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Pastoral Pocono Transit Veils Ache For Passed Heroes

Many cars and drivers carried tributes to Bryan Clauson, including this Dale Coyne car. [Joe Jennings Photo]

Many cars and drivers carried tributes to Bryan Clauson, including this Dale Coyne car. [Joe Jennings Photo]

Long Pond, PA – There’s a blissful feel about Pocono Raceway as the 2016 IndyCar Pocono 500 practice and qualifications get under way. Not only has the weather turned into a fine late summer lull with a temperature hovering at 84 degrees Fahrenheit, but the ambiance is laid back and chill—just what the series needed after a stressful week (and year) of loss and longing for friends and familiars now gone from trackside.

This hidden jewel in provincial Long Pond, PA lies among some mighty hills and peaks—none or which is particularly intimidating, but all of which are full of the magic of foggy mornings and cool, cricket-animated nights conducive to good sleep and a peaceful rest. There’s a reason this area is the “resort destination” of many honeymooners and couples looking for some quiet time away from city’s clamor and cranky kids.

Puffy cumulus clouds overhead fashion a tissue-soft backdrop for the twin spires—the ones that mimic Churchill Downs to my way of seeing things—that in turn overlook the three distinct turns that compromise the “Tricky Triangle” race track. The first turn recapitulates the turns at Michigan International Speedway, the second is a ninety-degree left from the drawing board of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and the final turn is modeled off the Ontario Raceway in Fontana, California.

Drivers say the course is dominated by the second turn—the one that mimics the oval at Indy—and they like to base their set-up off that left-hander. They figure if they can go through that corner flat that the other two turns can be just a little less precise to their car’s mechanical and aero configuration and still not suffer a significant penalty in speed.That certainly seemed to be the thinking by most today as the drivers circulated around the 2.5 mile course at or on 220 mph on a heavenly day for driving.

At every pitbox a Union Jack flies half-staff, a memorial to Justin Wilson who was lost here during the race of 2015 when a piece from another car fell off and struck him in the head, killing him instantly. Fellow Noblesville, Indiana resident Conor Daly carries the black and green livery on the No. 88 car this weekend in tribute to the late Bryan Clauson who died in his car only one week ago at a dirt track in Kansas.

There is common sentiment among the crowd that follows IndyCar that both men represented the best of what mankind can be: thoughtful, respectful, hard-working, passionate and tireless men who never betrayed their good character or integrity by specious judgment or public indiscretion. Smiles haven’t been so easy to find the last few days around the paddock, but today’s workmanlike outlook befitting of these lost heroes amid the pine-scented and pastoral setting here in the Poconos is lending a hand toward shouldering on against the burdens that the progression of life forces upon all of us.

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