Round 9 - Milwaukee IndyFest, WI - Jason McVeigh
Welcome to the Milwaukee Mile, a place where tradition runs deep, a place that can be called the oldest operating motor speedway in the world, the place where Indycar is rooted almost as deep as it is in Indianapolis, the place where an Andretti Autosport car will very probably spank the entire field...
In the film "Winning", Paul Newman said that "everybody goes to Milwaukee after Indy." Not anymore. That once proud tradition has been separated this year by Belle Isle and Texas but that's fine because for any real lover of Indycar, any Milwaukee race is better than no Milwaukee race and the work done by Michael Andretti and everyone who has put the effort into bringing The Milwaukee Indyfest to fruition the past few years, deserves credit.
So here we are ready to add another page to history with the 2013 edition. While the crowd isn't what it once was in years gone by, those who attended this years' event no doubt walked away happy. Outside of the racing, there was plenty of other fun things on tap for all the family to enjoy including the ferris wheel, live music and bumper cars. And if you aren't entertained by the Robin Miller grid walk then there is just no entertaining you. Anyway, on with the action. The following is my reaction live as it happened to round 9 of the 2013 Izod Indycar series.
Lap 1: Nice clean start to the race followed by Andretti, Hinchcliffe and Hunter-Reay going 3 wide into turn one. The sharp intake of breath heard in the pits at that point was almost definitely Michael Andretti's.
Lap 5: Will Power looking nippy and Bourdais up to P9 already. Don't count out either of these 2. Also don't count out some sort of glove throwing incident between them.
Lap 8: Michael Andretti's sharp intake of breath turns to a vastly increased heart rate as Hunter-Reay gets a little too close for comfort to Marco in an overtaking attempt. Marco holds him off.
Lap 18: Justin Wilson does what the commentary team refer to as a "death wiggle" but manages to keep the car on track and out of the wall.
Lap 22: Simona De Silvestro doesn't fair so well and she spins, bringing out our first caution. Doesn't seem to be any damage and she makes it back to the pits. A lot of us had high hopes for the Simona/KV pairing this year but it hasn't been great so far. Hope they can turn it around at some point.
Lap 24: PIT!!! Newgarden and Franchitti have a close call on pit lane exit but nothing comes of it.
ESPN take another break and I think to myself that given how fast this race is, never mind cautions, we will probably run half of this race under commercials today.
Restart: Green, green, green... Nope, I mean... yellow, yellow, yellow... Alex Tagliani loses control on the restart but does a good job of holding onto it. Graham Rahal pokes his nose into the rear of James Jakes (no laughing please) and Graham gets some damage.
Lap 32: let's try this again.. Green, Green, Green. Much better start, everyone makes it through clean. Hunter-Reay takes another look at marco for the lead but doesn't force it. Lots of heavy racing going on in the back. More cautions could be ahead.
Lap 37: nice replay of Ed Carpenter passing Justin Wilson once and Sebastien Bourdais twice all within two corners. Ed seems to be better suited to ovals where there is some banking but he's doing okay here so far.
Lap 41: Ryan Briscoe driving like he has a flight to to catch. Oh wait, he does. The Aussie will head to Le Mans right after this to get ready for next weekends 24 Hour race. Does a good job here of avoiding wheel banging Bourdais and ruining what could be a decent day for both.
Lap 51: replay shows that Briscoe and his old partner at Penske, Helio Castroneves come close to taking themselves out of the race. Simona De Silvestro sheepishly slips by.
Lap 54: apparently drivers on the radio are complaining for race control to get Simona out of the way.. And Bourdais is slow on track.
Lap 56: apparently Bourdais was just low on fuel and did not have a mechanical issue but it no longer matters because on pit exist, he drives over an air gun and gets a penalty.
Lap 58: upfront it's still Andretti, Hunter-Reay, Power, Hinchcliffe and Viso in the top 5. I believe someone on the commentary team called Will Power "the meat in the Andretti Autosport sandwich" earlier, which conjures many bizarre images.
Lap 63: Hunter-Reay takes the lead while we are on a break. Marco falls to 3rd.
Lap 65: Viso starts the next pit stop cycle. Good stop. The results haven't always been there this year but EJ is improving. Much calmer driver now than the absolute lunatic who entered this series in 2008.
Lap 69: Marco Andretti has a nightmare stop. Fuel hose gets stuck and he loses a bunch of spots. He is going to be mad.
Lap 72: your new leader, Takuma Sato (who hasn't stopped yet) reports to his team that he "is loving it in there" which is more than Ryan Briscoe can say as he almost brushes the wall.
Lap 78: Ryan Briscoe almost collides with Franchitti but Dario plays it smart and let's off the gas
Lap 80: Hinchcliffe, Carpenter and Rahal show each other great "spatial awareness" as all 3 make it through some close quarters racing without ending up in the wall.
Another ESPN break and I'm wondering who Ryan Briscoe has almost collided with now.
Lap 91: Taku brings the ABC Supply car to pit road and relinquishes the lead. Charlie Kimball stalls in his pit box when he gets there. Your new leader is Ernesto J. Viso.
Lap 98: Marco Andretti stops on track and brings out another caution. Tough break for the 3rd Generation star. He was pretty untouchable up until that botched pit stop.
Lap 100: pits open. Most of the leaders stop and Huner-Reay is the first man back out again. Elsewhere Marco Andretti, still in his stranded car, looks like he is chatting pleasantly with a Halmatro safety crew member. Or possibly yelling swear words at him. Who knows.
Lap 105: Marco's race is over, he is out of the car. Says it's an electronic problem.
Lap 107: Takuma Sato, due to a different fuel strategy, is back in the lead for our next restart and gets away nicely.
Lap 112: EJ Viso has the fastest lap of the race thus far with 160.752mph. Watch for him to be right up there at the finish.
Lap 125. : we are half way through and Simon Pagenaud closes in on Tony Kanaan, loses it and almost ends up in the wall.
Lap 129: Marco Andretti buckles back into the RC Cola machine. This kid is thinking Championship. Or else he just want a better look at what kind of car parts Helio Castroneves may be running this week.
Lap 152: Ed Carpenter just about keeps the Fuzzy's Chevrolet out of the wall. Comes straight into the pits afterwards for new tyres.
Lap 156: Helio Castroneves gives up the chase for the top spot to come into the pits. Sato stays out for another lap.
Lap 159: Helio looks certain to take the lead but NO.. Sato breezes by him just as Helio gets close to the lapped car of Ana Beatriz. Great work by the Foyt team on that last stop.
Lap 170: because of all the various fuel strategies in place, we get some more stops from the likes of the Ganassi and Andretti drivers and a few lead changes. After everything settles down, Sato is your leader. ABC Supply Co. Are based in Milwaukee so a win here today would be a pretty big deal for them.
Random thought going into another ESPN break: Everytime it shows Roger Penske standing on the pit wall with that quiet noble confidence and immaculate white shirt, I feel slightly inadequate as a human.
Lap 184: Takuma Sato has a big wiggle but amazingly holds on and keeps the lead. The drivers have done a great job all day of avoiding putting the cars into the wall.
Lap 190: close up of Larry Foyt in the pits and really, he deserves a lot of credit for the great season this team has had. Apparently Larry has taken on a lot more responsibilities within the AJ Foyt team and he is really doing a good job. Many people predicted that the Foyt/Sato partnership wouldn't be a fruitful one. They have been wrong.
Lap 197: Ryan Hunter-Reay seems to find another gear and passes Helio on the low side of the track. Very impressive move. 2 laps later he passes Sato for the lead.
Lap 200: Sato pits and destroys whatever life his tyres had left in them with some heavy braking. He'll be lucky if there isn't a speeding penalty there.
Lap 203: Saavedra up in the dirty part of the track and grazes the wall. No yellow.
Whilst on a break : Ana Beatriz up in the dirty part of the track and grazes the wall. Yellow.
Lap 220: restart and things are getting crazy. Hunter-Reay is your new leader but behind him it's a festival of position changes. Or Indyfest of position changes if you prefer. At some point I think Tony Kanaan gives the finger to EJ Viso.
Lap 230: and Ryan Hunter-Reay has checked out. Big lead over the rest of the field. With Helio Castroneves in second, if things finish like this Marco Andretti is going to take a massive blow in the points. Which even sounds painful.
Lap 240: 10 laps to go. Even with a few cautions, this has been a very fast paced race. Fans may have spent longer queuing up for the bumper cars earlier than they have spent in the stands today. All good though because this has been a good race. And it's not over yet. The Penskes are hunting down RHR. Very good oval performance from Will Power today.
Lap 246: Will Power and Helio Castroneves come extremely close to making Roger Penske a very, very unhappy man by almost taking each other out of 2nd and 3rd place. Luckily they think better of it so neither man will be fired today.
Lap 250: even though he encounters some traffic, it proves to be no problem and Ryan Hunter-Reay get the win, making it the second year in a row that the DHL/Sun Drop Chevy goes to victory lane at the Milwaukee mile.
Congratulations to Ryan Hunter-Reay and the Andretti Autosport team on a big victory. There have been better races this year but this was still pretty good and I don't know if there have been better seasons. The Championship is still wide open and if history is anything to go by, we will have to wait until Fontana to find out who the winner will be. How can you not love Indycar?
Massive thanks to IndycarUK for giving me the honour of reviewing the Milwaukee race and a huge thank you to everyone who visits the site and especially to those of you who took the time to read this report. Can't wait to see what the rest of the season has to offer.
You can follow Jason on Twitter
In the film "Winning", Paul Newman said that "everybody goes to Milwaukee after Indy." Not anymore. That once proud tradition has been separated this year by Belle Isle and Texas but that's fine because for any real lover of Indycar, any Milwaukee race is better than no Milwaukee race and the work done by Michael Andretti and everyone who has put the effort into bringing The Milwaukee Indyfest to fruition the past few years, deserves credit.
So here we are ready to add another page to history with the 2013 edition. While the crowd isn't what it once was in years gone by, those who attended this years' event no doubt walked away happy. Outside of the racing, there was plenty of other fun things on tap for all the family to enjoy including the ferris wheel, live music and bumper cars. And if you aren't entertained by the Robin Miller grid walk then there is just no entertaining you. Anyway, on with the action. The following is my reaction live as it happened to round 9 of the 2013 Izod Indycar series.
Lap 1: Nice clean start to the race followed by Andretti, Hinchcliffe and Hunter-Reay going 3 wide into turn one. The sharp intake of breath heard in the pits at that point was almost definitely Michael Andretti's.
Lap 5: Will Power looking nippy and Bourdais up to P9 already. Don't count out either of these 2. Also don't count out some sort of glove throwing incident between them.
Lap 8: Michael Andretti's sharp intake of breath turns to a vastly increased heart rate as Hunter-Reay gets a little too close for comfort to Marco in an overtaking attempt. Marco holds him off.
Lap 18: Justin Wilson does what the commentary team refer to as a "death wiggle" but manages to keep the car on track and out of the wall.
Lap 22: Simona De Silvestro doesn't fair so well and she spins, bringing out our first caution. Doesn't seem to be any damage and she makes it back to the pits. A lot of us had high hopes for the Simona/KV pairing this year but it hasn't been great so far. Hope they can turn it around at some point.
Lap 24: PIT!!! Newgarden and Franchitti have a close call on pit lane exit but nothing comes of it.
ESPN take another break and I think to myself that given how fast this race is, never mind cautions, we will probably run half of this race under commercials today.
Restart: Green, green, green... Nope, I mean... yellow, yellow, yellow... Alex Tagliani loses control on the restart but does a good job of holding onto it. Graham Rahal pokes his nose into the rear of James Jakes (no laughing please) and Graham gets some damage.
Lap 32: let's try this again.. Green, Green, Green. Much better start, everyone makes it through clean. Hunter-Reay takes another look at marco for the lead but doesn't force it. Lots of heavy racing going on in the back. More cautions could be ahead.
Lap 37: nice replay of Ed Carpenter passing Justin Wilson once and Sebastien Bourdais twice all within two corners. Ed seems to be better suited to ovals where there is some banking but he's doing okay here so far.
Lap 41: Ryan Briscoe driving like he has a flight to to catch. Oh wait, he does. The Aussie will head to Le Mans right after this to get ready for next weekends 24 Hour race. Does a good job here of avoiding wheel banging Bourdais and ruining what could be a decent day for both.
Lap 51: replay shows that Briscoe and his old partner at Penske, Helio Castroneves come close to taking themselves out of the race. Simona De Silvestro sheepishly slips by.
Lap 54: apparently drivers on the radio are complaining for race control to get Simona out of the way.. And Bourdais is slow on track.
Lap 56: apparently Bourdais was just low on fuel and did not have a mechanical issue but it no longer matters because on pit exist, he drives over an air gun and gets a penalty.
Lap 58: upfront it's still Andretti, Hunter-Reay, Power, Hinchcliffe and Viso in the top 5. I believe someone on the commentary team called Will Power "the meat in the Andretti Autosport sandwich" earlier, which conjures many bizarre images.
Lap 63: Hunter-Reay takes the lead while we are on a break. Marco falls to 3rd.
Lap 65: Viso starts the next pit stop cycle. Good stop. The results haven't always been there this year but EJ is improving. Much calmer driver now than the absolute lunatic who entered this series in 2008.
Lap 69: Marco Andretti has a nightmare stop. Fuel hose gets stuck and he loses a bunch of spots. He is going to be mad.
Lap 72: your new leader, Takuma Sato (who hasn't stopped yet) reports to his team that he "is loving it in there" which is more than Ryan Briscoe can say as he almost brushes the wall.
Lap 78: Ryan Briscoe almost collides with Franchitti but Dario plays it smart and let's off the gas
Lap 80: Hinchcliffe, Carpenter and Rahal show each other great "spatial awareness" as all 3 make it through some close quarters racing without ending up in the wall.
Another ESPN break and I'm wondering who Ryan Briscoe has almost collided with now.
Lap 91: Taku brings the ABC Supply car to pit road and relinquishes the lead. Charlie Kimball stalls in his pit box when he gets there. Your new leader is Ernesto J. Viso.
Lap 98: Marco Andretti stops on track and brings out another caution. Tough break for the 3rd Generation star. He was pretty untouchable up until that botched pit stop.
Lap 100: pits open. Most of the leaders stop and Huner-Reay is the first man back out again. Elsewhere Marco Andretti, still in his stranded car, looks like he is chatting pleasantly with a Halmatro safety crew member. Or possibly yelling swear words at him. Who knows.
Lap 105: Marco's race is over, he is out of the car. Says it's an electronic problem.
Lap 107: Takuma Sato, due to a different fuel strategy, is back in the lead for our next restart and gets away nicely.
Lap 112: EJ Viso has the fastest lap of the race thus far with 160.752mph. Watch for him to be right up there at the finish.
Lap 125. : we are half way through and Simon Pagenaud closes in on Tony Kanaan, loses it and almost ends up in the wall.
Lap 129: Marco Andretti buckles back into the RC Cola machine. This kid is thinking Championship. Or else he just want a better look at what kind of car parts Helio Castroneves may be running this week.
Lap 152: Ed Carpenter just about keeps the Fuzzy's Chevrolet out of the wall. Comes straight into the pits afterwards for new tyres.
Lap 156: Helio Castroneves gives up the chase for the top spot to come into the pits. Sato stays out for another lap.
Lap 159: Helio looks certain to take the lead but NO.. Sato breezes by him just as Helio gets close to the lapped car of Ana Beatriz. Great work by the Foyt team on that last stop.
Lap 170: because of all the various fuel strategies in place, we get some more stops from the likes of the Ganassi and Andretti drivers and a few lead changes. After everything settles down, Sato is your leader. ABC Supply Co. Are based in Milwaukee so a win here today would be a pretty big deal for them.
Random thought going into another ESPN break: Everytime it shows Roger Penske standing on the pit wall with that quiet noble confidence and immaculate white shirt, I feel slightly inadequate as a human.
Lap 184: Takuma Sato has a big wiggle but amazingly holds on and keeps the lead. The drivers have done a great job all day of avoiding putting the cars into the wall.
Lap 190: close up of Larry Foyt in the pits and really, he deserves a lot of credit for the great season this team has had. Apparently Larry has taken on a lot more responsibilities within the AJ Foyt team and he is really doing a good job. Many people predicted that the Foyt/Sato partnership wouldn't be a fruitful one. They have been wrong.
Lap 197: Ryan Hunter-Reay seems to find another gear and passes Helio on the low side of the track. Very impressive move. 2 laps later he passes Sato for the lead.
Lap 200: Sato pits and destroys whatever life his tyres had left in them with some heavy braking. He'll be lucky if there isn't a speeding penalty there.
Lap 203: Saavedra up in the dirty part of the track and grazes the wall. No yellow.
Whilst on a break : Ana Beatriz up in the dirty part of the track and grazes the wall. Yellow.
Lap 220: restart and things are getting crazy. Hunter-Reay is your new leader but behind him it's a festival of position changes. Or Indyfest of position changes if you prefer. At some point I think Tony Kanaan gives the finger to EJ Viso.
Lap 230: and Ryan Hunter-Reay has checked out. Big lead over the rest of the field. With Helio Castroneves in second, if things finish like this Marco Andretti is going to take a massive blow in the points. Which even sounds painful.
Lap 240: 10 laps to go. Even with a few cautions, this has been a very fast paced race. Fans may have spent longer queuing up for the bumper cars earlier than they have spent in the stands today. All good though because this has been a good race. And it's not over yet. The Penskes are hunting down RHR. Very good oval performance from Will Power today.
Lap 246: Will Power and Helio Castroneves come extremely close to making Roger Penske a very, very unhappy man by almost taking each other out of 2nd and 3rd place. Luckily they think better of it so neither man will be fired today.
Lap 250: even though he encounters some traffic, it proves to be no problem and Ryan Hunter-Reay get the win, making it the second year in a row that the DHL/Sun Drop Chevy goes to victory lane at the Milwaukee mile.
Congratulations to Ryan Hunter-Reay and the Andretti Autosport team on a big victory. There have been better races this year but this was still pretty good and I don't know if there have been better seasons. The Championship is still wide open and if history is anything to go by, we will have to wait until Fontana to find out who the winner will be. How can you not love Indycar?
Massive thanks to IndycarUK for giving me the honour of reviewing the Milwaukee race and a huge thank you to everyone who visits the site and especially to those of you who took the time to read this report. Can't wait to see what the rest of the season has to offer.
You can follow Jason on Twitter