great experience last year and this is year two, and different. We’ll see.”

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]

The Thermal Club is trying something new by allowing spectators into the private facility over the three-day IndyCar event. At $500 per ticket — which is far more friendly than the $2000 the track initially charged — and a cap on 2000 tickets made available to the public, fans that have spoken with RACER have been overwhelmingly positive on the experience, with many framing the per-day cost of $166.66, all-you-can eat food, and up-close access to the cars and drivers in a beautiful setting as being something wholly unique on the 18-event schedule.

Asked if Thermal has a chance of becoming a full points-paying race in the future, Miles spoke to the limited fan presence as an item to consider.

“I don’t know if there’s any scenario where they really could invite the public fans to buy tickets,” he said. “Maybe [the track] would have an answer on that, but that wasn’t my impression last year. So that’s something we’d have to get over, because if we did this, and there wouldn’t be very many fans, it’s more like a private event. And is it appropriate for us, with our fans, to have a quasi-private event with championship points?”

Rosenqvist, Palou earn poles for Sunday’s Thermal heats

Meyer Shank Racing earned its first NTT IndyCar Series pole on Saturday as new team leader Felix Rosenqvist placed the No. 60 Honda on top of the split field of drivers for Sunday morning’s first heat race with a lap of 1m38.583s. Among the 14 …

Among the 14 drivers in Rosenqvist’s group, Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin was second, Ed Carpenter Racing’s Rinus VeeKay was third, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Christian Lundgaard was fourth, and the rest of the Penske trio in Josef Newgarden and Will Power completed the top six as drivers got to use an extra and brief bump of horsepower from push-to-pass.

“When we showed up here, people were eating ice cream and it was chill, and now it feels normal,” Rosenqvist told RACER of the switch from open testing to qualifying. “Because no one’s done this — like the push-to-pass deal — like, you’re one and done. If you must mess up that lap, you’re there in the back. I think it’s pretty cool.”

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou led the other half of the grid for Sunday’s second heat race, lapping the 17-turn road course with a 1m38.567s tour in the No. 10 Honda to lead the 13 drivers in his group. Palou was shadowed in second by teammate Marcus Armstrong, RLL’s Graham Rahal, Ganassi’s Linus Lundqvist, MSR’s Tom Blomqvist, and RLL’s Pietro Fittipaldi in sixth.

A crash by Andretti Global’s Marcus Ericsson capped a bad day for the team, and with a red flag to retrieve the uninjured Swede’s car, the remaining drivers had an out lap and one flying lap to try and dislodge Arrow McLaren’s Callum Ilott from pole. Palou was ripe for the challenge.

“I love it,” Palou said. “Those are the best moments, honestly. The tires are cooked. No more push-to-pass. You don’t have a lot of time, but it’s awesome. That’s what we love about motorsport when it goes right and when it goes wrong.”’

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1408]

With the fields set for the two heat races, Sunday’s activities will follow a tight timeline as IndyCar works within the live TV window offered by NBC.

“Each heat race will consist of 10 laps or be timed at 20 minutes,” IndyCar wrote. “Laps under full course yellow will not count, however, the race clock will continue. A lap is deemed complete when the leader crosses the start-finish line. The cars’ position on track will be determined by the last timeline crossed on track at the moment of the full course yellow condition.

“A new set of Firestone Firehawks will be allotted for the heat races. Pit stops for emergency service only will be allowed. Tires used during qualifying will be the only approved replacement tire(s) and must be approved by IndyCar. A car making an adjustment not deemed emergency in nature will be disqualified. As in qualifying, cars will receive 40-seconds of push-to-pass in each race.”

Once the top six finishers from each heat are identified, the event’s grand finale will take place.

“The top six advancing cars from each heat race will make up the 12-car field for the $1 Million Challenge,” IndyCar continued. “The pole position and odd number starting positions are determined by the heat race winner with the fastest time from qualifications occupying the pole and the remainder of that heat race line up in positions 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11. The final will consist of 20 laps divided into two 10-lap sprint segments with a 10-minute ‘halftime’ break following the completion of lap 10.”

During halftime, all cars will be refueled and teams can adjust tire pressures and wing settings. After halftime, IndyCar will reset the 40-second push-to-pass for the field.

Coverage of the heat races through the $1 Million Challenge begins at 9:30 a.m. PT.

GROUP 1 RESULTS

GROUP 2 RESULTS

Lundgaard jumps to the top in Thermal session four

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Christian Lundgaard flirted with being the fastest driver across the first three test sessions at The Thermal Club, and in the fourth and final outing, the Dane clinched first-place as the field of 27 drivers spent …

Lundgaard’s 1m38.220s run, the fastest of the event, came amid huge gusts of wind and sand storms that caused a delay to the start of the session. Well behind Lundgaard was the Chevy brigade of Team Penske’s Will Power (+0.420s) and Scott McLaughlin (+0.504s), and the Arrow McLaren trio of Alexander Rossi (+0.591s), Pato O’Ward (+0.658s) and Callum Ilott (+0.669s).

“The wind actually helps you in all [the] really fast stuff,” Power told RACER. “Obviously going down the back straight you get a big tailwind, but then it’s not as good under braking. It seems like it should be slow, but it’s actually quite fast.”

The rapid-fire day concludes with qualifying for Sunday morning’s heat races starting at 5 p.m. PT on Peacock.

Full results to come

Ilott takes Arrow McLaren to the top in Thermal session three

A busy night of work by the Arrow McLaren team paid off for Callum Ilott who posted the fastest lap during the two-hour test session Saturday morning at The Thermal Club. Ilott’s 1m38.778s lap was just enough to demote Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex …

A busy night of work by the Arrow McLaren team paid off for Callum Ilott who posted the fastest lap during the two-hour test session Saturday morning at The Thermal Club.

Ilott’s 1m38.778s lap was just enough to demote Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou—fastest in both Friday sessions—by a modest amount (+0.052s), and behind them, another quick driver from Friday, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Christian Lundgaard, was further adrift (+0.287s).

“Arrow McLaren did a great job to set it up like they have,” Ilott told RACER. “We did a lot of work over overnight because there was one guy who is quite quick (Palou) that we all needed to catch. I think that was a job well done this morning.”

Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin was fourth (+0.293s), Ilott’s teammate Pato O’Ward was fifth (+0.341s), and Palou’s teammate Marcus Armstrong was sixth (+0.602s).

Beyond the pleasant mid-70s weather and lightly overcast skies, the main item of interest Saturday morning was the downtime required to fix Turn 5, which started breaking up and took quite some time to repair the crumbling surface.

“I was one lap short of that happening,” Ilott added. It was all fine after; they did a good job to repair it.”

The final test session of the event takes place from 1-3 p.m. PT on Peacock, and the day closes with qualifying starting at 5 p.m.

Full results to come

Palou sweeps Friday sessions with quick qualy simulation at Thermal

Alex Palou swept Friday’s test sessions at The Thermal club, backing up his top morning time with another leading run during the three-hour afternoon session. Palou’s 1m39.337s lap in the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda was well clear of Meyer …

Alex Palou swept Friday’s test sessions at The Thermal club, backing up his top morning time with another leading run during the three-hour afternoon session.

Palou’s 1m39.337s lap in the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda was well clear of Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist (+0.443s) and the rest of the field, which had the two Honda representatives followed by the Chevy-powered Romain Grosjean (+0.812s) from Juncos Hollinger Racing and Ed Carpenter Racing’s Rinus VeeKay (+0.888s) in another zip code.

Rounding out the top six, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Christian Lundgaard was fifth (+0.954s) and Team Penske’s Will Power was another step back (+1.123s).

With the high ambient temperatures and equally high tire degradation to manage, most teams sat out during the peak heat to save their new sets of tires and put in qualifying simulation runs right at the end of the session which closed at 5 p.m. Qualifying for Sunday’s $1 Million Challenge takes place at 5 p.m. on Saturday, which aligns with the point on the clock where Palou, Rosenqvist, and a number of the quickest drivers focused their simulations.

“I think everyone’s holding onto tires because it really counts tomorrow — especially tomorrow,” Power said.

The first red flag of the event was required after 45 minutes of running when Christian Rasmussen’s car came to a halt, but the rest of the session was relatively clean. Action resumes at 9 a.m. PT on Peacock.

RESULTS

Palou leads IndyCar morning test at Thermal Club

Chip Ganassi Racing’s strategy to send its drivers out early in Friday’s 9-11am opening test session gave the defending champions an opportunity to learn the track in the same conditions it will face Sunday morning in the $1 Million Challenge …

Reigning champion Alex Palou put down a quick lap of 1m39.515s on his fourth lap, and with a 9:36am start for the first heat race, the Spaniard and those few who joined him at the start of the two-hour session gained valuable insights on how to tune their cars for the competition that awaits them on Sunday.

Palou’s No. 10 Honda was followed by Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Christian Lundgaard (+0.182s), Ganassi teammate Marcus Armstrong was third (+0.216s) for a Honda 1-2-3, and behind them, Arrow McLaren’s Alexander Rossi (+0.241s) and Pato O’Ward (+0.396s) were the leading Chevy runners. Ganassi’s Linus Lundqvist completed the top six (+0.405s) amid temperatures in the mid-70s were experienced for most of the outing.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1408]

Thanks to the 3.0-mile, 17-turn road course’s unique layout which features a number of fast and sweeping corners that place high side loading on the cars for extended periods of time, tire degradation was the main topic of interest Friday morning.

“It’s tough to really learn much; the tire deg is really high,” Lundgaard said. “I think everyone’s dropping a half-second to seven-tenths [per set].”

Other than a few trips into runoff areas, no caution periods were required. Action resumes from 2-5pm PT on Peacock.

RESULTS