IndyCar Iowa Speedway Notes

Friday News and Notes From Iowa:

• Pole-sitter Takuma Sato and his front-row mate Danica Patrick both agreed that should they be in the lead on a two-wide restart, they each would choose the inside lane. “On a tight track like this, that is the place to be,” noted Sato who captured his first Izod IndyCar Series pole. Patrick said that if you’re on the bottom it’s a shorter distance around the track. She did add, however, that if the car is tight and begins to push up the track, being on the outside might give you more room to adjust. Ever the optimist, Patrick also said that, “There have been weekends where I’ve been good in practice and had bad races, and times where I’ve been bad in practice and good in the race. So it’s hard to say if I’m going to have a good day tomorrow.” Patrick, whose front row starting spot is her best ever at Iowa, added that starting up front on a small (0.875 mi.) track has another advantage. “When the race starts, if you’re in the back, you’re already a half-lap down to the leaders.”

• Indiana open wheel rising star Bryan Clauson will be a busy driver again this weekend. Clauson, who has already collected two top-five finishes in his first ever Firestone Indy Lights races at Indianapolis and Milwaukee, will try for three when he competes in Saturday’s Sukup 100 at Iowa Speedway. He will pilot an entry for Sam Schmidt/Curb Agajanian Racing starting in third spot. He is also entered in USAC Silver Crown and Midget Series events at the track on Friday. Clauson faces quite a challenge switching from a rear-engine car to a more traditional front-engine mount. As a teenager Clauson also had some seat time in a NASCAR Busch Series car. This will be his first race at Iowa in the Firestone Indy Lights Series.

• Canadian-born actor and entertainer Dan Aykroyd has been chosen to be the Grand Marshal of the upcoming Honda Grand Prix on the streets of Toronto.

• With his next IndyCar series win, Target Ganassi driver Scott Dixon will move into a tie with Rodger Ward for 11th on the all-time Indy car wins list with 26.

• Simona De Silvestro passed an IMPACT test and an INDYCAR medical evaluation Wednesday, four days after her crash during qualifying for the Milwaukee 225. However, according to INDYCAR Medical Director Dr. Michael Olinger, she continued to display post-concussion symptoms on Friday at the Iowa Speedway and was not cleared to drive here. She will be tested again prior to racing at Toronto on July 10th.

• Only thirteen of the fourteen cars entered in the Sukup 100 Indy Lights race attempted qualifying runs Friday. Ireland’s Peter Dempsey replaced Chase Austin in Willy T. Ribbs’ entry.

• PPG Automotive Refinishes is the primary sponsor for Ryan Briscoe’s Team Penske mount this weekend at Iowa Speedway. The company will also be the primary on the No. 6 when Briscoe races at Toronto. PPG was also the sponsor of the PPG Cup from 1979-1999.

• Iowa Speedway is one of two ovals on the 2011 schedule where Team Penske has not recorded a win in Indy car competition. The team has never raced at Las Vegas.

• The Iowa Corn 225 will be the fifth IICS event at Iowa Speedway. Past winners include Tony Kanaan (2010), Dario Franchitti (2007, 2009), and Indy 500 winner Dan Wheldon (2008) who is not competing this weekend. Kanaan will start third, while Milwaukee 225 winner Franchitti will line up sixth.

• With his Andretti Autosport teammates Patrick, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Mike Conway starting in the top nine spots, Marco Andretti finds himself lining up in 17th. Remember what Danica said about starting near the back.

Paul Gohde

Paul Gohde heard the sound of race cars early in his life.

Growing up in suburban Milwaukee, just north of Wisconsin State Fair Park in the 1950’s, Paul had no idea what “that noise” was all about that he heard several times a year. Finally, through prodding by friends of his parents, he was taken to several Thursday night modified stock car races on the old quarter-mile dirt track that was in the infield of the one-mile oval -and he was hooked.

The first Milwaukee Mile event that he attended was the 1959 Rex Mays Classic won by Johnny Thomson in the pink Racing Associates lay-down Offy built by the legendary Lujie Lesovsky. After the 100-miler Gohde got the winner’s autograph in the pits, something he couldn’t do when he saw Hank Aaron hit a home run at County Stadium, and, again, he was hooked.

Paul began attending the Indianapolis 500 in 1961, and saw A. J. Foyt’s first Indy win. He began covering races in 1965 for Racing Wheels newspaper in Vancouver, WA as a reporter/photographer and his first credentialed race was Jim Clark’s historic Indy win.Paul has also done reporting, columns and photography for Midwest Racing News since the mid-sixties, with the 1967 Hoosier 100 being his first big race to report for them.

He is a retired middle-grade teacher, an avid collector of vintage racing memorabilia, and a tour guide at Miller Park. Paul loves to explore abandoned race tracks both here and in Europe, with the Brooklands track in Weybridge England being his favorite. Married to Paula, they have three adult children and two cats.

Paul loves the diversity of all types of racing, “a factor that got me hooked in the first place.”

racingnation.com

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