Beautiful Barber proves tough to pass on — but not impossible
Everybody expected a solid crowd for yesterday’s inaugural Indy Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park. “Solid” turned out to be a record gathering of over 53,000 fans.
Everybody also expected a boring race on a 2.3-mile layout that had plenty of quick corners but just one major passing zone. But while the third round of the 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series championship won’t go down as a classic, it also wasn’t a dreadful procession. A fair amount of passing was made in the aforementioned passing zone at “Charlotte’s Web,” the left-hand hairpin at Turn 5, and the multiple strategies that unfolded between the drivers kept things interesting for a while until it became clear that Helio Castroneves was set for victory and Marco Andretti was set for tough luck.
However, there was plenty of overtaking difficulties experienced on the Alabama road course. Andretti paced 58 laps in the race and most of those were with Castroneves on his rear wing. But try as he might, the Brazilian wasn’t able to get by Andretti on the track. Part of that was due to a solid effort from the American, but the other seemed due to the track’s tough nature.
“I felt like I had a better car than Marco, but unfortunately, I just couldn’t pass him,” said Castroneves. “And I was just patient and waiting for an opportunity, and well, I guess we were able to be smart enough to save a lot of fuel.”
Andretti blinked on Lap 82, unable to make it to the finish without one more splash of fuel on pit road. That handed the lead to Castroneves who held on to beat Scott Dixon for the win.
The thrill of victory, however, didn’t stop him from later mulling over ideas to improve the level of passing at Barber — albeit reluctantly, it seems according to his comments.
“Now if you ask me if it needs to be changed, I’m suspicious to talk about it,” he said. “I like it just as it is. But, you know, if we could have a longer straightaway or things like that to create more opportunities…But this is the challenge of this place, you know. Every place we go, we create a challenge — [Sao Paulo, Brazil] and the bumps, or [St. Petersburg, Florida] and some other areas, and here, it’s difficult to pass.”
Dixon and Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Dario Franchitti, who finished third, had their share of thoughts on the subject as well. Dixon dubbed the course “very flowy” but also mentioned how hard it was for him to get close to another car without losing grip. As for Franchitti, he built on his teammate’s comment about Barber’s continuous array of corners.
“If they made a couple of changes to the track, just a couple of small changes, I think, to promote some passing, then they’ll have a spectacular place,” the Scotsman said. “That would be a big help…I think as Scott said, [the track’s] got a lovely flow in nature, which is great and a lot of fun to drive. But it limits passing. So maybe extend one of the straights or take one of the flowing bits out and put a good, heavy straight braking zone, I guess. Just make a passing opportunity, then we’ll be in good shape.”
So it would appear that the ball is now in George Barber’s court as far as changing his track goes. It looks marvelous with picture-perfect scenery, plenty of hills for fans to congregate on, and of course, those charmingly quirky sculptures that help put the “Park” in Barber Motorsports Park. Even without race cars roaring by, BMP looks like an ideal spot for a nice day outdoors. It’s not hard to imagine a family sitting down to grand picnics on the manicured grass — which probably happened a few times yesterday.
It’s been dubbed “the Augusta of racetracks” in comparison to the equally gorgeous Augusta National Golf Course that hosts the Masters tournament. Barber’s beauty is perhaps its greatest asset. But if enhancements can be made to the track without rupturing that beauty, then they have to be considered.
Still, for the time being, Barber Motorsports Park has shown itself to be better for IndyCar racing than what many people had thought. And of course, there’s that whole ‘big crowd’ thing it has going for it.
“Today, I went over to the back section to do a thing for Firestone and over in the fan part over there, it was packed,” said Dixon. “It was fantastic to see. I think the whole liveliness, to be honest, in the pits before the race and everybody getting ready to go…You could hardly walk through there. You couldn’t drive your scooter through there.”
