Round 17--Toyota Indy 400

[mlittle]

Well, it's been a very interesting, action-packed season, but as with most good things, this IndyCar Series too comes to an end at a venue not to be seen next year. Round 17 takes us to the Inland Empire of Southern California and the San Bernandino region of the state, to the Kaiser Steel mill water tower from the movie "Terminator 2", and to the California Speedway in Fontana for the Toyota Indy 400. Ever since CART first came out here in 1997, the close-quarters' racing has been exciting and thrilling. In 2003, Sam Hornish, Jr. won the fastest-race in IRL history, a race marked by just one caution. Last year, Adrian Fernandez won his third race of the year, while Andretti-Green Racing's Tony Kanaan clinched the series title, the first of two for the team. With all the awards settled for the year, expect no quarter to be given....it will be a 400-mile dogfight.

Here is the weekend schedule for the Toyota Indy 400....

Practice Session #1--12:45 to 1:45 PM EDT, 15 Oct.
Practice Session #2--2:45 to 4:15 PM EDT, 15 Oct.
Qualifying Session--6:00 to 7:00 PM EDT(approx.), 15 Oct.
Final Practice Session--12:00 to 12:30 PM EDT, 16 Oct.
Toyota Indy 400--3:30 PM EDT(green flag to fall around 3:45 PM)

As always, I'll have storylines, commentaries, observations, plus qual. and race summaries during the race weekend.....

[mlittle]

While another chapter in open-wheel racing will be written in Fontana with this Sunday's Toyota Indy 400, the Inland Empire has been a center of auto racing for years. As 4-time indy 500 winner Rick Mears puts it, "California has been the hotbed of the old hot rods and the street drag racers for years. There are a lot of automobile nuts out here in California, which is why it produced so many great drivers." Indeed, the Inland Empire, which stretches from the eastern outskirts of Los Angeles all the way over to Bakersfield and the Mojave Desert, once had two great racing facilities, Ontario Motor Speedway, in Ontario, and Riverside Speedway, which, like the current Las Vegas Motor Speedway, sat adjacent to then-March AFB(now March Air Reserve Base).

Back in 1970, Ontario opened to a then-unheard of crowd for an open-wheel race, as over 180,000 people watched the inaugural running of the California 500. The track, built in part with the assistance of then-IMS President Tony Hulman, was ahead of its' time, featuring luxury suites(unheard of then!) and full spectator comforts. A 2-mile oval, the track was nicknamed "Indy-West" as it was patterned after the legendary Brickyard, with a rectangular shape and a start-finish line crowned with bricks from IMS itself. Jim McElreath won the first California 500, and until its' closing in 1980, the track saw drivers such as Bobby Unser, A.J. Foyt, Jr. and Johhny Rutherford win the 500-mile race there. While overshadowed by Ontario, Riverside Speedway, a desert road course similar in layout and difficulty to Infineon(Sears Point) also hosted Indy-style races as well as sports car, IMSA and SCCA races until it, too, fell to the march of time.

There were also some well-known short tracks in the region, most notably the famed Ascot Park dirt track in Gardena, which saw racers from Parnelli Jones to A.J. Foyt, Jr, to Jeff Gordon race there during the track's existence(it closed in 1990). To many a racer, Ascot and the 1-mile oval outside of Sacramento, Cal. were near-mandatory rites of passage for drivers seeking a step up in their careers, much like modern racers will go through the various formula series before reaching the IndyCar or ChampCar series'.

But, the Inland Empire is probably better known for the drivers that came from that environment, including several Indy 500 winners, such as Rick Mears, 2-time winner Bill Vukovich, Sam Hanks(1957 winner), Parnelli Jones(1963 winner), and legendary Indy/F1 racer Dan Gurney. In the eastern reaches of the Empire came Bakersfield's "Mears Gang", consisting of brothers Rick and Roger Mears. Even they, though, idolized a certain racer from the Inland Empire. "The driver that stands above the others is Parnelli Jones," recalls Rick Mears. "Getting to know him through the off-road racing, he was the first major driver I ever met. I was running at Ascot when he had the Firestone deal and I got tires from him. Besides being a great guy, I always admired the way he ran. He stood on the gas. That guy was great. He was very competitive."{Jones, besides his open-wheel exploits, also won the infamous Baja 1000 desert race back in the late 1960's}

Today, Red Bull/Cheever Racing's Alex Barron, who hails from Menifee, Ca. is the latest member of the Inland Empire to make it to the top-rungs of Indy-style racing and would like to make his mark on SoCal's rich open-wheel legend by winning at Fontana on Sunday. "I came close to winning there in 2000, and and I'd love to be able to win there. All the racing that went on in Southern California when I was a kid, I knew that's where a lot of racers that made it in IndyCar racing started. You could run go-karts all year long. That was a big influence on me. A big place where I went as a kid was El Cajon Speedway(qtr.-mile track near San Diego). I drove for Dan Gurney and met Rick Mears at one of the go-kart tracks in Chula Vista. It was something where you were exposed to a lot of sucessful people in the business and that really helps get a career started."

All-in-all, the race this Sunday will add another chapter to AOWR's SoCal history, and hopefully, if the racing gods are fair(and when are they ever fair ), next year, we'll be back in Fontana for 2006. One can only dream.

[mlittle]

With the season's end now in sight, here are the mid-week storylines flying around like the Santa Anna winds' around the Inland Empire...

1}Banners aplenty. Anyone walking through the paddock this weekend shouldn't have a problem finding the paddock areas reserved for the #26 and #16 teams, as both spaces will have championship banners flying over their respective spots, one for Bombardier Rookie-of-the-Year winner Danica Patrick and IndyCar Series champion Dan Wheldon. Considering the seasons' both have had, it only makes sense to recognize them prior to the race. Congrats to both of them!

2}Medieros ready for debut. On Sunday, the grid will see a new driver make his series start, as 2004 Infiniti Pro Series champion Thiago Medieros will drive a second Dreyer & Reinbold car alongside current driver Roger Yasukawa. As he said in an interview to a SoCal reporter, "I just want to do right for the team." We know that, Thiago; Sunday's your chance to prove it.

3}Chevy's last dance. When the checkered flag drops Sunday, General Motors' involvement in AOWR will come to an end. It will be a sad day for NA motorsports; in their 9 yrs. of participation in the IRL, GM amassed 6 cons. engine titles(1997-2002 with both Olds Aurora and Chevy Indy) and won a total of 67 races in that time. With looming engine concerns on the IRL horizon, it will be a shame to see them leave, but it's a bigger shame that George and CO. won't relax the "passenger-branding" rule to allow Cosworth to stay in the series. They should be glad Cosworth's assisted GM since mid-2003; without their help, GM would've left sooner.

[mlittle]

This will be the fourth visit that the IRL has made to Fontana; here are the race and pole winners from 2002-2004:

2002:Pole--Eddie Cheever, Jr.(D/I)
Race--Sam Hornish, Jr.(D/C)
2003:Pole--Helio Castroneves(D/T)
Race--Sam Hornish, Jr.(D/C)
2004:Pole--Helio Castroneves(D/T)
Race--Adrian Fernandez(P/H)

Predictions on who will sit on the pole for Sunday's race?
A)All four Andretti-Green Racing drivers(Kanaan, Wheldon, Herta, Franchitti)
B)Both Marlboro/Team Penske drivers(Hornish, Jr, and Castroneves)
C)At least two from Rahal/Letterman Racing(Patrick and Meira)
D)Any of the drivers mentioned in A, B, or C, plus two more(Scheckter, Sharp)

NOTE:D-Dallara, P-Panoz, I-Infiniti, C-Chevy, T-Toyota, and H-Honda

[mlittle]

Qualifying is set to begin at Fontana in about 10-15 mins. for the Toyota Indy 400. Starting out in the qual. order will be Scott Dixon(#9 Target Panoz/Honda), who finished 2nd in 2003 and 8th in 2004 here at Fontana. He also competed in the CART series here, crashed in 2001(finishing 17th) and finished 6th in 2002.

Two bits of news in the meantime....Driver Thiago Medieros spun out and crashed during the second practice session; while he's been cleared to drive, it's unclear as to whether he will be able to compete on Sunday. In addition, Honda Performance Division's Robert Clarke announced today that Honda would renew its' engine contract with the Indy Racing League through 2009, effectively ensuring an engine supply for the series, and possibly putting the IRL in the same position as ChampCar's currently in with Cosworth since 2003.

[mlittle]

And qualifying has begun....Dixon's out on the track now....First lap, 216.318 mph, 33.284 secs. Second lap slower, so Dixon's first lap will stand. Dixon currently P1, #20 Ed Carpenter on track now.

[mlittle]

#20 Ed Carpenter now on his flyer....first lap a 212.411 mph., 33.897 secs.....beginning lap 2.....all the drivers will be facing headwinds going into turn 1 and towards turn 2...second lap slower, so Carpenter will slot into P2. #6 Sam Hornish, Jr. now out on the track...

[mlittle]

Hornsih's first lap 218.602, currently P1.....second lap completed, slower than lap 1, but Hornish now P1, over .35 secs. ahead of Dixon at the moment. Next up, #4 Tomas Scheckter(Pennzoil Panther Dallara/Chevy).

[mlittle]

Scheckter now on his flyer.....Tomas is one of only two Chevy drivers in the field, along with teammate Tomas Enge. First lap....218.902, placing him P1. Second lap coming up....slower, so first lap will stand. The qual. format gives each driver two qualifying laps, and the fastest lap of the two is their qual. time....Next up...#15 Buddy Rice(Rahal-Letterman Racing).

[mlittle]

Rice now out on the clock.....weather reports indicate major headwinds into turn 1, which may affect drivers' setups for the race tomorrow afternoon. First lap for Rice....217.353 mph, currently P3. Second lap.....faster, 218.029 mph, still P3 on the grid.

Top 5 at the moment....Scheckter, Hornish, Jr, Rice, Dixon, and Carpenter..Next up, #7 Bryan Herta, the first of AGR's four drivers.

[mlittle]

Herta on his flyer now....first lap coming up....217.408 mph, P4 on the grid...second lap about to come....slower than the first, so his first lap time will stand, putting him P4 provisionally....Next on the clock...#91 Jimmy Kite(Ethanol Dallara/Toyota)....

[mlittle]

Kite preparing for his flyer....first lap, a 215.602 mph, P6 on the grid. Second lap for the Stockbridge, Ga. native, just a hair slower, so Kite will slot into P6 at the moment. Next up....the second of the TGR cars, #10 Jaques Lazier.

[mlittle]

Lazier begins his run.....first lap, a 216.410 mph, running a higher line than the others so far......second lap coming up....faster, at 216.491 mph, currently P5 on the grid. #14 A.J. Foyt, IV, in his final IndyCar Series start for Foyt Racing, is now out on the track.....

[mlittle]

Foyt beginning his flyer.....first lap, a 215.431 mph. Second lap faster, 215.622 mph, slots Foyt IV in 7th place. Next up....#3 Helio Castroneves, the second of the two Marlboro/Team Penske cars.

[mlittle]

Spiderman(Castroneves) now on the clock.......first lap underway.....217.765 mph, currently P4. Second lap, slower than lap 1...Castroneves now fourth on the grid..Next up...#8 Scott Sharp, winner at Kentucky earlier this year....