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One only had to listen to the cheers of the sold-out crowd following the IZOD IndyCar Series season opener in Sao Paulo, Brazil to know that it was all worth it.
The two-day event consisted of one bizarre incident after another, from the multiple practice wrecks induced by the slippery Sambadromo on Saturday to a rain-and-hail filled storm that stopped Sunday’s Sao Paulo Indy 300 for 36 minutes and caused a power failure at the temporary street course. For a while, the star of the weekend wasn’t one of the seven Brazilian competitors in the field – it was a diamond grinder. The IRL’s online streaming and timing/scoring systems, beefed up to accommodate angry viewers victimized by the DirecTV-Versus standoff, went haywire at various points before the weather problems. Don’t forget the cringe-inducing, first-turn wreck on Lap 1, either.
But in the end, the IRL’s inaugural race in South America will be remembered for many positive reasons as well.
Two comeback stories saw happy endings, as winner Will Power and third-place finisher Vitor Meira drove masterfully in their first races back from crashes that ended their 2009 campaigns prematurely. Power proved that he will play a key role in this year’s championship tale and showed why he earned the coveted opportunity to drive full-time for Team Penske. But Meira, a native of the Brazilian capital of Brasilia, may well be the toast of his country right now after a stirring drive in the A.J. Foyt Racing entry. He outhustled Belo Horizonte native Rafa Matos for the right to represent his homeland on the podium and he outlasted bigger names like Sao Paulo’s Helio Castroneves and Salvador’s Tony Kanaan.
Those are two pretty good feats.
Another good sight was the strong performance of American pilot Ryan Hunter-Reay, who is still battling for a full season of work at Andretti Autosport. His No. 37 IZOD-backed entry paced the field for 20 laps, and he drove hard throughout the event. In the end, he suffered the same fate as he did last year with Vision Racing: finishing second to a Team Penske driver in the season opener on a street course. But just like he did at St. Petersburg last April, he displayed his deep talent on Sunday. As for his quest for funding, the pressure on IZOD to back Hunter-Reay for the entire 2010 season (or find another company that might be interested) may have increased.
American fans must be hoping for a successful conclusion on that front after this race.
Then there are the other notables like Matos, who really seems aimed to win a street race this season; Dan Wheldon, who rallied from a run-in with Alex Tagliani and a broken front wing to come home fifth; Tagliani himself, who was a strong competitor with his new FAZZT Race Team despite seeing an early end to his race; and Simona de Silvestro, who led laps in her first IndyCar race and was running relatively well before problems developed on her HVM Racing machine.
The Sao Paulo Indy 300 weekend was a mess, but it came together in the end. Beyond the dust left over from the diamond grinding that appeared to be a factor in the first-lap melee, the Sambadromo was much better during Sunday’s race and tire wear was a non-factor on its concrete surface. Also, the nearly mile-long backstretch and the Turn 11 hairpin were the major hot spots for passing, as surely hoped for by track designer Tony Cotman and his NZR Consulting firm. Cotman and NZR took plenty of heat after Saturday’s fiasco, but they deserve credit for doing what they had to do in order to improve the situation.
However, if the course remains mostly the same for the 2011 race, the bumps on areas such as the backstretch and the shorter straight that goes into Turn 5 must be smoothed out. When Hunter-Reay took the lead from de Silvestro on Lap 28, he had to go over a bump that appeared to get him airborne and caused sparks to fly underneath his machine. Street courses will have always have at least a couple of these, but the ones on the Sao Paulo track should be addressed before the series returns next year.
Another issue that has to be brought up is the paint that was put down on the Sambadromo for Sao Paulo’s Carnival parades, which was then removed so the straightaway could be repaved for the race. That appears to have created the slick surface that wreaked so much havoc during practice before the diamond grinder got involved. Is there a way for the IRL, NZR, and/or race promoter Bandeirantes to try and keep the paint from going on next Carnival?
I admit to possibly being ignorant on this, however. Maybe the Sambadromo is better now that it has gotten the grind and thus, the paint (which I read was for TV purposes) can be applied and removed without screwing up the surface for race cars.
