2006 IRL Rd. 13--Sonoma Indy Grand Prix

[mlittle]

With just two races left in the 2006 IRL IndyCar Series season, the championship fight is coming down to the wire, as drivers try to find the knife's edge of the envelope and take home series honors; it's also a chance for fans to see the drivers take left and right turns in anger, which is always entertaining. Oh, and it's also in the heart of California wine country, so everyone's spirits are up for this round....

While chances are that it will be either a Penske or Ganassi driver who will capture the series crown, it will still be anyone's race; road courses are alway unpredictable. One thing that is certain is the event schedule......(note: all times U.S. PDT; -3 hrs US EDT/-7 hrs GMT)

Practice Session #1}10 am, 26 August 2006
Practice Session #2}2:15 pm, 26 August 2006
Practice Session #3}9:15 am, 27 August 2006
Qualifying Session}12:05 pm, 27 August 2006
Firestone Fast-6 Shootout}approximately 10-15 minutes after qualifying
Final Practice Session}6:20 pm, 27 August 2006
Sonoma Indy Grand Prix}12:30 pm, 28 August 2006

Television}ABC Sports
Domestic radio}IMS Radio Network(also available via webcast at indycar.com)
Satellite Radio}XM Satellite Radio, Ch. 145--IndyCar Racing
Overseas}radio/tv/shortwave simulcasts available via United States Armed Forces Network

As always, I'll have qual. and race recaps, observations, commentaries and whatever passes on by. As the saying goes.........
See You At the Front!!!

[mlittle]

Ask 2-time IRL series champion Sam Hornish, Jr. about his chances for the series championship, and you'll normally get a good response.....until you mention road-courses. You see, in his first two championships, there were zero road/street-courses to deal with, so the perception is that he's at a disadvantage vs. the competition(Castroneves, Wheldon and Dixon). However, with five non-oval events under his belt since 2005, the quiet-half of Marlboro-Team Penske is hopeful that perception & reality don't mix.........

I haven't had the results obviously that I'd like to have on the road courses. But I look at time. This is only the sixth IndyCar race on a road course that I'm coming up on and only the seventh one (since 1999) that I've done. I have worked very hard to try to get ourselves there; I think that if I'm patient and we don't have any problems, I think there's no reason we shouldn't be in the top-three and I think that includes winning. Obviously there's some really tough competition out there. I just need to go out there and make sure I keep Helio in my sights or keep him in my mirrors, one of the two, and hopefully we'll be able to get out of there at least seven points up, or anything within contention.

Now, looking back at the past five road/street races, the conventional wisdom is that Hornish's teammate, Helio Castroneves, is the expected favorite, yet his average finish is around 10th(including his win in St. Pete back in April). The reality is that it is Target/Ganassi's Scott Dixon who's the favorite based on past results; indeed, here are the average start/finish results for the top four in the points standings on the non-ovals.......
1st}Hornish, Jr......................5.3/9.8
2nd}Castroneves...................1.8/10.2
3rd}Wheldon.........................7.2/9.2
4th}Dixon.............................5.0/2.8

Are there any proverbial monkey wrenches out there that can affect the championship fight? In a word, yes. Last year's winner at Infineon, AGR's Tony Kanaan, is sixth in the points, while just ahead is Panther Racing's Vitor Meira, who has steadily improved on the non-ovals since 2005.

In othere words, it's going to be absolute dogfight in the Sonoma wine country and the outcome will definitely have an effect on who hoists the championship trophy at Chicagoland.

[mlittle]

With two races remianing in the 2006 IRL IndyCar Series season, Panther Racing got another much-needed shot of sponsorship, as Lincoln Tech, one of America's automotive training facilities, has decided to provide sponsorship for the team and driver Vitor Meira(for both races, the car's officially listed as the #4 Lincoln Tech/Network LIVE D/H for Infineon and the #4 Lincoln Tech/Revive USA D/H for Chicagoland).

[mlittle]

~~18 drivers completed 562 incident-free laps during the session

~~fastest in the session........Marlboro-Team Penske's Helio Castroneves, at 1:17.387 sec(107.020 mph)

~~five of the 18 entries are Panoz' chassis, as both Target/Ganassi Racing and Rahal-Letterman Racing brought 2006-spec Panoz for the weekend(of the five, the order from fastest to slowest was Wheldon, Dixon, Rice, Patrick and Simmons)

[mlittle]

~~fewer laps were run in session #2(214 as opposed to 562 in the first session); unlike the first session, several cars wentfor minor off-course excursions

~~fastest in the session was Target/Ganassi's Scott Dixon at 1:16.907 sec(107.662 mph)

~~six drivers chose to use 2006-spec Panoz' in the session; besides Target/Ganassi and Rahal-Letterman, Aguri-Fernandez Racing ran a Panoz for Scott Sharp in the session

[mlittle]

There have been several constants in the 2006 IndyCar Series season, one of which has been........seeing either Penske or Ganassi start P1 on raceday. That honor at Infineon went to TGR's Scott Dixon, who was fifth in single-car qualifying but reeled off three cons. P1 laps to wrest the pole away from Andretti-Green's Marco Andretti, who waited nearly half of the 10-minute shootout before posting one single flyer to place himself P2. Here is the starting lineup for Sunday's Sonoma Indy Grand Prix.............

1}Scott Dixon, #9 Target.............................................1:17.034 sec(P)
2}(R)Marco Andretti, #26 NYSE Group...........................1:17.083 sec

3}Helio Castroneves, #3 Marlboro-Team Penske............1:17.212 sec
4}Tony Kanaan, #11 Team 7-11...................................1:17.232 sec

5}Dario Franchitti, #27 Canadian Club/Klein Tools..........1:17.289 sec
6}Dan Wheldon, #10 Target.........................................1:17.595 sec(P)

7}Ryan Briscoe, #5 RollCoater/Fastenal........................1:18.262 sec
8}Vitor Meira, #4 Lincoln Tech/Network LIVE..................1:18.301 sec

9}Bryan Herta, #7 XM Satellite Radio............................1:18.351 sec
10}Sam Hornish, Jr., #6 Marlboro-Team Penske.............1:18.594 sec

11}Danica Patrick, #16 Argent/PEAK.............................1:19.028 sec(P)
12}Buddy Rice, #15 Argent/Pioneer..............................1:19.213 sec(P)

13}Kosuke Matsurra, #55 Panasonic/ARTA....................1:19.242 sec
14}(R)Jeff Simmons, #17 Ethanol.................................1:19.563 sec(P)

15}Jeff Bucknum, #14 ABC Supply Co..........................1:20.093 sec
16}Ed Carpenter, #20 Rock & Republic.........................1:20.338 sec

17}Scott Sharp, #8 Delphi...........................................1:21.659 sec(P)
18}Tomas Scheckter, #2 Rock & Republic.....................no time posted

(P)-denotes driver used Panoz/Honda rather than Dallara/Honda

[mlittle]

There has been a driver change for Vision Racing, as team officials announced that, due to persistant shoulder soreness in his left shoulder, Tomas Scheckter will sit out the upcoming race and Townsend Bell will drive in today's Sonoma Indy Grand Prix later today.

[mlittle]

There has been a driver change for Vision Racing, as team officials announced that, due to persistant shoulder soreness in his left shoulder, Tomas Scheckter will sit out the upcoming race and Townsend Bell will drive in today's Sonoma Indy Grand Prix later today.

Scratch the above; Scheckter drove in today's race and finished 17th.....

[mlittle]

Five years ago, a 20-yr. old Kiwi named Scott Dixon won on the one-mile oval in Nazareth; his record as the youngest driver to ever win a major NA open-wheel race fell as third-generation racer Marco Andretti held on, literally driving on fumes at race's end, to win today's running of the Sonoma Indy Grand Prix. Here's a recap of today's race..............

~~with one race remaining, Marlboro-Team Penske's Helio Castroneves and Sam Hornish, Jr. are spearated by one point; Spiderman's 5th-place finish gave him the slimmest of points leads
~~with the paucity of cautions, several drivers tried to gamble on fuel, inculding current AGR driver Tony Kanaan, who ran dry on the last lap, and 2007 AGR driver Danica Patrick, who pitted late for fuel and ended up 8th
~~once again, pit problems felled a Target/Ganassi driver; this week, it was Scott Dixon, who saw his chance to win go away after an airjack malfunction cost him seconds in the pits late
~~while one rookie enjoyed the spoils of victory, fellow rookie Jeff Simmons had a victoy of his own; starting 14th, he patiently ran a clean race and advanced the most positions from start to finish, finishing 7th
~~there were four lead changes with three drivers(Dixon led 40 laps, Wheldon led 10 and Andretti led 30)

Here are the top-10 results from Sonoma................
1st}(R)#26 Marco Andretti...................................80 laps
2nd}#27 Dario Franchitti.....................................-.656 sec
3rd}#4 Vitor Meira.............................................-10.654 sec
4th}#9 Scott Dixon............................................-11.187 sec
5th}#3 Helio Castroneves..................................-12.504 sec
6th}#10 Dan Wheldon.......................................-13.449 sec
7th}(R)#17 Jeff Simmons..................................-13.847 sec
8th}#16 Danica Patrick.....................................-15.742 sec
9th}#6 Sam Hornish, Jr.....................................-16.339 sec
10th}#7 Bryan Herta........................................-18.557 sec