Round 10: Kohler Grand Prix. Road America, Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. June 22-24.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Round 10: Kohler Grand Prix. Road America, Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. June 22-24.

The 2016 Kohler Grand Prix was the first major AOWR event to be held at Road America since the Champ Car Generac Grand Prix of Road America, in August 2007. With the exception of 2005, when the race was dropped due to sponsorship issues, it was a perennial event on the CART/Champ Car calendar from 1982 - 2007, with Héctor Rebaque winning the Road America 200 in 1982, for Forsythe Racing, in a March 82C-Ford Cosworth DFX and Sébastien Bourdais, winning the Champ Car Generac Grand Prix of Road America, for Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing, in a Panoz DP-01-Cosworth XFE, in 2007. With the merger of Champ Car and the IRL in 2008, the race was dropped from the calendar.

The very first race to be held at Elkhart Lake was in 1950 and 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 layed 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 the event was moved to a private, purpose built course. Highway engineer Clif Tufte, got together with local citizens and the Chicago Region of the Sports Car Club of America to develop and build a permanent racecourse. 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. During this time the layout has hardly changed, apart from a chicane that was installed for AMA motorcycle competitors at The Kink.


Last year's race:
Hélio Castroneves secured his 50th pole position, as Team Penske locked out the front two rows of the grid, with Power second, Newgarden third, and Pagenaud fourth.

The start saw Castroneves hold the lead, while Newgarden managed to get around Power for second and Dixon managed to get around Pagenaud. During the opening lap, Pigot suffered a broken front-wing, after making contact with Hunter-Reay.

On lap 6, some drivers, including Rossi, Rahal and Aleshin began to pit for what would be a four-stop strategy, while he leaders, elected for a three-stop strategy, not pitting until around lap 13. After the first stops, Castroneves had a narrow lead over Newgarden, while Dixon and Rossi both leapfrogged Power to take third and fourth place, respectively. Soon eafter, Pagenaud overtook Power, dropping Power out of the top five.

On lap 20, Newgarden was able to get passed Castroneves, pulling away and himself a solid lead. Castroneves soon began falling into the clutches of Dixon and Pagenaud, when the second round of stops for the leaders came at lap 27. During the stops, Newgarden maintained the lead, but now was ahead of Dixon in second. Almost immediately after the completion of the first round of stops came the race's first caution, as Takuma Sato spun, making contact with the wall at Turn 11 on lap 29, though was able to continue after getting a bump start from the safety team. During the caution, drivers on the four-stop strategy elected to pit.

The restart saw Dixon swing around the outside of Newgarden through Turn 1 to take the lead, with Castroneves passing Newgarden a few turns later. The top five remained the same until the final round of stops on around lap 41. Dixon maintained his lead, while Newgarden successfully got around his teammate to put him back in second. Castroneves, Pagenaud, and Power completed the top five.

On lap 45, the race saw its second caution, as Tony Kanaan crashed heavily at Turn 11, after breaking his front wing, in an attempt to pass Rossi.

The restart came on Lap 48, with the front runners in the same order. Further back, Rossi, dealing with damage from the previous incident, was pushed off course and dropped down to 12th. Up front, no one was able to challenge Dixon for the remainder of the race, allowing him to secure his 41st career IndyCar victory and his first of the 2017 season. Newgarden came across the line in second, while Castroneves finished third. Pagenaud and Power finished fourth and fith respectively. Dixon's win allowed him to extend his lead in the championship, placing him 34 points ahead of Pagenaud.

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.

Original track layout:


Current 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 HRK. CART FedEx Championship Series.

Pole:
Helio Castroneves, 1:41.3007, 143.85 mph (231.52 km/h).
Team Penske,
Dallara DW12-Chevrolet Indy V6.

Last year's winner:
Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing.
Dallara DW12-Honda HI17RTT V6 Indy.

Laps 55
Distance 222.64 Miles (358.3041 km)
Race Time 1:47:19
Speed 123.431 Mph (198.643 km/h)

Cautions:
3, laps 3.

TV Broadcast
NBCSN, Jun 24.
12:30pm ET.

[fieldodreams79]

Good post #1 as ever BJS, but you neglected to mention brats, the Beast and cheese.

Looking forward to this 1!!

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by fieldodreams79

Good post #1 as ever BJS, but you neglected to mention brats, the Beast and cheese.

Looking forward to this 1!!

Ooops. I found this article on the Nasportscar.com web site, appropriately titled: ''Wisconsin: the land of cheese, brats & race cars."

http://nasportscar.com/wisconsin-the...ats-race-cars/

[fieldodreams79]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Ooops. I found this article on the Nasports.com web site, appropriately titled: ''Wisconsin: the land of cheese, brats & race cars."

http://nasportscar.com/wisconsin-the...ats-race-cars/

And BEER!! Erin forget to mention the beer!!

[Speedblood]

Looking forward to this one, hopeful the new kit will continue it's good form. Great work as ever too BJS!

[Mekola]

How funny, guys.

[joeb]

Indy cars work really well at Road America, actually I guess everything does, since it is such an epic track.

I will probably have to watch this on delay, but I'll be watching for sure

[Purist]

From Rahal's onboard, they're doing ~190 mph along all three straights, so top-end is certainly up, as we could expect from the reduced drag of the current package.

(Now, we just need those 2.4-liter, 900-hp engines to come in in a few years to get back to CART territory.)

We'll just have to see how the overall lap times bear out.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Qualifying

1 Josef Newgarden, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m43.2026s
2 Will Power, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m43.2508s. 0.0482s
3 Ryan Hunter-Reay, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 1m43.3811s. 0.1785s
4 Alexander Rossi, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 1m43.4361s. 0.2335s
5 Robert Wickens, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Dallara/Honda. 1m43.7121s. 0.5095s
6 Sebastien Bourdais, Dale Coyne Racing. Dallara/Honda. 1m43.7332s. 0.5306s
7 Takuma Sato, Rahal Letterman Lanigan. Dallara/Honda. 1m43.1108s
8 Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda. 1m43.1769s
9 Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan. Dallara/Honda. 1m43.1874s
10 Spencer Pigot, Ed Carpenter Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m43.1995s
11 Zach Veach, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 1m43.2265s
12 Ed Jones, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda. 1m43.3544s
13 Jordan King, Ed Carpenter Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m43.7356s
14 Simon Pagenaud, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m43.4153s
15 Marco Andretti, Andretti Herta. Dallara/Honda. 1m43.9843s
16 James Hinchcliffe, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Dallara/Honda. 1m43.8591s
17 Zachary Claman, Dale Coyne Racing. Dallara/Honda. 1m44.0189s
18 Tony Kanaan, AJ Foyt Enterprises. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m44.1165s
19 Charlie Kimball, Carlin. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m45.1161s
20 Matheus Leist, AJ Foyt Enterprises. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m44.3438s
21 Alfonso Celis, Juncos Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m45.5584s
22 Max Chilton, Carlin. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m44.3442s
23 Gabby Chaves, Harding Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m44.6258s

[Dixon9]

why is espn showing tennis instead of the race as advertised?

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Dixon9

why is espn showing tennis instead of the race as advertised?

I think it's to do with whether it's on the HD version.

I can't get a single feed.

Edit: finally got one but it is bit delayed.

[Akrapovic]

Mikes Hard Lemonde Fast Track Facts.

[bjohnsonsmith]

That was a very clean start but Power was going backwards, lost about 10 places.

[Akrapovic]

If you're not a regular viewer, the IndyCar ticker at the top of the screen is absolutely worthless.

Top 3 is 9, and the man has a face. 1. He also has a face. And 28. He has a face with less hair.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

If you're not a regular viewer, the IndyCar ticker at the top of the screen is absolutely worthless.

Top 3 is 9, and the man has a face. 1. He also has a face. And 28. He has a face with less hair.

I can't see any faces on the ticker.

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

I can't see any faces on the ticker.

#1 Face is now leading the #28 Face. #28 face looks like he needs to brush his hair. #27 looks to have a nice tan though, so that's cool.

[tux]

So nice to watch a race where drivers push every lap, don’t have DRS and can’t just drive off track without consequences.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

#1 Face is now leading the #28 Face. #28 face looks like he needs to brush his fair. #27 looks to have a nice tan though, so that's cool.

Lo, I'm not getting that, maybe something to do with the feed.

I wonder if Rossi get's his wrist slapped for that move on Sato?

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Lo, I'm not getting that, maybe something to do with the feed.

I wonder if Rossi get's his wrist slapped for that move on Sato?

Was deemed racing as was the same move attempted by Wickens earlier in the race. You can't be on the outside at 5, it doesn't work and then you're stuck without grip and won't make it work later

[Akrapovic]

Rossi was a bit rude, but it was always going to end that way. Great move around 4 though.

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

#1 Face is now leading the #28 Face. #28 face looks like he needs to brush his hair. #27 looks to have a nice tan though, so that's cool.

NBC had always used that for the top 3, the ticker runs under that. Could be worse, ESPN used to interrupt their ticker and cover it with the bottom line but they ran the constant bottom line they run now.

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

NBC had always used that for the top 3, the ticker runs under that. Could be worse, ESPN used to interrupt their ticker and cover it with the bottom line but they ran the constant bottom line they run now.

I'm particularly enjoying how the top ticker keeps changing to twitter handles of commentators I don't like! That's really useful!

Obviously, I'm messing about, but this race is quite enjoyable. The car is beautiful, some decent racing although not incredible. Road America is amazing. If I was Fernando I'd be watching this was interest.

[broadrun96]

That move from Chavez was cheeky at best, illegal likely. You can tell he's an open wheel guy blocking like that, GTs or stock cars and he'd have been punted trying that

[tux]

Rossi has a problem!

Seems like a suspension issue. The team looked to adjust something or tighten something

[Akrapovic]

I love these commentators. They literally just make it up. "Rossi has a problem! Probably a puncture!"

Based on...absolutely nothing lol.