Round 7: Xpel Grand Prix of Road America, Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. June 7 - 9.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Round 7: Xpel Grand Prix of Road America, Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. June 7 - 9.

This weekend's race will mark the end of three weekends in a row of racing, on three completely different tracks: the Indianapolis 500 oval, the Renaissance Center street circuit in downtown Detroit and the road course at Road America.

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History
The very first race to be held at Elkhart Lake was in 1950 and was organized by the Chicago Region and Milwaukee Region of The Sports Car Club of America. It was the first of three races from 1950 - 1952, which were held on courses laid out on public roads. However, after a fatal accident at Watkins Glen in 1952, it was decided to discontinue motor racing on all public roads and move the event to a private, purpose built road course.

In October 1954, Local highway engineer Clifton Edward ''Clif'' Tufte, got together with the Chicago Region of the Sports Car Club of America, as well as local citizens and formed Road America, Inc., a small company of shareholders, to develop and build a permanent racecourse that simulated country roads, 60 miles north of Milwaukee, at an estimated cost of $175,000. In April 1955 a bulldozer broke ground and on September 10, 1955, Road America held its first SCCA national race weekend.

Since then, the track has hosted many major American motorsport's series, including the American Le Mans Series, CART, NASCAR and the United States Road Racing Championship.

From 1982-2007, the race had been a perennial event on the CART/Champ Car calendar, with the innaugural race, the Road America 200 held on September 11, 1982. It was won by ex F1 driver Héctor Rebaque driving for Forsythe Racing, in a March 82C-Ford Cosworth DFX. The exception was 2005, when the race was dropped due to sponsorship issues.

The last Champ Car race was the Champ Car Generac Grand Prix of Road America, on August 12, 2007, which was won by Sébastien Bourdais, driving for Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing, in a Panoz DP-01-Cosworth XFE.

With the unification of Champ Car and the IRL in 2008, the race was subsequently dropped from the calendar. However, on August 8, 2015, it was announced Road America would return after an 8 year hiatus as the Kohler Grand Prix of Road America, the 9th round of the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series season.

In 2020 the race was originally scheduled for June 2 but due to the COVID-19 pandemic it was initially postponed. However, it was re-scheduled for July 11–12 as The REV Group Grand Prix presented by AMR Doubleheader, hosting the 3rd and 4th rounds of the revised calendar, in order to bring the 2020 season back up to a 17 race schedule as a number of races had been cancelled. From 2021 onwards the event
has reverted back to a single race.

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Track
The track itself has undergone a number of upgrades, including the installation of gravel traps, as well as the enlargement of run-off areas, particularly at Turn 1 and the removal of the bridge at Turn 13, at the end of 2006 season. Despite this, the actual layout has hardly changed, apart from a chicane that was installed for AMA motorcycle competitors at The Kink.


Track layout:



Length: 4.048 miles (6.515 km)
Turns: 14

Lap record:
Dario Franchitti, August 19, 2000. 1:39.866, 145.924 Mph (234.84 Km/h).
Team KOOL Green,
Reynard 2KI-Honda HR-0.
CART FedEx Championship Series.

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Some trivia:
The driver with the most wins: 3.
Mario Andretti: 1983, 1984, 1987.
Emerson Fittipaldi, 1986, 1988, 1982.
Michael Andretti: 1991, 1992, 1996.

The team with the most wins: 10.
Newman/Haas Racing: 1983, 1984, 1987, 1991, 1992, 1996, 1999, 2002, 2003, 2007.

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Last Year's Race:
https://www.indycar.com/news/2023/06/06-18-ra-nics-race

Pole:
Colton Herta,
Andretti Autosport w/ Curb-Agajanian,
Dallara IR18-Honda HI23TT V-6.

Winner:
Álex Palou
Chip Ganassi Racing.
Dallara IR18-Honda HI23TT V-6.

Laps 55
Distance 220.55 Miles (354.94) Km
Race Time 1:50:04
Speed 120.335 Mph (193.660 Km/h)

Fastest lap:
Will Power - Team Penske.
Lap 45, 102.8921 sec,
140.442 Mph (226.019 Km/h)

Cautions 4
Laps: 10.

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Practice and Qualifications

Practice 1, Friday, June 7.
4:00 PM - 5:15 PM ET

Practice 2, Saturday, June 8.
11:10 AM - 12:10 AM ET

Qualifications - Round 1, Group 1
Saturday, June 8. 3:25 PM - 3:35 PM ET

Qualifications - Round 1, Group 2
Saturday, June 8. 3:50 PM - 4:00 PM ET

Qualifications - Round 2
Saturday, June 8. 4:15 PM - 4:25 PM ET

Qualifications - Firestone Fast 6
Saturday, June 8. 4:40 PM - 4:55 AM ET

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TV Broadcast
Sunday, June 9.
NBC, Peacock. 3:30 PM, 7:30PM UTC
Sky Sports Mix, 8:30 PM BST.

[joeb]

Great track to watch anything race, but Indycars work well here. I am going to be on the road and will have to record and watch on delay but really looking forward to it.

[bjohnsonsmith]

I hope the end of the Canadian Grand Prix doesn't coincide with the start of the Xpel Grand Prix.

[Tourer]

Do like Road America, gives us quite a feast of single-seater action this weekend, all in North America (so both F1 & Indycar are on the early hours of Monday morning here in Oz).

Looking forward to it.

[v8supes]

Canapino out, Siegel in at JHR for the weekend. Very weird change imo since Canapino wasnt really responsible for what happened and Canapinos statement after the event was that Pourchaire should just get on with racing and "man up"

https://racer.com/2024/06/07/siegel-...-road-america/

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by v8supes

Canapino out, Siegel in at JHR for the weekend. Very weird change imo since Canapino wasnt really responsible for what happened and Canapinos statement after the event was that Pourchaire should just get on with racing and "man up"



https://racer.com/2024/06/07/siegel-...-road-america/

Guarantee he was given a PR response and chose to make that garbage response and JHR said nope, take a seat since you can't follow rules

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by v8supes

Canapino out, Siegel in at JHR for the weekend. Very weird change imo since Canapino wasnt really responsible for what happened and Canapinos statement after the event was that Pourchaire should just get on with racing and "man up"

https://racer.com/2024/06/07/siegel-...-road-america/

Canapino's comment doesn't exactly help and I don't think anyone wants this to drag on into this weekend's race. So if it helps to defuse the situation then that's a good thing.

[broadrun96]

I think it will be longer than this race, stay tuned for Tuesday and see who is in the car for the test at Milwaukee, have a feeling it's gonna be Siegel

He is coming up to speed, was slowest early on and not tearing through the field at 24th but faster than the forum favorite the "Real Sting Ray"

[joeb]

Nolan finishes last in FP1 (if you don't count Romain with a crash). All in all not a great week for JHR. I am hoping they can keep a team on the grid in coming years but with the interest from Prema and the max car count at 27 it could get tight....

[joeb]

Originally Posted by v8supes

Canapino out, Siegel in at JHR for the weekend. Very weird change imo since Canapino wasnt really responsible for what happened and Canapinos statement after the event was that Pourchaire should just get on with racing and "man up"

https://racer.com/2024/06/07/siegel-...-road-america/

I wonder if he is also running the NXT race this weekend?

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by joeb

I wonder if he is also running the NXT race this weekend?

He was on the entry list and the Indycar article on his seat with JHR said The Cock and Indy radio will air his race on Saturday so sounds like they're thinking he is. The practice report was useless, didn't mention him or say he wasn't on track

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

I think it will be longer than this race, stay tuned for Tuesday and see who is in the car for the test at Milwaukee, have a feeling it's gonna be Siegel

He is coming up to speed, was slowest early on and not tearing through the field at 24th but faster than the forum favorite the "Real Sting Ray"

If Canapino is driving at the Milwaukee test, the potential for this to drag on is still there. If Siegel is driving instead, then the potential is no longer there.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

He was on the entry list and the Indycar article on his seat with JHR said The Cock and Indy radio will air his race on Saturday so sounds like they're thinking he is. The practice report was useless, didn't mention him or say he wasn't on track

https://racer.com/2024/06/07/siegel-...wind-with-jhr/

He had 15 minutes to get from NXT to Indy for first practice. Hadn't even met the team before that! I'd say he did a great job being in the car with no practice or preparation.

[v8supes]

Not watching the second practice session but i noticed a clip that Indycar put up on their social media of Rossi very nearly hitting a safety truck that was pulling out into the run off area to collect Fittipaldi, just as Rossi was going off on his own. Very lucky that there was no contact. Circuit looked VERY WET.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by v8supes

Not watching the second practice session but i noticed a clip that Indycar put up on their social media of Rossi very nearly hitting a safety truck that was pulling out into the run off area to collect Fittipaldi, just as Rossi was going off on his own. Very lucky that there was no contact. Circuit looked VERY WET.

The rain has seemed to move away but the track may still be damp or worse in areas for Qualy

[joeb]

Timing says "rain delay" but Indycar on Twitter says everything is gravy.

[joeb]

Very wet, going to be a hair qualy session

[joeb]

Stingy took an extra lap after the checker, oops.

Not too many surprises in the fast 12, just Simpson making his best effort thus far.

[joeb]

Linus to pole!

And Josef may have just totalled a car.

[broadrun96]

An interesting Fast 6 from the leaderboard but Indy leaderboard site is terrible so who knows if it's the right guys

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by joeb

Linus to pole!

And Josef may have just totalled a car.

Totaled; that's one way of putting it.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Qualifying Result

Congrats to Linus Lundqvist on his first podium, in difficult conditions. He is the first rookie to take pole since Romain Grosjean in May 2021, at the GMR Grand Prix pn the IMS road course. Team mate Marcus Armstrong qualified third.


The top four grid places went to Honda.

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by joeb

Stingy took an extra lap after the checker, oops.

Giving the fans what they want.

Overall, that was an interesting one. Fun to see it in the wet. A wet qualifying that was interesting and not completely dictated by changing conditions. Everyone had a chance. Some took it.

That was a biggy at the end.

[mstets]

I would never have expected to say this at the start of the season but Simpson gets my vote for most impressive performance in qualifying. He was just .1 sec slower than Pato and .35 slower than Dixon on a 4 mile course in the rain. He's exceeded my expectations all year just by staying out of trouble (recall Jimmie Johnson's rookie season) but I'm surprised by his pace in qualifying in difficult conditions.

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by mstets

I would never have expected to say this at the start of the season but Simpson gets my vote for most impressive performance in qualifying. He was just .1 sec slower than Pato and .35 slower than Dixon on a 4 mile course in the rain. He's exceeded my expectations all year just by staying out of trouble (recall Jimmie Johnson's rookie season) but I'm surprised by his pace in qualifying in difficult conditions.

Yep, very good shout..

He and Linus are the stars of the weekend so far..