Q: It would be nice if the Thermal event could be moved to occur two weeks before St. Pete. It would make a great pre-season test and build some interest before the real season starts.
John P., Brownsburg, IN
MP: If the event survives, that’s exactly where it needs to live. Or it needs to stay where it is and become a regular race.
Q: Regarding Thermal, I just finished the first 10 laps. It was pretty goofy. I think it’d work better if they made the second half start with intervals commensurate to their time from the first half. This would avoid the tire saving. I did like it better than I thought I would.
DJ Odom, Anderson, IN
MP: A universal note I’ve gotten from team owners, race strategists and drivers is to kill the single-file restart for the second half of the race. If they did it again, and with the single set of tires, your idea of locking in the gap from the first 10 laps would certainly kill the tire saving routine.
Q: I have a few thoughts from the IndyCar “test and cash” event at Thermal Club:
Marcus Ericsson might be rethinking his choice to join the Andretti
Global team. Although the car is similar to the one he ran the past few
years for Ganassi, he looked out of sorts at St. Pete and Thermal. From
my viewpoint he always seems a smooth, controlled driver, so to see him
fighting with the car seemed abnormal. Of course, we need to wait for
next few events, especially Indy, then we will know if it is just
taking time to settle in with his new team or something else.
Christian Lundgaard is a highly confident fellow, as one needs to be to
get ahead in any racing series. I just have a feeling that he will be
looking outside RLL for his 2025 ride.
Callum Illott proved he should still be driving the full IndyCar
season. I suspect he will be doing so in 2025.
Do you think that Zak Brown was smiling with regard to Palou winning
the $500,000? Made me laugh!
Glenn, Renton, WA
MP: Marcus will be fine; he’s got one of the best engineers in the business in Olivier Boisson. Lundgaard is on more than one shopping list and I’d be surprised if he isn’t wearing papaya orange next year. It’s on RLL to give him a reason not to go. Ilott showed he can play well with others, lead Arrow McLaren, and defer to his teammates. Any question about those items after the messy end with Juncos Hollinger should be put to rest.
Zak being happy about taking things from Chip via one of his drivers? Never.
Q: So, Palou won the $500k. Now he only needs to do this 45 times more and he can pay off his $23M lawsuit from McLaren. Are there any updates on the status of his legal troubles?
Bary
MP: I haven’t asked because it truly doesn’t interest me, but I’ll see what I can find out.
Q: I’ve been an avid IndyCar fan going back to the early ’50s, listening to the corner-to-corner call of the 500 on radio. We’ve been to the 500 umpteen times and races all over the country since then. Probably over 100 races at current venues and tracks no longer with us. I was even at the non-race inaugural Texas Motor Speedway event.
Watching Dan Wheldon’s horrific crash unfold right in front of me made me very nervous about a high-dollar run for the money at Thermal. Then seeing Grosjean going off track and back into traffic during the first stage, my only thought was, “Oh my God, not again!” A lot of drivers, cars and IndyCar got really lucky on that crash.
As for Thermal, on TV it was probably the most beautiful, well laid out and challenging circuit I’ve see other than Road America.
It was an interesting weekend. There were good and not so good points. The good: beautiful track with great atmosphere for the lucky few.
I think that, for a non-points event, the stage qualifying and races was also very interesting and fun to watch.
The bad: I wish each stage was a little longer. And I really feel that the actual race should have been longer. Long enough to need a real pit stop and no silly timeout.
I could ad that the NBC announcers seemed to give more emphasis on Thermal the venue, and less on Thermal the actual race.
Just a humble opinion from an old (very old) fan.
Mike S
MP: Thanks, Mike!
Q: I really enjoyed the experiment that was this past weekend at Thermal Club. Credit to IndyCar for trying something. Even though Captain Commitment won rather easily I thought it was pretty entertaining. Herta’s strategy was smart. It made for some interesting moments in the second half.
I like the idea of making it gimmicky and have a suggestion. Keep everything the same except, instead of two halves for the feature, have a consolation race so the non-transfer cars get to run again for extra TV time. Take the top two from the consolation to make a 14-car shootout. Then draw starting positions for the 10-lap main race. Those that start up front — top two rows — no push to pass. Second two rows, limited push to pass. From row five through seven, unlimited — or whatever the maximum possible is — for push to pass. Maybe give the back row alternate tires as well. Call Row 7 the Lucky 7 row as they get alternates.
Obviously starting up front will still be a huge advantage, but this would provide some extra excitement as the guys in the back will definitely be on a charge. I’d love to see the event stick around. What are the chances of it happening again?
Eric Z, Lancaster, NY
MP: I can’t see how the track made any money with so few tickets sold, so unless I’m missing the other income generators, I’m struggling to see the members supporting another outlay for another infomercial. But if they get 5-10 new members who spend a fortune, maybe it’s worth doing it again.
But if it does survive, I’d love to see your let’s-go-crazy approach adopted.
Q: I think Thermal can be improved greatly by finding a real race to fill the six weeks between St. Pete and Long Beach. It’s got to be a fair weather venue. Back to Homestead, Texas or resurrect Phoenix. Let’s try NOLA again and maybe it won’t rain.
It wasn’t just Herta saving tires in that first half that was the problem. After everyone got strung out they all were, even Palou. The only second half excitement was Herta’s move on Armstrong for $50,000 more bucks. I thought after Dixon’s drive-through he should just park the car at that point. Why risk the car? Pretty boring stuff.
Jeff, Colorado
MP: Pikes Peak. $1 Million Run To The Clouds.