[John Wiedemann photo]
You know spring is around the corner when you see forsythia growing wild along the streams and fence-rows of Indiana; or, when the IndyCar Series disappears en masse from its offices on Sixteenth Street in Speedway, Indiana and makes the year’s first trip south with all hands on-board. Transporters, drivers, crews and everything not tied down is headed down I-65 today bound for St Petersburg, Florida where on Sunday the 2016 IndyCar Series 18-race season begins in earnest.
The list of knowns (Penske and Ganassi will still dominate) versus unknowns (will Honda return with sufficient force to challenge Chevrolet) leaves us all guessing who will emerge as the winner of the heavily-feted 100th Indianapolis 500 and the 2016 IndyCar Series championship. So, to take you into the future with some only slightly-educated predictions let us present our Top Ten reasons to pack a cooler, grab some suntan lotion from the back of the closet, and gear up for the Streets of St. Petersburg Grand Prix.
10. PennGrade Motor Oil, an Indiana company and the new presenting sponsor of the Indianapolis 500, will be misidentified at least once daily in the media as Pennzoil (a division of Royal Dutch Shell, and the sponsor of Penske Racing’s bright yellow No. 3 Dallara/Chevrolet driven by Helio Castroneves).
9. Alexander (you can call me Alex, but I go by Alexander) Rossi will confuse bewildered Hoosiers repeatedly when he speaks his native language (he’s from California, not Italy) in reference to his engineer Tom German (no relation to the country) as he takes up residence at Andretti Motorsports No. 98 Dallara/Honda alongside figlio Marco, padre Michael and nonno Mario Andretti (an all-American team).
8. Rossi will further confuse Hoosiers (and others) by insisting that he is NOT a sibling of super-bike champion Valentino Rossi (who does long wheelies, truly is from Italy and will compete again this year for the MotoGP championship).
7. Rahal Letterman Lanigan driver Graham Rahal will repay KV Racing’s Sebastian Bourdais for the nasty punt the latter administered at the Grand Prix of Sonoma in the final race of the 2015 season. The Lap 78 fracas effectively ended the admittedly slim chance Rahal had at taking the IndyCar championship, and brought stormy post-race comments that were less than flattering of the Frenchman.
6. Tires, not power, will be the hot topic in 2016. After a year of trailing in the Chevy wake, Honda has had time to revamp its engine and refine an aerodynamics package that was demonstrably better last year than their competitor in almost every respect. But, the last ten laps of every 30-lap stint in 2016 IndyCar will be all about tire wear, and deteriorating performance because of tire wear. He who can hold on tightest to a wiggling chassis will emerge victorious.
5. There’s an old saying (from Benjamin Franklin) that goes: Tell me how to do something and I will forget. Show me how to do something and I may remember. Involve me and I will learn. The new multi-man steward approach to race infractions led by Jay Frye and executed by Arie Luyendyk, Max Papis and Dan Davis promises to get drivers, team-owners and stakeholders around the table as opposed to waiting in their corners for the fight to start. It’s not going to happen, but we can all hope this is the last time anyone sees these three names in print again this year.
4. Going out on a limb a little bit here, considering how the power cabal of IndyCar racing dominates the event, but we predict the Mayor of Hinchtown in the company of the most inspiring guy on the grid in his motorized chair will win the 100th Indianapolis 500. In celebration of this triumph of personal courage over adversity there will be a huge parade in Hinchtown and free ice cream for everybody.
3. In deference to his father and grandfather, who together constitute the greatest father/son competitive combination in the history of racing, Marco Andretti will simplify his goals and aspirations to just one thing: to win.
2. A rookie will win a race in IndyCar in 2016, and that race will be on a road or street course. My money is on Max Chilton in Ganassi Racing’s No. 8 Dallara/Chevrolet.
1. There will be more 100th Indianapolis 500 Commemorative bottles of milk than fruitcakes on sale on eBay by Christmas.
Have a great season everybody.
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