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IndyCar Series Update from Johnny Unser

unserracing — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 18:36:36 +0000

The IndyCar race in last night in Texas was one of the best, most rewarding races I have been involved with as an an official. After the unfortunate death of Dan Wheldon last year the drivers and the series have been reluctant to race on high speed, high banked ovals where pack racing in an open wheeled car can lead to big wrecks. It is debatable wether we should be on these types of tracks, that’s a topic for another time. After the first drivers meeting the drivers wanted less downforce in the cars to reduce pack racing….we said “perfect” let’s bring back the driver in the car and make the car a bit more difficult to drive so you can’t just flat foot it around a high bank speedway… unless of course you have a really good car under you. After the first practice several of the drivers wanted the downforce back stating that they were hard to drive and that they couldn’t go wide open and that it wouldn’t be a good show for the fans….”What !” I was adamantly against giving them downforce back. IndyCar compromised and gave them a 1/8 inch wicker on the rear wing which didn’t really add back all that much downforce. My hats off to the IndyCar technical department as it turned out to be a very nice level of downforce. The cars were good at the beginning of a fuel run and as the tires wore the cars became more difficult to drive, for some very difficult and for others not so much. It came down to what driver and team had the best package and to which drivers could could get the most out of their cars without putting them in the fence. It was great to watch and “the cream rose to the top” as Justin Wilson won in an exciting finish as Graham Rahal brushed the wall in the closing laps. As far as Will Power getting blacked flagged while leading… it was a pure and simple case of blocking, it was dangerous and clearly defined in the drivers meeting. It is great watching the drivers do what they do best and putting the emphasis back on the driver!

Johnny Unser

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IndyCar Series Update from Johnny Unser

unserracing — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 19:44:57 +0000

Well, the dust has finally settled on the 2012 Long Beach Grand Prix. As it turned out it was truly a Southern California street fight! From my perspective in Race Control it was non stop action. We were reviewing calls as quickly as we could get the replay system queued up! It all started with Dario and the new young gun, Josef Newgarden, on the front row. Josef made a very optimistic move on Dario and tried to go around Dario on the outside of turn one. Dario didn’t exactly give him much room and it “APPEARED” that the two had contact, and in fact I “THINK” they probably did.

Here is where it gets sticky, you can’t penalize someone for something that you think they did without conclusive evidence that they really did it. We looked at it over and over and they were extremely close but you just couldn’t tell for certain with the camera angles we had. Yes, Dario should have given him more room and possibly Josef shouldn’t have tried that move on lap one but you know, it’s racing and I can’t really blame Josef for trying. Would we have penalized Dario if we had hard evidence of certain contact?….probably, but that’s ultimately Beaux’s call as he is the race director.

There were a few other calls and most were very clear to us in race control, Hunter-Reay took out Sato, Helio got into the back of Barrichello in T11 on the last lap causing a track blockage, that was a mess! But the big one was the contact between Andretti and Rahal. Marco was attempting a pass on Graham coming into T8 and Graham moved over after Marco had started his move, the two made contact and it sent Marco flying into the turn 8 tire wall. Both cars were out of the race so no immediate penalty was accessed.

Monday night after the race Beaux asked Arie Luyendyk and myself to review the footage and give our opinions, it was clear that Graham made his move after Marco made his, in the context of the rule this is blocking and avoidable contact so Beaux placed Graham on a 6 race probation period. Seems as now the gloves are off and the drivers are warmed up, let the games begin! I won’t be going to Brazil for the IndyCar race on April 28th as I have to be at the IMSA race in Salt Lake City for Cooper Tire but I will be in Indy for most of May and will keep you updated!

Johnny Unser

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IndyCar 2012 Update from Johnny Unser

unserracing — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 22:20:51 +0000

After months of planning, thinking and worrying about how the the race control officials would handle the race I am pleased to say that the new team is going to be a welcome addition to IndyCar. The new additions to the team are the new race director, Beaux Barfield whom I worked with in ALMS. New steward Gary Barnard, whom I worked with when I was race director in the Atlantic Series. New driver coach and steward Arie Luyendyk and myself, driver steward.

Yesterday at Saint Pete was our first IndyCar race, with new cars, engines and race officials it was a crap shoot to see if it was all going to work. Beaux did a great job in the drivers meeting explaining all the procedures and mainly explaining the protocol for on track behavior which includes blocking.

Arie and myself are there to sort of be a liaison between the drivers and the calls that Beaux makes in race control, if we feel that Beaux is out of line we are there to speak up on behalf of the drivers. We also look at on track incidences and help determine if any action should be taken. The only real incident that took place was between Ed Carpenter and Helio. Helio was on Ed’s gear box coming out of 14 on to the front straight, Ed was pitting and Helio didn’t know it so when Ed checked up to get into the pits Helio tagged him in the rear which spun him off into pit entrance. We didn’t penalize Helio as it is the responsibility of the driver entering the pit to either let the guy behind know he is pitting or get off line before slowing down. Other than that we saw some defensive lines on track and some very close racing but the drivers really took care of each other and respected the new rules.

My hats really off to Beaux, as the new race director there is a lot of pressure on his shoulders and a lot of people ready to jump down his throat the minute something goes wrong. The guy is really smart and thinks through thousands of possible scenarios so he is prepared for what might happen in a race situation. He keeps a cool head and focuses on making the race safe and fair to everyone regardless of what team they drive for.

The next IndyCar race is next week at Barber in Alabama, I won’t be at that one but will be back on the circuit starting at Long Beach April 14/15.

Stay tuned, ya never know what will happen next race!

Johnny Unser
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