Q: Long Beach 2023 left me with the feeling I had when Mario was emerging in the mid-’60s. A star wasn’t being born so much as just becoming abundantly apparent, and with punctuation! My question, thoug, revolves around RLL. Hopefully we won’t be reading about strong top-12 finishes only 50 seconds back, but rather, where’s Bobby? He had one of the most admirable and diverse careers during the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s as a driver and then as a team owner. It doesn’t seem the team is presently headed in the right direction — more an over-promise and under-deliver saga. Where’s Bobby? Are his health issues hopefully positively directed?
Jack Woodruff
MP: Bobby’s at the track, thankfully, where he belongs. He, along with Mike Lanigan and David Letterman, have hired a lot of talented people to run the team, engineer the cars, and so on. He’s 70, and the days of Bobby getting in a 6am and leaving at 10pm are in the past, but he’s still pushing hard to make the right hires and internal movements to get the team back in a consistently competitive place. Just hasn’t happened as quickly as they’ve wanted, and as you’d expect, the other teams aren’t waiting for them to catch up. They really need to have a good Indy 500, because if that doesn’t happen, the season will be lost in terms of making a title run. And after a few seasons of making incremental changes, a big shakeup is the only major step left to take if the season goes sideways.
Q: I have been an IndyCar fan for decades and just heard the term “install lap” for the first time during the qualifying broadcast on Saturday. What is it and why is it called that?
DKL, Maryland
MP: That term’s been around for as long as I can remember, and it’s in abbreviation for an “installation lap,” which is performed during the first lap in opening practice, and/or after a significant change was made to the car — new engine was installed, new radiator, etc. — to allow the driver to complete a lap at relative speed and get everything beneath the bodywork warm and ready to be inspected for any installation problems when they pit. Is something leaking or loose? That’s the reason for an install lap.
Q: With yet another disheveled IndyCar start on Sunday, has there ever been a discussion of moving the start down several hundred feet? There’s plenty of room to move it down as many feet as needed to get the entire field aligned properly then go back to the original line for the rest of the race. I don’t blame Scott Dixon for being upset, but based on how the pack can’t form up, Josef Newgarden and Pato O’Ward took advantage — possibly inadvertently, possibly not. Meanwhile, everyone from 10th on back just get hosed. Made for an exciting start in what turned out to be another fantastic race.
Eric Z, Lancaster, NY
MP: I’ve not heard of that being suggested, but it would only help the situation at Long Beach for the start; not sure restarts would need to be done farther down the road. With the new EM Marshaling system being used by the series and the large light panels installed throughout the track, I’d bet IndyCar could affix one close to start/finish and tell the polesitter they can’t go until they change the light from whatever color to green. That would allow race control to assess the orderliness of the grid coming out of Turn 11 and hold the leader until most of the field is lined up and then give the polesitter permission to mash the throttle at the moment of their choosing.
Q: I’ve heard a lot over the last few years about how Long Beach is the top street course on the IndyCar circuit and second most prestigious race behind the Indy 500. My question is, what is considered to be the top road course by the drivers and the IndyCar series? Would it be Mid-Ohio as it’s the longest continually running race on a road track? Laguna Seca because of the history and because it’s the “championship” race? Road America seems to be a favorite of the drivers, and I keep hearing the announcers talk about Barber being the Augusta of the IndyCar series…
Ryan, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
MP: Barber is cited as IndyCar’s Augusta because of its highly manicured nature. Road America is the one I hear mentioned as everyone’s favorite because it’s crazy-fast and challenging to drive, the fans turn out in droves and give nothing but love, and the food and drink options are amazing. If we went there five times a year, I’d be in heaven.
Q: Long Beach was an entertaining race but fuel saving seemed to dominate the strategy. They came off the truck knowing it was going to be two stops with a lot of conserving of fuel. Why would IndyCar not just add 10 more laps to force a third stop? Tire strategy would be more of an issue and if there were more yellow flags then some cars could try to make it on two stops. But, it seems to me that most of the race would be run with no regards to saving fuel and there sure wouldn’t be any unused push-to-pass!
Rick Navratil
MP: It was an unusually clean race in terms of cautions. Had it gone in a more traditional manner, fuel saving wouldn’t have been a concern. We could add more laps, but there’s no guarantee fuel saving would end; depending on the cautions and their lengths, it could be a repeat of Sunday. The fastest driver won, so I’m not mad at how the race played out.
Q: Loved your video walk through the Vintage F1 paddock. I could see that all but one of the cars had changed engines to the Cosworth V8. I understand why they all retrofit the Cosworth due to reliability and parts availability. When the constructors release these cars to private parties, do they include the engines? If not, what happens to the engines?
Ed
MP: Two of the cars had V12s and all had the correct engines from when they ran; none were retrofitted with Cosworths. All depends on the constructor and the era and what the asking prices were. Same with IndyCar. Dario Franchitti has one of his Team Kool Green CART Reynards, but not the Honda engine needed to power it because HPD won’t sell or lease a period-correct engine for him to use.