IndyCar Series Kohler Grand Prix Preview

Graham Rahal leads the field into turn 5 at Road America. [Andy Clary Photo]

Kohler Grand Prix Preview Race 10/17
Verizon IndyCar Series
Road America
Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin

by Paul Gohde

The Verizon IndyCar Series returns to the scenic Kettle Moraine hills and valleys of SE Wisconsin for Sunday’s Kohler Grand Prix. The series came back to Road America last year after an eight-year absence and thrilled a massive crowd as Australian Will Power led all but four of the 50 laps in a dominant performance for Team Penske Chevrolet. But Honda teams seem to have closed the gap on Chevy this season and Sunday’s race could become a real shoot-out

Road America Facts: The Road America permanent road circuit opened for racing in 1955 after three years (1950-52) of competition on the streets and roads around Elkhart Lake. The 4.048-mile, 14-turn layout has hosted 500-mile endurance races, Can Am events, motorcycles, vintage gatherings and amateur sports car events ever since, with CART Indy cars making their debut on the high-speed circuit in 1982. Sunday’s race will be a 55-lap chase (five more than last year), for 222.6 miles.

Past Kohler Grand Prix Races: CART raced at RA from that inaugural in 1982 continuously through 2003 when Champ Car took over for three races (2004, 2006-07) before the Indy cars disappeared until their return last June. Mario and Michael Andretti have each won here three times as has Emerson Fittipaldi. The now defunct Newman-Haas team won here 10 times from 1983-2007 with drivers such as Mario and Michael Andretti, Christian Fittipaldi and Sebastien Bourdais. C. Fittipaldi set the 55-lap race record in 1999 at 137.697 mph compared to Power’s IndyCar winning speed of 121.426 last year as he held off a charging Tony Kanaan by just 0.7429 sec after 50 laps. 2016 IndyCar season champ Simon Pagenaud led two laps late in the race but experienced engine trouble while running second with five laps to go and dropped to a 13th place finish.

2017 So Far: Honda has won five times so far in 2017 (four road /street and one oval) with Graham Rahal having won two of those for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, while Chevrolet is close behind with four checkered flags (two road/street and two oval). Will Power has won two of those for Team Penske. Scott Dixon leads the season point chase for Chip Ganassi Honda with 326 points, but no wins. Pagenaud trails (-13, one win), followed by Indy 500 winner Takuma Sato (-14, one win), Helio Castroneves (-21, no wins) and Power (-40, two wins).

The Field: The usual 21-car road course field will face Sunday’s green flag. Spencer Pigot returns to his seat for Ed Carpenter while Esteban Gutierrez subs for the injured Sebastien Bourdais at Dale Coyne Racing.

What they are saying: “Road America is one of my favorite tracks in the world. Getting to drive an Indy car around there is pretty much the most fun you can have with your clothes on. We’re super excited for the race this weekend. Last year the weekend didn’t go super awesome for us, and unfortunately at the test last week, we had a technical failure that kept me out of the car. We’re starting a little bit on the back foot, but we found some good stuff in the second half of last year that I think will make our road course car stronger.”  – James Hinchcliffe

At-track schedule (all times local):

Friday, June 23
10:45 – 11:30 a.m. – Verizon IndyCar Series practice #1, RaceControl.IndyCar.com (Live)
3:15 – 4 p.m. – Verizon IndyCar Series practice #2, RaceControl.IndyCar.com (Live)
4:05 – 4:20 p.m. – Verizon IndyCar Series pit stop practice, RaceControl.IndyCar.com (Live)

Saturday, June 24
11 – 11:45 a.m. – Verizon IndyCar Series practice #3, RaceControl.IndyCar.com (Live)
3 p.m. – Qualifying for the Verizon P1 Award (three rounds of knockout qualifying), NBCSN (5 p.m. ET, same-day delay)

Sunday, June 25
8 – 8:30 a.m. – Verizon IndyCar Series warmup, RaceControl.IndyCar.com (Live)
11:32 a.m. – Driver introductions
12:10 p.m. – Command to start engines
12:17 p.m. – KOHLER Grand Prix (55 laps/220.77 miles), NBCSN (Live)

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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