Round 12: Iowa Corn Indy 300, Newton, Iowa. 11th & 12th July, 2014.

[bjohnsonsmith]

The AAA, (American Automobole Association) held the very first very race in Iowa at the Tri-State Fair Grounds in Burlington, on July 9, 1915. It was a 100-mile (160 km) race, won by Bob Burman. Additional AAA races were held at Des Moines Speedway, in Valley Junction on a one-mile (1.6 km) wooden board track, in 1915 and 1916. However the track closed and dismantled soon after.

The current IndyCar event event was first held in 2007 and was won by Dario Franchitti, driving for Andretti Green Racing. From 2007-2013 the race was a distance of 218.75 miles, or 250 lapsor. This year the distance has been increased to 262.5 miles, or 300 laps.

The Iowa Speedway is the shortest track on the IndyCar calendar, at 0.875 miles long and producing a lap time of under 18 seconds.

Track Layout:


Length: 0.875 mi - 1.4 km
Turns: 4
Lap record: June 22nd, 2013. Helio Castroneves, Team Penske, Dallara DW12-Chevrolet, 17.3324 seconds, 185.65 mph - 298.77 kmh

Last year's winner:
James Hinchcliffe,
Andretti Autosport,
Dallara DW12-Chevrolet

Laps: 250
Distance: 218.75 mi - 352.044 km
Race Time: 1:30:16.0266
Average Speed: 148.559

TV Coverage:
NBCSN
Green flag, 8:00pm ET.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Lightning stops practice at Iowa.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/114924

[JHamilton]

This is usually a great race. I wonder how the added distance will affect strategy?

[fieldodreams79]

Originally Posted by JHamilton

I wonder how the added distance will affect strategy?

Yes.

[JHamilton]

Originally Posted by fieldodreams79

Yes.

Sometimes they monkey around with race distances to prevent a fuel mileage race and that's what I was wondering.

[JHamilton]

An interview with Jack Hawksworth: http://racer.com/indycar/item/105393...sworth-at-iowa

[Salamus]

This one will be fun! (I swear I say this every single time.)

I'm hoping Hinch can come out with a good result. This season has been disappointing for him. Only 4 Top 10 finishes...just not good enough.

[Purist]

Clearly, you want a Chevrolet engine at this track; they have EIGHT out of the Top 10 slots.

Good to see Helio breaking up that Ganassi party a little bit, and snagging the single fastest lap, which is also the fastest lap ever turned at Iowa Speedway (17.228sec).

Somebody needs to sort this out. They're rounding on the radio broadcast, calling it a 0.75-mile oval. Officially, and from all the track databases I've seen, it's 0.875 of a mile around. However, the lap speed data is for a lap of 0.894 of a mile. Somebody needs to make up their mind, or get out the bloody tape measure.

[JHamilton]

Yes, I've heard that too. Maybe they think we aren't savvy enough to know what a 7/8 mile is? They are wrong.

[fieldodreams79]

I don't need to know the length to know it's a great track for IndyCars and just about every speedway series there is. Wish they went to more of these and flat tracks, instead on the high banked ones.

[fieldodreams79]

Originally Posted by JHamilton

Exactly.

Originally Posted by JHamilton

An interview with Jack Hawksworth: http://racer.com/indycar/item/105393...sworth-at-iowa

Glad to see him back this week. That was the kind of shunt that would end seasons if not careers or worse not too long ago.

Is it just me or does Robin Miller got a little bit of "creepy Berry McGuire Car Crazy" going on in that interview?

[Purist]

FoD79, IndyCar only visits ONE high-banked oval a year: Texas (24 degrees). Iowa is a variable-banked oval in the turns (12-14 degrees), and has 10-degree banking in the tri-oval. Fontana is banked 14 degrees in the corners, as is Turn 1 at Pocono, which is the steepest of the three corners; Turns 2 and 3 are banked at 8 and 6 degrees respectively. Indianapolis and Milwaukee are banked a little over 9 degrees in the turns.

Phoenix may be too easy to take flat-out now, since the re-work in 2011. Richmond would have to find it worthwhile for the Indy Cars to come back. The same goes for New Hampshire. Nazareth is out of commission, and Orlando had its spectator facilities dismantled some time ago.

There aren't really any other suitable "flat tracks" coming to mind, and Iowa and Richmond are kind of a unique pair, which is fine. We've seen the results of building too many near-identical 1.5-mile speedways. There's no need to repeat that. The only other oval that really comes to mind, apart from Michigan, for IndyCar, might be Rockingham. However, they would at least need to re-adjust and/or remove some of the inside walls there.

[JHamilton]

Originally Posted by fieldodreams79

Is it just me or does Robin Miller got a little bit of "creepy Berry McGuire Car Crazy" going on in that interview?

LMAO Yes, he was way too close! He needs more spray tan to keep up Barry though.

I'm becoming a fan of Union Jack. He's quick and his 'CV' is pretty impressive.

[JHamilton]

Originally Posted by Purist

FoD79, IndyCar only visits ONE high-banked oval a year: Texas (24 degrees). Iowa is a variable-banked oval in the turns (12-14 degrees), and has 10-degree banking in the tri-oval. Fontana is banked 14 degrees in the corners, as is Turn 1 at Pocono, which is the steepest of the three corners; Turns 2 and 3 are banked at 8 and 6 degrees respectively. Indianapolis and Milwaukee are banked a little over 9 degrees in the turns.

Phoenix may be too easy to take flat-out now, since the re-work in 2011. Richmond would have to find it worthwhile for the Indy Cars to come back. The same goes for New Hampshire. Nazareth is out of commission, and Orlando had its spectator facilities dismantled some time ago.

There aren't really any other suitable "flat tracks" coming to mind, and Iowa and Richmond are kind of a unique pair, which is fine. We've seen the results of building too many near-identical 1.5-mile speedways. There's no need to repeat that. The only other oval that really comes to mind, apart from Michigan, for IndyCar, might be Rockingham. However, they would at least need to re-adjust and/or remove some of the inside walls there.

Your knowledge of tracks is always amazing Purist. I must say that I am surprised by some of these bank angles. Pocono 'seems' much flatter than the numbers suggest.

[fieldodreams79]

Originally Posted by Purist

FoD79, IndyCar only visits ONE high-banked oval a year: Texas (24 degrees). Iowa is a variable-banked oval in the turns (12-14 degrees), and has 10-degree banking in the tri-oval. Fontana is banked 14 degrees in the corners, as is Turn 1 at Pocono, which is the steepest of the three corners; Turns 2 and 3 are banked at 8 and 6 degrees respectively. Indianapolis and Milwaukee are banked a little over 9 degrees in the turns.

Phoenix may be too easy to take flat-out now, since the re-work in 2011. Richmond would have to find it worthwhile for the Indy Cars to come back. The same goes for New Hampshire. Nazareth is out of commission, and Orlando had its spectator facilities dismantled some time ago.

There aren't really any other suitable "flat tracks" coming to mind, and Iowa and Richmond are kind of a unique pair, which is fine. We've seen the results of building too many near-identical 1.5-mile speedways. There's no need to repeat that. The only other oval that really comes to mind, apart from Michigan, for IndyCar, might be Rockingham. However, they would at least need to re-adjust and/or remove some of the inside walls there.

Thanks for clearing that up. The ever changing Indy schedule from year to year confuses me.

Two races on ONE high banked speedway should be replaced by Milwaukee and New Hampshire. Phoenix is perfectly fine to accommodate Indy if Cali and Texas can.

Iowa is great; let's discuss that and the race there. I for one am glad its becoming a reoccurring event.

[bjohnsonsmith]

All Ganassi front row with Dixon on pole.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/114930

Pos Driver Team/Engine Speed
1. Scott Dixon Ganassi/Chevy 186.256
2. Tony Kanaan Ganassi/Chevy 185.891
3. Helio Castroneves Penske/Chevy 185.685
4. Ryan Briscoe Ganassi/Chevy 185.339
5. Carlos Munoz Andretti/Honda 185.027
6. Sebastien Bourdais KV/Chevy 184.968
7. Charlie Kimball Ganassi/Chevy 184.743
8. Marco Andretti Andretti/Honda 184.726
9. Will Power Penske/Chevy 184.683
10. Ed Carpenter Carpenter/Chevy 184.589
11. Simon Pagenaud Schmidt/Honda 184.380
12. Mikhail Aleshin Schmidt/Honda 184.316
13. Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti/Honda 183.747
14. James Hinchcliffe Andretti/Honda 183.348
15. Graham Rahal Rahal/Honda 183.201
16. Takuma Sato Foyt/Honda 183.089
17. Sebastian Saavedra KV/Chevy 183.083
18. Justin Wilson Coyne/Honda 182.455
19. Juan Pablo Montoya Penske/Chevy 182.317
20. Jack Hawksworth Herta/Honda 181.243
21. Josef Newgarden Fisher/Honda 180.987
22. Carlos Huertas Coyne/Honda 177.849

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

It didn't take long before Aleshin outqualified Hunter-Reay on an oval did it!

Edit: Nice to see Hawksworth back. As a Brit, it was concerning to hear about his injuries. Glad they weren't too bad in the end, and I'm hoping for a top 10.

[NaBUru38]

17.2 second / 186.2 mph laps at a 7/8 mile oval is insane!

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

17.2 second / 186.2 mph laps at a 7/8 mile oval is insane!

It is and that's what I like about AOWR, the variety of tracks. No other series has this.

[fieldodreams79]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

No other series has this.

CART was better, but that's a dead horse

Pretty entertaining thus far. Pretty clean and some fantastic side by side/wheel to wheel battles.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by fieldodreams79

CART was better, but that's a dead horse

Pretty entertaining thus far. Pretty clean and some fantastic side by side/wheel to wheel battles.

You could call it the B*****d son of CART...

Just got in, has anyone got a feed?

[fieldodreams79]

Mine's is on the tele.
Also here:
http://stream.nbcsports.com/indy/?pi...com/liveextra/

Don't think that helps you....

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by fieldodreams79

Mine's is on the tele.
Also here:
http://stream.nbcsports.com/indy/?pi...com/liveextra/

Don't think that helps you....

Thanks but I'm the wrong side of the pond.

[fieldodreams79]

Maybe you'll find one.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by fieldodreams79

Maybe you'll find one.

I did, .