IRL Feature - The Three Tracks
22/06/2006
If you want a quiet life, working for one of the IndyCar Series teams is not the place to be. For three weeks in May, the teams were camped in Indianapolis, at the famous speedway for practice and qualifying for the 90th Indianapolis 500.
Come race day, on America’s Memorial Day weekend, the crews were battle weary. But race day at Indy is the big day, 500 miles of intense competition where pit stops and tire changes are the key to success.
But while Sam Hornish celebrated in Victory Lane, the pit crews were still hard at work, transforming cars set up for 225mph laps on the 2.5-mile superspeedway, to cars that have to be at their best for the challenging road course at Watkins Glen the following weekend…
The changes needed are substantial, including wings, aerodynamics, and brakes.
The challenge is the same for the Firestone engineers. A tire designed for 225mph flat out laps on a superspeedway isn’t what the drivers need for a road course.
And there’s one other factor as well: rain.
On the ovals, the IndyCar Series cars don’t run on wet tracks. On the road courses, it’s a whole new game – and one the traditional road racers relish. For Firestone it means a new tire just in case, one with a tread pattern designed to channel the standing water away, and give the driver the most grip possible. The Firestone rubber compound for the wet is softer than a slick tire.
Three days, and 600 miles later, the crews arrived to a wet Watkins Glen. And, as it was last year, the wet tires were needed to the frustration of some drivers, but the delight of most. “Driving these cars in the rain is just so much fun,” says former champion Tony Kanaan. “It may be that we only get to drive in the rain once a year, but the Firestone wet tires do a fantastic job, it would be great to be able to use them more!”
A wet/dry race not only put pressure on the drivers, but the race strategists for the team who make the call for when to change from the wet grooved tires to the Firestone Firehawk slicks. The bravest of the brave (Tomas Scheckter) made the call as early as lap 4, the cautious waited at least three more laps to make the switch.
And, of course, before the race had even begun, the teams had to gamble on how to set up the car – wet or dry? Soft springs? More downforce?
In the end it was Scott Dixon who won with Ganassi Racing, which maintains the New Zealander’s unbeaten record at Watkins Glen in the IndyCar Series.
But as Dixon celebrated in Victory Lane, his crew was… you guessed it… already packing the cars away to head to Fort Worth, Texas, for the next race the following weekend. And prepare the cars back to speedway trim for one of the most challenging tracks of the season.
The changes include altering the camber, so that the contact patch of the Firestone tire works best on the daunting 24 degree banking of the 1.5 mile Texas Motor Speedway oval, where qualifying speeds approach 215mph. They won’t be needing wet tires there…
Three races in three weekends (plus a month at Indy). Three different states. And three race tracks that couldn’t be more different.
That’s the challenge for drivers, teams, and Firestone tire engineers in the IndyCar Series.