August 2017 News
Road to Indy Shootout Works!

Aug 1 - Last December at Laguna Seca, the first Mazda
Road to Indy Shootout took place.  This experiment
brings in young talent from around the world to vie for
a $200,000 scholarship to compete in the USF2000
series - the first step to becoming an IndyCar driver.

Throughout 2016, nearly 400 drivers from 20 open-
wheel racing championships on five continents
competed for an entry ticket to the Shootout.

18 drivers, with an average age of 19, competed in the
Shootout.  In the end, 19 y/o
Oliver Askew, who
gained his entry to the Shooout after claiming a Team
USA Scholarship, was declared the winner after two
days of racing.

So far this year, Askew has won 7 of the 12 F2000
races held, including both road courses and an oval.

Askew will likely be declared the 2017 champion!
RACE NEWS & VIEWS
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Oliver Askew
American Leads Points

The waiting game is finally over for
former World Champion American
Kirby Chambliss as he makes it back
to back wins after blazing to glory in the
Russian city of Kazan in front of 90,000
fans.

This epic return to form puts him at the
top of the standings and within reach of
an elusive third title.
The Red Bull Air Race series next races in Portugal and Germany in September.
The last race of the season will be at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway October 14 & 15.               
2017 Schedule
Haas F1 Conundrum

Aug 15 - The American F1 team Haas Racing is currently
ranked 7 out of 10 teams in Constructor Points.  Leader
Gene Haas had this to say,  “I think we have two good
drivers right now, they’ve both scored points, the car’s
very good,” Haas, whose team has a close technical
partnership with Ferrari, told Motorsport.com.

“But the real cloud that hangs over us is the fact w’re one
to two seconds [a lap] off the fastest cars. And quite
frankly we don’t understand we can be that far off with
what we consider to be state-of-the-art equipment.

“Other than the top three teams, everybody’s in that boat.
That to me is probably the biggest problem that I see right
now, that the top three teams are light years ahead of
everybody else.

“They are also the teams that develop their own engines,
transmissions and chassis, so there’s an inherent
advantage in doing that.

“How do we overcome that? Quite frankly there’s no
answer to that, which is really depressing.”

“That’s a dilemma that F1 is facing,” Haas added. “You
have the teams at the front and then this big mid-pack…
we’re all very close together, matter of fact the mid-pack
is all within a second.

“So from a competitive standpoint we’re all very equal,
it’s just you have this group way out in front that we’re all
struggling with.

“The reality of it is, that outside those three teams nobody
has a chance to win. If you’re running sixth through 20th,
you really don’t have a chance of winning.”
POS

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
TEAM

Mercedes
Ferrari
Red Bull Racing
Force India
Williams
Toro Rosso
Haas
Renault
McLaren
Sauber
POINTS

357
318
184
101
41
39
29
26
11
5
2017 Constructor Standings
Gene Haas
ENGINE

Mercedes
Ferrari
Renault
Mercedes
Mercedes
Ferrari
Ferrari
Renault
Honda
Ferrari
SPM Racing Switches Drivers

Aug 16 - Russian driver Mikhail Aleshin sat out the
IndyCar race in Toronto when his team, Schmidt
Peterson Motorsports, handed the ride to Columbian
Sebastian Saavedra.  Saavedra finished 11th at
Toronto.

Aleshin was back in the car at Mid-Ohio, where he
finished in 14th place after starting from the back -
position 21.

Aleshin finished 15th in points last year while driving for
SPM.  His teammate,
James Hinchcliffe, finished 13th .

For whatever reason, Aleshin is moving to SMP Racing
in Europe where he'll be competing in the LeMans series
behind the wheel of a LMP1 car.

Saavedra has been given Aleshin's ride at SPM.
DATE
March 12
April 9
April 23
April 29
May 13
May 28
June 3
June 4
June 10
June 25
July 9
July 30
LOCATION
St Pete
Long Beach
Alabama
Phoenix
Indy GP
Indy 500
Detroit 1
Detroit 2
Texas
Road America
Iowa
Mid-Ohio
SP
17
16
8
7
17
13
20
6
16
19
6
21
POS
14
7
9
Crash 1st Lap
18
13
6
16
Crash Lap 151
10
Crash Lap 56
14
2017 ALESHIIN INDYCAR RESULTS
Memorabilia Meet At IMS Museum

Aug 18 - For the first time, IMS is hosting a memorabilia
meet where you can browse and buy Indy 500 souvenirs
from various vendors.  

Items such as autographs, photos, books, die-cast,
programs, and crew shirts will be available.

Admission is just the $10 it costs to enter the museum.

It will be held Saturday, September 9th from 9 a.m. - 5
p.m.
Penske to Race Sports Cars in 2018

Aug 18 - Acura Motorsports is joining forces with Team
Penske to field a prototype effort in the 2018 IMSA
WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.  The program will
include a pair of new Acura ARX-05 Daytona Prototype
International (DPi) entries, fielded under the legendary
Team Penske banner.

The official competition debut will take place at the season-
opening Rolex 24 in January, 2018.

Team Penske Founder
Roger Penske commented,  
“Sports car racing has been an integral part of Team
Penske’s heritage, from our first race at the 24 Hours
of Daytona in 1966 to running the American Le Mans
Series in the late 2000s.  Reviving a Team Penske sports
car program has always been a goal for us, but to do so
required strong and successful partners like Honda and
Acura. It’s great to extend our relationship from the
dealership to the race track and we are excited to come
back to IMSA and the WeatherTech SportsCar
Championship.”

The Acura ARX-05 [Acura Racing eXperimental,
generation 5] is the latest in a line of endurance proto-
types to be fielded by the company dating back to 1991,
just five years after the 1986 launch of the Acura brand.  
Based on the very successful ORECA 07 chassis, the
new ARX-05 prototype features Acura-specific body-
work and utilizes the race-proven, production-based
Acura AR35TT twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V6 engine.  

The multi-year program will be administered by Honda
Performance Development, the racing arm for both
Acura Motorsports and Honda Racing in North America.

Juan Montoya will partner with sports-car veteran Dane
Cameron
in one of the Acura prototype cars.  Drivers
for the other car will be announced later.
The new Acura ARX-05 Prototype was unveiled today.
Pocono Practice & Qualifying Crashes

Aug 19 - IndyCar visits Pocono Raceway for a
condensed two days.

Today the drivers got one practice session before
qualifying.  
Ed Carpenter crashed hard exiting Turn 3.  
While he was ok, his car was not repaired in time for
qualifying.  
Ed Jones also spun, making light contact
with the wall in Turn 2 with the nose of his car.  
Ryan
Hunter-Reay
was fastest in practice, followed by
Simon Pagenaud, Tony Kanaan and Marco Andretti.

During Qualifying three hours later,
Helio Castroneves
crashed hard in Turn 3.  He was ok.  Then
Ryan
Hunter-Reay
spun and crashed in the same spot, but
harder, and then spun and hit the inside pit wall.  
Hunter-Reay was injured.  On the radio he said it was
his hip.  With help, he hobbled over to a truck to be
taken to the medical center.
Simon Pagenaud held the pole position through out
qualifying.

Marco Andretti's car got stuck in 6th gear, so he did not
qualify well.

Takuma Sato came out last to qualify and took the pole
away from Pagenaud.

The drivers will get one more practice session today.

The 500-mile race will start tomorrorw at 2 p.m.


Practice 1 Results
Qualifying Results
The ABC Supply 500 at Pocono

Aug 20 - The Pocono Raceway was designed especially
for Indy cars by
Roger Ward.  Known as 'The Tricky
Triangle' this 2.5-mile oval track only has 3 corners.  
Turn 1 was copied from the New Jersey speedway, Turn
2 was a copy of Indianapolis and turn 3 was like the
Milwaukee mile.  The track is 90' wide which allows for
cars to run 5 & 6 wide!  It also has the longest straight of
any Indy track.

Takuma Sato had won the pole position yesterday, but
he immediately fell back through the field at the start of
the race and
Tony Kanaan led the first 11 laps.

On lap 23, former-F1 driver
Esteban Gutierrez grazed
the wall with the rear of his car.  Enough damage was
done though to put him out of the race.

Alex Rossi and Scott Dixon would lead from there until
lap 115.

Sebastian Saavedra crashed on lap 114.

Kanaan got into a duel with
Graham Rahal, swapping
back and forth for the lead, from laps 116-150.

JR Hildebrand and James Hinchcliffe made contact
which sent them both into the wall and out of the race on
lap 124.

Will Power would lead the rest of the race except for a
few laps by Ryan Hunter-Reay, Marco Andretti and one
lap by
Josef Newgarden.

On lap 163, Power had been able to stay out longer and
made the fastest lap.  After pitting he came out about
5-seconds ahead of the pack.  He was able to hold onto the
lead after the final pit stop.

Newarden had caught him and tried to pass him during
the last 7 laps, but Power would duck down low in T3,
taking the draft away, and would keep the lead.

Power won even though at one point he was a lap down
and had a damaged rear due to getting hit from behind.  
He said, "It was a dramatic day.... You never know what
can happen.  Keep pushing.  Never give up."

Newgarden said, "I was on the edge of my seat the whole
time."

This was Power's 32nd IndyCar win, moving him to 9th
place in the all-time-wins list.
Tony Kanaan
James Hinchcliffe
Alexander Rossi
Gateway Qualifying

Aug 25 - IndyCars returned to the short oval by St. Louis
today after an absence of 13 years.  

Tight turns, new sticky pavement and inexperience with
the track saw highly varying speeds during qualifying as
teams tried to guess their cars' setups after only one
practice.

Team Penske was easily the winner with all four of their
cars qualifying in the top four positions.  

Will Power, qualifying last, won his 50th pole position
with a speed of 185.551 mph.  This ties him with
Helio
Castroneves
for number of pole positions.  They are
third on the all time list of IndyCar drivers.

Sebastian Bourdais is back!  After a horrendous head-
on crash during qualifying at the Indy 500 this year, the
injured Frenchman returns to racing at this dangerous
oval race.

Ed Carpenter was the fastest car after the Penskes.

Tomorrow's race will be ran under the lights starting at
9 p.m.

St. Louis Gateway Qualifying Results
Sebastien Bourdais and race engineer Craig Hampson
Will Power gets his 50th Pole!
Hamilton Wins 68th Poleposition

Aug 26 - Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton beat Ferrari’s
Sebastian Vettel to first place in Saturday’s qualifying
session for the 2017 Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix at
Spa-Francorchamps. It is the 68th pole of Hamilton’s F1
career, matching Michael Schumacher’s outright pole-
position record.

A scintillating lap of 1m 42.553s – the fastest ever here –
put the Briton, who starts his 200th Grand Prix on
Sunday, 0.242s ahead of his championship rival, with
team mate
Valtteri Bottas third.

Hamilton owned the session and never looked like being
beaten, but in the end it was a close-run thing between
the three-time champion and points leader Vettel, after a
gripping hour of action.

Spa Qualifying Results
Lewis Hamilton Wins His 68th Pole!