Oilpressure

Once again, I am on the road this morning on my way to a race track. Unlike last Friday where I ended up traveling over 900 miles from Nashville to Pocono via Indianapolis. This weekend is much more manageable. In fact, it started last night when I left work and drove to western Kentucky, where Susan has been working this week. I stayed with her last night and I’m now on my way to Gateway Motorsports Park, located just across the Mississippi River from St. Louis in Madison, IL. She will work today and join me at the track late this afternoon.

I’ve never been to Gateway, but some of the old-timers last weekend had some less than kind things to say about the facility the last time IndyCar ran there in 2003. But that was fourteen years ago and one owner ago. I did finally run into someone that had been to the track recently and they told me to not listen to the naysayers, because the new owner since 2012, Curtis Francois, had sunk a lot of money into improvements to the facility. With that being said, I’m going to give the place the benefit of the doubt and go to see it myself with an open mind. If it’s a mud pit, I’ll let you know.

But those negative comments applied to the facility and not to the track itself.The drivers that raced there, loved it. Not many current drivers have raced at Gateway, so that gives this weekend sort of a wild-card feel. Aside from Scott Dixon, Helio Castroneves and Tony Kanaan – I can’t think of any other current rivers that have raced at the 1.25-mile egg-shaped oval.

Raul Boesel set the track record in 1997 at 223.871 mph, while driving for Patrick Racing. I’m guessing that was in the old Brahma Beer livery which ranks up there with some of the uglier liveries I’ve seen. I’m guessing that record is not in jeopardy this weekend.

With the points battle tightening up last weekend at Pocono and the unfamiliarity with this track – this could be a fascinating weekend. Scott Dixon is second in points, but pretty much concedes that this is not a track where Honda will have much success. Look for Helio Castroneves, Simon Pagenaud and Will Power all try to capitalize with their Chevy-powered cars at Gateway.

It’s a full schedule in this two-day event. Today there will be IndyCar practice, with qualifying at 6:30. Then in between all of the Mazda Road to Indy track activity – there is also a concert on the grounds before a final IndyCar practice from 9:00 until 10:00. Then tomorrow, there is an autograph session mid-afternoon and more Mazda Road to Indy activity and races before the Verizon IndyCar Series race takes the green flag at 8:40 for a 248-lap race that should be very interesting.

I went with Helio Castroneves last weekend and I jinxed him. He crashed on his qualifying run and had to start at the back of the field. It’s tempting to go with him again  because he won the last IndyCar race there in 2003. But I want him to win the championship, so I won’t jinx him again. Instead I’ll not go too far out on the limb and take the driver with the hottest hand. His last three races have finished with results of first, first and second. Of course, I’m talking about Nashville’s own – Josef Newgarden. We’ll see.

As usual when  attend races in person, I will be posting here throughout the weekend. Please check back often. Also please follow me on Twitter at @Oilpressureblog or Susan at @MrsOilpressure for photos and comments. Check back later today.

George Phillips

This entry was posted on August 25, 2017 at 4:05 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.