Welcome Race Fans!
WEDNESDAY NOTES:
Once again, we add another brand new track to the experience of the year. Even most non-racers have heard of this place with both the Indy 500 and NASCAR races happening here. It's a pretty big deal!
East coast rain showers and cool temps will be missed once we reach Indianapolis where it will be hot and dry for the weekend. On the way through the mountains of Maryland and West Virginia, fall colors are already starting to light up the trees with gold and ruby hues.
THURSDAY NOTES:
Now it’s Thursday. Yep. Indy is hot. But at least the humidity is low.
The track is plunked right in the town of Speedway, Indiana. You drive down the street and then poof, it's suddenly there. VGRT and the Hyundai Elantra N #99 have a bay in the B Garage. There are no tents to set up, but there’s lots of stuff to haul in from the trailer parked out in a lot off to the side. We help move stuff around and arrange things and then hang out for a while until it’s time for the track walk to start.
This place is so big that it doesn’t feel like we are in the middle of a super speedway stadium. Along with all the crew parking, paddock parking for race cars and haulers, garages, and the giant Pagoda building, the interior also holds a dirt track, a lake, and four holes of a golf course. As if that wasn’t enough, there are the 11 infield turns of the 2.439 mile long 14 turn race course in here too! It’s big! Very, very big.
To start the track walk, it’s more than half a mile from the garage to pit exit. The route runs clockwise, opposite of Indycar, and uses the entire front straight before taking a 90 degree dive into the infield just short of Speedway Turn 4. Then, a series of mostly 90 degree turns wiggles back down to the other end where the track uses a bit of the short straight between Speedway Turns 2 & 1, skipping the banked Speedway Turn 1. Lastly, there’s a little wiggle to bring them back onto the front straight. Also, it’s very flat - making it tricky to find visual markers for the turns. At least we know the grip should be pretty good. The more that cars drive on a track, the more tire rubber they leave behind. In the turns and on the curbs, there is so much rubber down that our shoes literally stick to the pavement!
We meet up with friends for dinner and enjoy great companionship and the anticipation of an exciting event to come. Tomorrow starts early. We have 2 practices at 8:20 and 1:45. Come back tomorrow!
FRIDAY NOTES:
Arrival: While it was well before dawn when we arrived at Indy this morning, the paddock was already aglow with bright lights and buzzing with activity. Morgan commented on the way in that seems like they built the town around the track and that is exactly the case here. Back in 1909 when it first opened, the track was surrounded by fields, not businesses and houses as it is now. We are going to put a lot of miles on the sneakers this weekend. It's about a half a mile from the garage to the pit box.
Practice 1 was run under weather conditions very similar to what we should have during qualifying tomorrow morning. The early morning air is a bit humid and pleasantly cool. The setup here is entirely different from before at VIR so there were a lot of things to change. This session helped fine tune the adjustments made ahead of the event. As always, there are a few more things the drivers would like to change to get it to feel better in the turns and get out onto the straights quickly.
Tire wear and fuel usage data are interesting from this session, but probably not really indicative of what they will be during the race. That’s what we really need to know to make good plans and we will get that this afternoon when the weather conditions are back to hot. I am really going to miss the delightfully cool mid 60’s! Come back at 1:45 to see what happens next!
Practice 2: This was a good day. We aren’t at the tippy top of the time sheet, but we didn’t expect to be. We are in the top third of the field and that is a good place for us.
We have a good set up. Both Morgan and Tyler feel comfortable that they can drive it well for the distance of the race. The fuel and tire usage we aimed for still yield the solid lap times that will put us in the right place toward the end.
We do expect a yellow at some point during the race, but of course no one can tell when it will be. We have worked out a bunch of different options and will pick the one that seems best at the time. That could change a few times during the race.
We get to do the qualifying at 8:00 AM when it is still wonderfully cool. But for the race, it is going to be another hot one. For now, everything is pretty much done and we are about ready to pack up for the day. We will go find someplace cool that has food and then we will hit the hay early tonight. Gotta be well fed, well hydrated, and well rested for tomorrow’s festivities, right?
Update: Dinner out with a different group of friends. Good food, but they should put a warning about portion size on their menu. My calzone could easily have fed a whole hungry family. We didn’t realize it until heading out, but it rained really hard during dinner. This particular restaurant has an indoor go-kart track too! Naturally, the young drivers in the group had to go play for a session. They had a blast! I suspect the regular people that shared their session were caught a bit by surprise by these super fast guys, but you have to expect them on the track when there's a pro event in town, right?
Get ready for tomorrow: Qualifying for 15 minutes at 8:00.
2-Hour race at 1:00. Catch it on Peacock!
SATURDAY NOTES:
Qualifying was …. not good.
However, it was far worse for others. Don’t worry though - nobody hurt and no damage to us. Not even a close call or anything.
It’s just that no matter how much you plan, when it comes time to execute, you simply have to pick a plan and go try to do it. We waited a couple minutes to let the track warm up, dry out, and get a bit cleaner. (Remember that it rained last night? That means a green track - not much sticky rubber down to help you get grip.) Then, go out and warm up the tires gently before putting down the fast qualifying laps. It was a really good plan - a few other teams had the same plan. It would have been a perfect plan had there not been a red flag late enough in the session that it did not restart. Anyone without their hot lap in already when that happened didn’t get the chance to set one.
The red flag came out when the #77 suffered a blown engine coming through the short chute and pulled to a stop at pit in. Morgan was a few seconds behind it and saw the flames come out the bottom of the car. Fortunately, he had plenty of time to avoid the mess of oil on the track. Causing a red flag results in the loss of the two fastest laps so that puts the #77 starting behind us.
Along with the #77, the #33 and #98 are also behind us. Those last two came out of the pits even later than we did and had less time to get warmed up and go than we did. That's all of the Herta Hyundais at the back of the field - very, very unusual as they are typically in the top 5 starting spots.
So, we start 10th of 13. Looks bad, yes, but it’s a long race and Morgan and Tyler race very well. Morgan qualified so he will start the race this afternoon. He will find a way through traffic as early has he can while being kind to tires and fuel.
We are still optimistic. You’ll have to keep an ear on the IMSA radio and an eye on live timing or turn on Peacock to see what happens in the race.
RACE REPORT:
We really, really love that feeling when as parents we can see that the words we’ve always said to our kid have been taken to heart. “See the future.” Morgan did that today early in the race. He saw the cars in front of him all get stacked up close together as they came out onto the short chute, so he chose the high wide line. It paid supremely well as he dove back into the infield passing a lot of cars and setting him up to take the lead in the final complex of turns.
Yeah, you read that right - the Lead! After starting 10th, Morgan was leading the class by the end of lap 4!!!!
The early laps of the race had a couple of yellow flag periods. That helped Morgan get more passes done and helped lower fuel and tire use. That means we could run longer before having to make that pit stop to change drivers and tires and add fuel. He was running very well, passing slower cars in the GS class and pulling out the gap to to the cars behind a little bit each lap. The Herta cars that started behind us also did well to come through the field and were running in P2-4. It was a marvelous and beautiful sight to see!
Unfortunately, there are some futures that cannot be seen. Like the one 42 minutes into the race. Morgan had two GS cars between him and P2 and was running smoothly and pulling a couple tenths of a second a lap away from all of them. Ahead by several car lengths, Morgan made the commitment to turning into Turn 1 and got clobbered in the right rear corner by one of those cars in the other class behind him. That driver broke too late on the dirty side of the track and couldn't slow enough. Pow!
Morgan never had a chance to see it coming and got spun around, losing the rear wing off the car. Mid-spin, he quickly collected himself and got pointed in the right direction. The car was running, so he carried on and rejoined the track surface - expecting it to handle really badly. He was quite surprised to find that nothing felt really off at all. Except for where the bodywork was rubbing on the tire and creating a lot of smoke, nothing seemed broken or bent. The other car did not drive away as it had way too much front end damage to continue. That brought out a full course yellow.
With the car behaving mostly OK, we had Morgan stay out until the pits opened for our TCR class. When we brought him in, our crew made some fast repairs to the body work, changed tires and filled up the gas tank. Tyler took over the wheel and was ready to rejoin the battle. The IMSA race officials had other thoughts though. Despite the rear wing loss making no difference to handling, they decreed that we needed to fix it or retire. Morgan didn't even know it was gone until we told him so - that's how little difference it made!
We still had to take it back to the garage and put a new wing on the back. After that repair, Tyler returned to the race having lost 9 laps. He made a valiant effort continuing the race but seeing the checker flag was not for us today. With only 20 minutes to go, the car had had enough and we had to retire from the race. It was absolutely heartbreaking to have such a strong run ripped away from us.
Despite the early out, Morgan did end on another high by earning the “Michelin Move of the Race” for the TCR class from the IMSA commentators with his drive through the field up to first. He lead 18 laps - convincingly and easily. That's more money for Hyundai Hope on Wheels. He was perfect today!
The first half of the race is certainly worth the watch as is the end bit when they pick the moves of the race. It’s on YouTube here.
WHAT'S NEXT?
There is one opportunity left this season to stand on the MPC podium steps. That is in three weeks at Road Atlanta. But before that, we have the SCCA RunOffs at Road America starting next weekend. Stay tuned!