Q: First things first, Green Savoree deserves a ton of credit for finishing the Toronto IndyCar track with only 48 hours left before opening due to the massive flooding in Toronto and on Lakeshore Blvd.
Regarding the incident involving Pato O’Ward, Santino Ferruci, Nolan Siegel and Marcus Ericsson, there have been a lot of questions about why race control delayed throwing a yellow flag with O’Ward into the wall. Granted, they are warranted, but at the same time, it all unfolded incredibly fast in real time. What could they have done differently? How does IndyCar analyze this and learn from the incident going forward for street circuits?
I have heard people speak incorrectly about the layout causing it. Aside from the relocation of the pitlane in 2016, the track design has been the same since 1986. It’s not the track but rather boneheaded moves from certain drivers.
You have to give the track designers and organizers credit for putting catch fencing in that turn and the areoscreen for saving O’Ward and Ferrucci. If the fencing wasn’t there, his car could have struck the tree behind it. Thankfully, it didn’t, and everyone walked away. Having witnessed this from the stands, I held my breath until I knew they were okay. It brought back unpleasant memories of Jeff Krosnoff’s accident in 1996.
David Colquitt
MP: This has been a strange season of waiting far too long to call for cautions (think waiting almost a lap at Laguna Seca to let Newgarden, the leader, pit before going yellow and closing the pits), and some hair-trigger cautions (Iowa comes to mind). No doubt the Turn 1 sequence unfolded quickly. It also seemed like with the proven ability to smash the full-course caution button in an instant in the past, the gap between O’Ward being turned 180 degrees in a tight, crash-happy corridor and the full-field alert to slow the bleep down, was longer than it should have been.
I am indeed thankful for the proper fencing. I was down there in Turn 1 shooting the start of the races in 2013 or 2014 — aiming up the front straight — and noticed the same fence seen in this crash, at least where we were huddled with the cars coming at us and turning right (for them, and left from our perspective) into Turn 1, was not attached to the barriers. It was resting atop the barrier; I was able to move the fence around on top the barrier by hand. The fact that this was discovered, randomly, moments before the start of the race, was terrifying. We backed away from the fence the moment that was discovered. I haven’t been back to shoot there since then, but I have to assume it’s tied down with cables and whatever else is needed to keep cars inside the track.
Q: Why was it OK for “Teddy Porkchop” to fly directly into Rossi’s vacated seat with no apparent hurdles, but Daly (with more experience) couldn’t jump directly in for Harvey a week earlier?
Second, although Hunter McElrea gave up his best two lap times and was allowed to advance, why wasn’t he allowed to finish out his qualifying session? (Especially as a rookie needing all the seat time he could get.)
Finally, whatever happened to the old rule that if you’re more than halfway up the car of your competitor — and you could still make the corner — that corner is yours? Yes, Will Power’s move was a bit aggressive, but it seems that part of the reason there’s no passing at a lot of these courses is that it’s apparently not allowed.
Phil Benson, couch racing in Wisconsin
MP: Because Theo was able to drive the car before the race, which is a rule. In fact, he qualified the car and warmed up the car before the race. Daly did neither, so he couldn’t race.
As to the second question, like Theo with McElrea, it’s because of the rules. Seems like grasping rules is today’s assignment. Being alongside someone and making a corner “yours” is not the same as being alongside someone, hitting them, and making them crash and fall out of the race. Owning a corner and trashing the guy you took the position from: Different things.
Q: Can you do a quick rundown of the Leaders Circle standings after Toronto? Malukas’s run to sixth on Sunday had to do wonders for the MSR team in getting that car moving up and out of the danger zone.
How is the MSR team feeling about this year? Morale has to be up as they are finding speed and doing a lot better than last year.
John
MP: MSR is quite happy, of course. Speed tends to have that effect!
Pe-TO:
P19: No. 30 RLL/Pietro Fittipaldi/124 points
P20: No. 20 ECR/Christian Rasmussen+Ed Carpenter/118 points
P21: No. 66 MSR/Various/116 points
P22: No. 41 Foyt/Sting Ray Robb/116 points
P23: No. 78 JHR/Agustin Canapino/111 points
P24: No. 51 DCR/Various/100 points
Post-TO:
P19: No. 66 MSR/Various/144 points
P20: No. 30 RLL/Pietro Fittipaldi/135 points
P21: No. 20 ECR/Christian Rasmussen+Ed Carpenter/123 points
P22: No. 41 Foyt/Sting Ray Robb/121 points
P23: No. 78 JHR/Agustin Canapino/116 points
P24: No. 51 DCR/Various/115 points
Q: Seems like last few races have had some airborne IndyCars and poor officiating — at Toronto, at least. What’s going on? Also were all the bugs sorted out of these new hybrid systems? Is everyone deploying and using the cars correctly? Where will broken thumb Rossi end up in IndyCar?
Craig B, Leland, NC
MP: Cars have driven over each other. The brand-new technology has been raced four times over a span of 14 days. There’s no way all of the bugs have been worked out. Yes. PREMA.
Q: I was watching the Sunday Iowa race on the IndyCar app and was bouncing around between different drivers. One thing I noticed was that Scott Dixon’s throttle percentage never got to 100% (at least every time I stayed on his in-car feed, and for probably a total of 30 minutes during the race), while other drivers’ percentages each reached 100% at various times.
I wonder if that was an app glitch, or is that perhaps the key to his fuel saving prowess — somehow they (Ganassi) restrict his throttle to 99%? Seems far-fetched, but hey, the guy is a master and he must have a secret! (I did see where he repeatedly coasted too, during the caution, full disclosure).
I also noticed that Will Power’s laps were amazingly consistent with his shifting and throttle control — sounded like a scratched record over and over…
Randy Mizelle, Oak Island, NC
MP: Checking WOT (wide-open throttle) is part of the pre-event checklist by engine manufacturers, so I assume they got 100 percent for Dixie, but maybe not.