Pennsylvania’s Native Son Preps For Third Indy Go-Round

Sage Karam in 2015 at Pocono Raceway.  [Chris Jones Photo]

by Allan Brewer

The third time is the charm, or so Nazareth, Pennsylvania native Sage Karam hopes as he begins the month-long journey coursing over the yard of bricks at the start/finish line at Indianapolis Motor Speedway to compete in and possibly win the fabled Indianapolis 500.

Karam has been here before, done it before, and now has set his sights on making a powerful statement of professional progress at the 100^th Indianapolis 500, a centennial that will make the lucky winning driver’s name immortal in a single afternoon.

“I think I can win, there are no doubters on this team,” Sage said while sitting in the Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Team garages in Gasoline Alley only a few steps from the No. 24 Gas Monkey Energy Special that will see him back onto the Brickyard in a few days times. “It’s possible the 500 will be my only IndyCar race this year, though I would like to do the Pocono race again, too; so I want to make the most this opportunity.”

If that sounds like a pipe-dream, consider that the powerfully-built racer has been tutored by three-time Indy 500 champion Dario Franchitti and kept the company of Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon in the year just past.

“Dario helped me take some big steps, inside and outside of the car: things like making time for all the obligations like media, training, studying videotape and working in the engineering office,” said Karam of his 2015 season with the Ganassi team. “When things got tough, Dario would talk to me about his first year in the sport, and offered me life-lessons about driving, and racing, and the world.”

Perhaps it is congruous with Franchitti’s own very painful and personal loss of  fellow driver Greg Moore at Fontana, California during a Championship Auto Racing Teams event in 1999 that brought Sage to seek out the older driver’s wisdom following the Pocono 500 last summer—a race in which a freak accident involving Karam and Justin Wilson led to tragedy.

If there are any encumbering scars from that experience, Sage doesn’t show them now nine months removed from the incident—speaking with respect and maturity about the past, and confidence in the future. “I’ve had time to scar the wound,” he said. “It was raw for a while, but I’ve had time to heal and am ready to get back into a car now.”

“It really wakes you up a bit,” said Karam. “It made me mature as a man off the track. As bad as Pocono was, I can see now how it made me a better person and man.” Testament to that fact is Karam’s growing friendship and budding broadcast-booth relationship with rookie Stefan Wilson, younger brother to Justin. The two drivers have teamed up to call Indy Lights races this year for the IMS network.

“When he (Stefan) came up to me in the week after the race last summer, and he said, ‘It wasn’t your fault, it was a freak accident,’ that really helped me mentally. It helped me understand that when I get back in a car again that it is the same me,” said Karam. “When I turn that first lap I will put it all behind and move on— I just have to get back into the car and move on.”

After a brief period of residence in Indianapolis, Sage is back home in the Poconos—training with his father and sister, reacquainting with friends and taking advantage of his youth and freedom to choose his own path in his career.

“I’m at my best when I train with my dad, and I wanted to get back to that situation,” said the 21 year-old of his return to the mountains of eastern Pennsylvania. “When I was living in Indianapolis I didn’t know many people, didn’t do so much off-the-track, and eventually got bored with the solitude.”

On the near horizon for Karam is a stint in sports car racing with veteran racer and champion Scott Pruett in a brand new Lexus machine purpose-built for the IMSA series. The team and car will make its debut at Watkins Glen (though not on the same weekend as the recently announced IndyCar Series race there).

“I’d like to show up with that car and that team and get a win to show that we can do it for Lexus,” said Karam. “In a perfect world we would just show up and keep winning race after race, but it’s the most competitive class and it’s a new car…” he continued, not quite ready to entirely give up on the impromptu day-dream. “I don’t see rivals, I just want to win.”

Allan Brewer

Allan Brewer covers IndyCar and other racing series for RacingNation.com. Allan is a fixture at the race track, armed with keyboard and camera, eager to take you inside open-wheel sport where the news is being made. He comes to RacingNation.com with multiple professional awards from the American Auto Racing Writers and Broadcasters Association (AWWRBA). He began his motorsports writing career at FastMachines.com; and solely published IndyProRacer.com and A1GP.com, two award-winning websites for open-wheel racing’s junior leagues, prior to becoming IndyCar correspondent at Motorsport.com. He has also covered Formula 1, NASCAR, Formula E, the Indy Lights Series and its predecessor Indy Pro Series, NHRA events and major auto shows. His major interest outside of competition is automotive technology and its application to the cars we drive every day on the public highways.

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