2006 IRL Rd.7--SunTrust Indy Challenge

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And to think........it's been a year since my first posting here. Time does fly when you're doing something you enjoy.


Anyway............

After six rounds and several close finishes, the teams and drivers of the IRL IndyCar Series return for their sixth visit to Richmond International Raceway, hard on the banks of the James River just outside of Richmond, Va. Known in American history as "The Capital of the Confederacy", the Richmond area is steeped in historical sites, numerous battlefields and lots of historical places galore. But the focus of the drivers isn't on St. Paul's Church, or the Confederate White House.......it's on the 3/4-mile "bullring", where cars will fly around the track in 16+ seconds, turning each lap for 12-13 secs. of each lap, with lateral g's of 4 per lap. Drivers will deal with traffic all night long, so a good qualifying effort is essential, if not anywhere else, then here. But don't think that just qual. P1 is a ticket to victory lane; in the IRL's five previous visits, only Scott Dixon in 2003 has started P1 and finished P1. But some of the sport's best, drivers such as Helio Castroneves, Sam Hornish, Jr. and Dan Wheldon have put their own stamps on the track's record, and when the checkered flag falls June 24th, someone else will get to add his (or her) name to the list. Here is the event schedule for the weekend..........(all times U.S. EDT, -4 hrs. GMT)

Practice Session #1} 12:15 pm, 23 June 2006
Practice Session #2} 3:00 pm, 23 June 2006
Qualifying Session} 4:45 pm, 23 June 2006
Final Practice Session} 8:00 pm, 23 June 2006
SunTrust Indy Challenge} 8:00 pm, 24 June 2006, on ESPN-2(radio broadcast, as always, will be on the IMS Radio Network, both on AM radio and webcast through indycar.com, along with XM Satellite Radio, Ch. 145). Radio/TV simulcasts will also be broadcast through the United States Armed Forces Network.

As always, I'll have qual. and race summaries, commentaries, observations and whatever else crosses my way........that is, when I'm not enjoying the sights and sounds of one of America's more interesting cities( which, in my humble opinion) should've been an international capital for, oh.......the past 145 years.

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Although, like most of my fellow scribes, the focus is on the 3/4-mile Richmond International Raceway and the upcoming IndyCar race, I thought, being a humble Southerner, why don't I show my fellow posters a bit of the history of this great, yet currently occupied capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia. (I'll explain the occupied part at the end. )

Since we're along the banks of the James River, our first stop will be City Point Landing, just east of the capital. It was here, 1 April 1865, than a very exhausted U.S. President, Abraham Lincoln, arrived from D.C. to survey the ruins of the Confederate capital that had fallen hours earlier. Recently designated a national historical site ( ), it's showcase is a statute of Lincoln sitting on a bench with his son, and contrary to popular opinion, he wasn't gloating over the North's capture of the city. Then again, the auto-censors would shoot me if I gave an honest opinion of Lincoln.......

Since we're just east of the Capital, it means we're on the eastern end of Monument Avenue. When Richmond, Va. was designated the capital of the Confederate States of America in early 1862, it was assumed that, as in Washington, D.C.(that other capital), there would be a grand boulevard where the nations of the world would locate their embassies; an "Embassy Row", so to speak. Hence, Monument Avenue. Of note, there are three major attractions; Virginia Commonwealth University(VCU), monuments to Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee(two of the greatest commanders America's ever had!) and a statute honoring tennis legend/civil rights activist Arthur Ashe. In a sense, Monument Ave. honors both our past, present and future.

Now, near RIR, just outside Richmond in Henrico Co. is Ft. Steadman, one of several state historical sites around the Richmond area. Its' significance.......following Lee's second invasion of the North(which culminated in the Battle of Gettysburg, 1-3 July 1863), the Army of Northern Virginia retreated back across the Potomac, back to Rchmond and Petersburg, Va., where it would remain till' the end of the War for Southern Independence. While the Northern Army of the Potomac marched ever southward, Lee's forces build numerous strongpoints, forts, caissons and trenches around the capital. By mid-March 1865, Grant's Army of the Potomac had captured most of Lee's strongpoints....except Steadman, which controlled the final raillines connecting Richmond to the rest of the Confederacy. Although Lee's men held off several attacks, they were eventually forced to withdraw, and the rest, as they say, is history....

Now, if you've read anything about Gen. Robert E. Lee, you've no doubt read that the men of the Army of Northern Virginia thought of him in a manner similar to how one would think of a loved one.....case in point, our final stop, the Wilderness. When Grant's army began marching from D.C. south, they fought several battles' with Lee's troops in places such as the Crater, Cold Harbor, and the Wilderness. During one point of the Wilderness battle, Lee, astride his mighty horse Traveller, rode to the Confederate front to ascertain the situation. When his men saw him, they began to grab the horse's reins, trying to move Lee out of the line of fire. Lee resisted, wanting to see what was going on. His men cried out,
"Marse Robert, Marse Robert, you must withdraw from here!!", and eventually, he returned to his HQ's. Even the Union forces attacking the Wilderness respected Lee; when Union Brig. Gen Joshua Chamberlain, who was in charge of the attacking forces, saw what was occuring, he ordered his men to cease fire, waiting for Lee to vacate the battlefield.

Granted, there's dozens of historical sites around the Richmond area that I could talk about for hours and hours, but these should suffice for now. Now, where is the main highway back to RIR.......?

Oh, as for the occupied part.........well, since losing the War for Southern Independence in 1865, the South's been....well, occupied for 140+ years. Well, we have......

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Heavy showers throughout the day at Richmond International Raceway effectively put an end to qualifying(prior to the rains, both practice sessions were successfully held), meaning that for the third time this year, Marlboro-Team Penske's Helio Castroneves(#3 Marlboro-Team Penske D/H) will start P1 under the lights tomorrow evening. Here is the starting grid for Saturday's SunTrust Indy Challenge............

Note....all cars D/H; times are based on fastest time in either practice session #1 or #2(session in parentheses)

1}Helio Castroneves, #3 Marlboro-Team Penske....................15.565 sec/173.472 mph(2)
2}Scott Sharp, #8 Delphi......................................................15.633 sec/172.712 mph(2)

3}Sam Hornish, Jr., #6 Marlboro-Team Penske.......................15.647 sec/172.561 mph(2)
4}Dan Wheldon, #10 Nicoderm CQ........................................15.653 sec.172.492 mph(2)

5}(R)Marco Andretti, #26 NYSE Group....................................15.692 sec/172.068 mph(1)
6}Vitor Meira, #4 Network LIVE/EcoNova................................15.700 sec/171.972 mph(2)

7}Tony Kanaan, #11 Team 7-11............................................15.702 sec/171.950 mph(1)
8}Kosuke Matsurra, #55 Panasonic/Autobacs..........................15.716 sec/171.802 mph(1)

9}Bryan Herta, #7 XM Satellite Radio.....................................15.752 sec/171.413 mph(2)
10}Dario Franchitti, #27 Canadian Club/Klein Tools.................15.765 sec/171.271 mph(2)

11}Scott Dixon, #9 Target.....................................................15.784 sec/171.055 mph(2)
12}Tomas Scheckter, #2 Rock & Republic...............................15.828 sec/170.586 mph(1)

13}Ed Carpenter, #20 Rock & Republic....................................15.831 sec/170.551 mph(2)
14}Buddy Rice, #15 Argent/Pioneer........................................15.877 sec/170.056 mph(2)

15}Danica Patrick, #16 Argent/PEAK.......................................15.894 sec/169.880 mph(2)
16}(R)Jeff Simmons, #17 Ethanol...........................................16.024 sec/168.303 mph(2)

17}Eddie Cheever, Jr., #51 GEICO/Circle-K............................16.058 sec/168.145 mph(2)
18}Felipe Giaffone, #14 ABC Supply Co..................................16.527 sec/163.369 mph(1)

19}Buddy Lazier, #5 RollCoater/ESCORT Radar Warning..........16.529 sec/163.349 mph(1)

Observations from a soggy Richmond later this evening.......

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It's continuing to rain here in Richmond, so as I attempt to dry off the laptop in front of me, here is the friday notebook from RIR........

1}Who will give Honda their 100th win? Since 1994, Honda has been an integral part of NA motorsports, and tomorrow night will be another chapter in their racing history to write, as one of the 19 drivers on the grid will give Honda Performance Development its' 100th-ever win in AOWR. Here are some of their previous milestones......
~~1st win: 20 August 1995, Andre Ribiero, Tasman Mtrspts. Reynard 95B/Honda H-1R @ New Hampshire Intl. Speedway, Loudon, NH
~~10th win: 28 July 1996, Andre Ribiero, Tasman Mtrspts. Reynard 96A/Honda H-2B @ Michigan Intl. Speedway, Brooklyn, Mich.
~~25th win: 12 July 1998, Alex Zanardi, Target/Ganassi Racing Reynard 96I/Honda H-2R @ Burke Lakefront Airport, Cleveland, Ohio
~~50th win: 13 August 2000, Helio Castroneves, Marlboro-Team Penske Reynard 20I/Honda H-5E @ Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Columbus, Ohio
~~75th win: 25 July 2004, Dario Franchitti, Andretti-Green Racing Dallara 04B/Honda H-15R @ the Milwaukee Mile, W. Allis, Wisc.
~~100th win.............we'll find out Saturday night!!!

2}Just helping those in uniform.......Panther Racing hosted some very special individuals today, as several members of the 3d Battalion, 6th Marines who just recently returned from a 13-month tour in western Iraq, were able to watch today's activities as honorary members of Vitor Meira's pitcrew. During tomorrow's race, the #4 will be carrying two reminders of the sacrifices the men of 3-6 have made over the past year.....on the inside engine cowling will be a decal listing those who have perished in the service of their country during their tour; on the outside engine cowling will be two decals, one representing the battalion and one representing the U.S. Marine Corps. In addition, one of the unit's officers, 1st Lt. Patrick Francescon, will serve as an honorary member of the pitcrew on raceday; his will be assisting the left-front tirechanger, hauling the Firestone Firehawks to front-tire changer(and Marine reservist) Lance Perry.

3}And I thought Motegi's collection hall had some memorabilia.....during the event weekend, RIR's trackside museum is celebrating the track's history, which includes a lot of open-wheel history as well. When the track originally opened in 1946, the first race on the then 1/2-mile dirt oval was a AAA Championship race, won by 1946 series winner Ted Horn. Since then, RIR has been reconfigured several times, most recently in 1987. Lights were added in 1991 to allow night racing, and the IndyCar Series first began racing here in 2001.

4}NASCAR.....no thanks!! Now that he has finally won "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing", Marlboro-Team Penske's Sam Hornish, Jr. was asked yet again if he had any plans to leave open-wheel racing and head over to the land of the taxi-cabs......to which Hornish replied, "Nope." That should settle it....for now, knowing the media.

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In a race that was dominated by Marlboro-Team Penske, it was 2-time series champion Sam Hornish, Jr.(#6 Marlboro-Team Penske D/H) who near-literally cruised to the win on the 3/4-mile bullring at Richmond Saturday night.

The race began early as track/series officials were concerned about the numerous thundestorms in the area; when the green fell, it was Hornish's temmate, Helio Castroneves(#3 Marlboro-Team Penske D/H) who led the first 38 laps; on lap 39, Hornish swept past him in turn 1 for the lead and didn't look back, leading the remaining 212 laps(third-most laps led in series history at any venue). Unlike Texas, where Hornish and a couple of others sufferend from pitstop miscues late, there weren't any problems with their stops, nor did he have any trouble negotiating traffic on the track(...they don't call Hornish "the Ovalmeister" for nothin'....). Surprisingly for Richmond, there were only four cautions(the race averages 6 cautions) and three of the four were for debris; the only racing caution occurred on lap 64, when the #17 Ethanol car of rookie Jeff Simmons, whilst trying to pass the #27 Canadian Club/Klein Tools car of Dario Franchitti, hit the "marbles" on the outside of turn 2 and slid right into the outside wall.

At race's end, though, it was the Defiance, Ohio native who, as noted above, pretty much ran away with the race, winning under caution when a "debris" caution was flown with 5 laps remaining(I'm wondering about why, since Hornish's teammate Castroneves reported a right-rear tire puncture, yet race control couldn't spot any debris on the track...... ). Here is the top-10 results from Richmond.....

1}#6 Sam Hornish, Jr., Marlboro-Team Penske...............250 laps
2}#4 Vitor Meira, Panther Racing..................................-.391 secs
3}#27 Dario Franchitti, Andretti-Green Racing................-1.690 secs
4}#8 Scott Sharp, Aguri-Fernandez Racing....................-5.678 secs
5}(R)#26 Marco Andretti, Andretti-Green Racing............-6.540 secs
6}#7 Bryan Herta, Andretti-Green Racing......................-10.922 secs
7}#2 Tomas Scheckter, Vision Racing...........................-1 lap
8}#20 Ed Carpenter, Vision Racing................................-1 lap
9}#10 Dan Wheldon, Target/Ganassi Racing...................-1 lap
10}#3 Helio Castroneves, Marlboro-Team Penske...........-1 lap

Post-race observations to follow Sunday morning........

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Okay, so it's Sunday evening..................oops!

While T-K lands his plider on the Cheltenham Parkway, and Julian keeps the Va. state police at bay while T-K lands...... , here are the post-race observations from RIR...........

1}A new bounty............during tonight's Speed news Sunday, Speed's Robin Miller offered another bounty.......$200 dollars, matched by Racer & IndyCar Series magazine's Jeff Olsen, for any driver at the next IRL event, in Kansas, who can beat any of the four Penske OR Ganassi drivers, not by using pit strategy or fuel mileage, but by just outdriving the foursome. I just wonder where Miller gets his money......I mean, Allmendinger took his bounty from Portland, and that was $500 total from the collective genius of Miller, along with fellow scribes David Phillips, Gordon Kirby, Mike Harris and John Oreovicz. He might go broke, offering a bounty such as this......

2}Still learning..........for the second consecutive race, Rahal-Letterman Racing struggled to come to grips with the new Dallara chassis, and it wasn't a pretty night for the team. Rookie Jeff Simmons crashed on lap 64, finishing 19th, while veterans Buddy Rice and Danica Patrick finished 13th and 15th each. At least now they can't say it's the car's fault..... There was one bright spot, though, for them, and that was...........

3}The return of the Bear.......o/k/a Scott Roembke, the team's Vice President of Operations and the one who runs the team's day-to-day operations. It's been a tough couple of months for him, as he's been in and out of the hospital for various health ailments since early March. It's a shame that their results' were as they were Saturday night, but at least everyone in the paddock is glad to see him back at his post. Welcome back, Scott!!!

Since this is the halfway point of the 2006 IRL IndyCar Series season, yours' truly has been thinking about the various midseason awards to be given........and they will be posted early this week. Meanwhile, it's off to the 1.5-mile Kansas Speedway, where we saw a bit of history made last year....could some more history be made there this time around.....well, that is why they run the races, everyone!!! As the saying goes............See you at the front!!