Oilpressure

As you read this, we are on our way to Birmingham. Actually, there’s a slight change this year. Susan has been working in Alabama all week, so I will be driving down alone and meeting her at the track. The good thing about traveling alone means that when I plan to leave at 6:00, I can actually leave at 6:00 instead of 7:45. Hopefully, she won’t read what I just wrote.

This will be our seventh Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama. We’ve been to every race here since the inception of the event in 2010. We also went there when IndyCar held its non-oval Spring Training in 2009, when Will Power was driving the Marlboro colors for Helio Castroneves, who was still dealing with his tax issues.

Everyone who hasn’t been to Barber Motorsports Park laughs when they hear it described as a gorgeous facility. If they would ever come here, they would stop laughing. Did you see The Masters a couple of weeks ago? That manicured setting is very similar to what we’ll be seeing this weekend.

We love going to Barber. It is so laid back it sometimes doesn’t seem like an IndyCar event. It is almost surreal to be standing in a grove of pine trees on the back stretch and watch the cars zoom by. There are free trams to transport you all around the track. The volunteers are plentiful and extra-friendly. The food and concessions are all good. And if you have some time to kill, you can always check out the Barber Museum, home of the world’s largest collection of vintage motorcycles as well as Lotus race cars and other types of racing craft as well.

The sister car to Mario Andretti’s 1969 Lotus that he destroyed in practice is there. The destruction of that car forced the Andy Granatelli team to wheel out the old Brawner Hawk, which carried Mario to his only Indianapolis 500 win that same year.

The drivers seem to love going to Barber, due to the slower lifestyle. Last year after Friday’s practice, we went to nearby Rusty’s BBQ to dine. Shortly after we sat down among many of the crews and support people, in walks Scott Dixon, his wife Emma and their two young children. They sat about two tables over from us. No one bothered them and they got to have a nice family dinner. By the way, Dixon went up to the counter himself and ordered, while Emma tended to the kids.

As usual, we will be posting here regularly throughout the weekend. I’ll report on what’s going on in the garage area and on the track. Susan will be posting about some of the unique things going on around the track. We will be posting photos here throughout the weekend. We will also be posting more instantaneous photos on Twitter. Follow me at @Oilpressureblog or Susan at @MrsOilpressure to keep with us throughout the weekend.

I hesitate to even mention this, but there is a possibility that my friend and cohort from One Take Only, John McLallen, may be on the grounds on Saturday. If he shows up, we may do an impromptu episode on location. If we really get daring, we could even do a live episode via Periscope, but don’t hold your breath on that one.

As I mentioned on Wednesday, several drivers need to pull themselves out of whatever funk they are in. I look for at least three of those drivers to all have a big weekend, but only one can win. The three that I think will shine are Will Power, Graham Rahal and last year’s winner Josef Newgarden. Who will win? The winner in 2011 and 2012 – Will Power, which should put him within striking distance of his rivals at the top, heading into the month of May.

Anyway, that’s going to wrap it up for now. I plan on being at the track and settled into the media center before 10:00 am central time, so please check back for updates today and throughout the entire weekend. It should be fun.

George Phillips

This entry was posted on April 22, 2016 at 4:03 am and is filed under IndyCar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.