Racer - January 2012

DAVID MALSHER

IndyCar got a substantial economic boost with the announcement that its years-long efforts to stage a race in China had finally borne fruit.

The first IZOD IndyCar Series race
in China will run Aug. 19 on a

3.87-mile street circuit in Qingdao, a Yellow Sea coastal city of 8. 7 million between Beijing and Shanghai that played host to the 2008 Summer Olympics sailing competitions.

“As the world global economy continues to grow and evolve, China, the world’s second-largest economy, has become a top priority with most American businesses and the sponsors that are committed to IndyCar,” said IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard. “Last year, at our sponsorship summit, China was the No. 1 place our sponsors wanted to go outside of the United States.”

The new Chinese race will be the series’ lone stop in Asia, as the long-running event in Motegi, Japan, has been discontinued. WHAT’S RED AND GREEN ALL OVER IndyCar confirms China race plans for 2012

“LETTING PREJUDICE AFFECT ASSESSMENT OF MARCO’S DRIVING IS JUST ASININE”

Last month on RACER.com,
Justin Wilson was assessing his
Top 10 IndyCar drivers of the
season. While discussing Marco
Andretti, a clearly impressed
Wilson said, “I respect his talent,
I really do…. In my opinion,
everything’s there; it’s just a bit
jumbled up, and only the driver
himself can un-jumble it. And I
think that’s what we’re now
seeing Marco do.”
Wilson is as fair-minded as
anyone you’ll find in the IZOD
IndyCar Series paddock, so his
opinion holds real weight.
Unfortunately for Andretti, the
mouthpieces of the paddock –
the media – have tended to be
less balanced. Slamming him for
being nothing like his gracious
and expansive grandfather,
Mario, and more like his very
reserved father, Michael, is one
thing. Letting this personal
prejudice a;ect one’s assessment
of Marco’s driving is asinine.
This month we try to explain the
guy, both in and out of the
cockpit, as he approaches the
100th IndyCar race of his career.

As a rookie IndyCar driver in 2006, Andretti relied heavily on his senior teammates when it came to setting up a car – and that’s in a one-make formula.

Phillip Abbott/LAT

Perfecting a car’s handling in Formula 1 is a whole di;erent level of complexity, as Mark Hughes explains this month. This story is a real eye-opener in terms of how much car setup is performed back at an F1 team’s base, before the cars even reach the track. The window of variables within which a driver can operate on race weekend has been narrowed considerably through the years.

Of course, sometimes a car is
just not in the ballpark in terms
of competitiveness, and whether
that lasts for a session, a race
weekend or a whole season can
govern how a driver is perceived
both within the team and from
the outside. That’s what
prompted us to ask Tom Jensen
to explain why Denny Hamlin
slipped o; the NASCAR radar for
most of the 2011 season.

CONNECT WITH US!

Charles Coates/LAT

facebook.com/ racermagazine

twitter.com/ racermag

FRESH HANDS ON THE TILLER IndyCar takes Brian Barnhart out of Race Control The controversial reign of Brian Barnhart as IndyCar chief steward is over. The series reshuffled its management in November, with Barnhart being removed from his directorship role in Race Control while Terry Angstadt was dismissed from his place at the helm of IndyCar’s commercial affairs. Barnhart, who was heavily criticized for his decisions last season, will remain as president of operations, overseeing the operational and logistical areas, but will be removed from on-track decisions. The series is reviewing candidates to fill the position of race director, although American Le Mans Series race director Beaux Barfield and Grand-Am champion (and former IndyCar driver) Scott Pruett are believed to be leading contenders. Angstadt, meanwhile, has left the company altogether — ironically only a few weeks after successfully concluding his long-sought China race deal. He has been replaced by Marc Koretzky, who joined IndyCar from the NFL last year.