NTT Indy Car Series: Sansio Grand Prix at Road America Preview

Alex Palou races to victory in last seasons event at Road America. [John Wiedemann Photo]

by Paul Gohde

One of the interesting things about Indy Car racing is the variety of tracks on the schedule. The high-speed Texas oval, the Detroit island circuit (that will become a downtown street race in 2023), the 2.5-mile classic Indy 500 gem, and this week: a romp through the woods and hills in the Wisconsin out back. The race engineers must tear their hair out trying to plan race strategy each race. But the 32-races held at “America’s National Park of Speed” have almost always brought the campers and the hill-side viewers an interesting day at the track. This Sunday’s Sansio Grand Prix at Road America promises to be another.

Race Facts: Road America is a 4.048-mile, 14-turn, natural road course that opened for sports car racing in 1955 and hosted its first of 32 Indy car events in 1982 with CART. Sunday’s Sansio Grand Prix will line up for a 55-lap, 222.64-mile chase over the hills and valleys of the Kettle Moraine circuit. Dario Franchitti holds the RA qualifying record at 1:39.866 (145.924mph, set in 2000. Scott Dixon is the winningest active driver with two victories. CART/Champ Car raced here from 1982-2007 while Indy Car took over in 2016 to present.

Recent Race History: Josef Newgarden has scored two consecutive poles of three he has captured, winning in 2018 and hoping to do it again last year. He led early in the chase, fending off Alex Palou, Colton Herta and Will Power for most of the race until his Penske Racing Chevrolet suffered gearbox ills on the third to last lap, handing the win to Palou.

2022 Season So Far: Driver points after seven races: 1) Will Power (255, 1 win) …2) Marcus Ericsson (272,1win) …3) Pato O’Ward ( 243-1)…4) Alex Palou (241)…5) Josef Newgarden (208, 2), Other winners: Scott McLaughlin, Colton Herta…Manufacturers Points: Chevrolet (595-5 wins)…Honda (542-2 wins).

Race Entries: Twenty-seven cars are entered including the first 2022 appearance of Paretta Autosport with Simona de Silvestro driving. Rather than use the team’s resources on an Indy 500 entry, it was decided to enter three NTT Series races during the season including Road America, Mid-Ohio and Nashville.

Notes: Hector Rebaque won the inaugural RA race in 1982…Chip Ganassi Racing has won four of the seven Indy Car Series races run at Road America, counting the Champ Car Series wins they have won six all together there…Callum Ilott has been cleared to run at RA after passing a medical check. Santino Ferrucci had replaced him at the Detroit Grand Prix…TV: The race will be shown on the NBC Network beginning at 12:30 ET…Fourteen cars are entered for the two Indy Lights races. Linus Lundqvist will try to extend his Lights winning streak to four at RA…The last time two female racers competed the same Indy Car race was in 2015 at the Indy 500. The drivers? Pippa Mann and de Silvestro…Scott Dixon will be starting his 296^th consecutive Indy Car Series race Sunday.

Our Take: As the longest track on the Indy Car schedule, wins at Road America often go to the team that takes advantage of opportune pit stops and track position when a caution flag flies. The track can also be hard on equipment with its long, high-speed straights and numerous sharp turns. Teams with several cars in the field tend to do well and team strategy plays an important role in the outcome of the race. And don’t forget a rain-soaked track can move race plans into the waste basket. Most wins come to veteran drivers, so look for Team Penske or Chip Ganassi Racing to field the winner.

“They Said It” Simona de Silvestro, Paretta Autosport: “At the end of the day you need to get the right shot, you need to get the right people behind you who really want to support you. You want to do the best job you can. I think we have to be realistic as well. We have not tested (in 2022, as a team). It’s the middle of the season and all the guys and girls have been running half the season already. We need to see where we stand. I think if we do everything correctly…the race could be all right. Hopefully I haven’t forgotten how to drive.”

Next Race: Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio – July 3

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.”

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