Circuit Of The Americas IndyCar Test Reveals DW12 Platform Performance Insights

Andretti Autosport's 2018 season runner-up and 2016 Indianapolis 500 winning driver Alexander Rossi takes turns during a pre-season Firestone tire test with the iconic observation Tower designed by Miró Rivera Architects and built by Patriot Erectors as a landmark for the venue. Rossi was probably the best choices for the IndyCar series to gauge performance of the DW12 since Rossi is the only driver race familiar with both the track through his F1 history, and the race car platform. Image Credit: Chris Owens via IndyCar (2018)

Circuit Of The Americas IndyCar Test Reveals DW12 Platform Performance Insights

On October 29th, 2018, the sole tire manufacturer for the IndyCar Series held a day long test of its primary compound tire used for road courses in advance of the Circuit Of The Americas (CoTA) being added to the schedule, Sunday, March 24, making this the second race venue of the 2019 season.

There have been previous tests by an IndyCar team with this universal aerodynamics body work but none with the intensity and discovery for the benefit of the IndyCar series as a whole.

The two teams that suited up were Andretti Autosport for Honda and AJ Foyt Enterprises for Chevrolet with Alexander Rossi and Tony Kanaan respectively. The test was comprehensive and allowed for 90 laps to be completed on the 20-turn 3.426-mile purpose-built F1 racing facility in Austin, TX.

Between the two drivers, Tony Kanaan has the greatest experience in IndyCar but these were the first laps taken at serious speeds in the DW12, whereas Alexander Rossi was the first American driver to take to the track as a test driver for F1 (2013 driving for Caterham) and later raced as an end of 2015 season replacement for Marussia Ferrari where he posted his highest finish in a Formula 1 race at P12.

REMARKS - Tony Kanaan - Excerpted and edited from Autoweek & Racer ...

[TK] admits he was “caught out” by a few things on the 20-turn, 3.427-mile road course.

“The blind corners, and going up the hill caught me out,” Kanaan said. “I was here and from the outside it looks steep, but in the car, it looks even steeper. To try to find my way there in the first couple of laps, where is the apex? After you get used to it, it’s a lot of fun.”

The track also features some tremendous elevation changes that make a lap around the facility feel like a roller-coaster ride.

“It is a cool thing because the first few laps, you are backing off the brakes but then you realize, you are going up the hill, so the inertia is helping you stop so you go deeper and deeper,” Kanaan explained. “Then, it gets to the point where there is a limit there and I found it. I went straight a couple of times. It’s a fun corner because it’s that type of braking zone where sometimes you go through there you think you could go a little quicker, but then you try a little harder and it’s too much. It’s fun.”
[Reference Here >>>]

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“The track was awesome. It’s a proper race track, and the facility is beautiful,” Kanaan told RACER. “It’s a mix of Road America, Laguna Seca, and a little bit of Sonoma. We did more than 100 laps and it was badass.”

The 2013 Indy 500 winner believes the field of Chevy-powered and Honda-powered Dallara DW12s will put on a quality show featuring close racing.

“It’s a road course, so I don’t want to give the wrong impression that we will always be passing there, but there are two places that will be easier to pass and some others to try,” he said. “And I think our racing will be exciting because there’s less discrepancy on lap times with our grid, and 20 cars have a chance to win the race.”

Renowned for his extreme fitness and muscle mass, Kanaan admitted there’s more work to do before his next visit to COTA.

“The neck, for sure,” he said with a laugh. “Turns 16, 17, and 18, the carousel before the pits, it’s like Elkhart Lake – really long. We did a lot of new-tire runs. By the end of the day, it was like, ‘OK, we’ve got some work to do on the neck…’”
[Reference Here >>>]

REMARKS - Alexander Rossi - Excerpted and edited from Motorsport, Autoweek & Racer ...

Rossi was testing a variety of tire compounds and also turbo boost levels, and both he and the teams have agreed with IndyCar to not disclose lap times.

“With the various programs Tony and I were doing, it was hard to tell where we were at comparatively,” Rossi told Motorsport.com. “But I can tell you that our car around that track is awesome! I had a smile on my face for the entire 90 laps and the package is great.

“It’s challenging, it’s technical, but there’s also a lot of high-speed corners. It’s a perfect circuit for us.

“From Turn 1 to Turn 9 is just mega. The first bit of it is pretty close to flat and each one subsequently gets tighter so you kind of decelerate as you go through them and if you’re a little bit off on the first one, you pay a big penalty six corners later! So it’s definitely a drivers’ track.”
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Rossi said today’s test was primarily focused on providing information to Firestone, so he did not, for example, try drafting the other two cars nor push-to-pass boost.

“I literally didn’t see the other two all day when I was out on track,” he said. “Firestone wanted data and feedback on the tires on a variety of length of runs, so they didn’t want external influences, in order to get a true comparison between compounds.

“We weren’t really told [by HPD engineers] what the deal was with the extra boost, but there wasn’t a time when we changed a setting and suddenly found a huge bunch of laptime. It was active the whole time, didn’t use push to pass.

“Anyway, it was just good to get out on track – and that track in particular. Austin, COTA is a strong addition to the IndyCar schedule, and I think we’ll put on a good show for the fans, I really do.”
[Reference Here >>>]

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Rossi is actually the first driver to ever run laps around the race course when he participated in the first practice session of the 2012 USGP when he was with Caterham F1. On Monday, he got to run laps at COTA in an Indy car.

“To be an American driver to be associated with it was here on day 1 and it was really cool,” Rossi said. “I know a lot of the people that work here at the track. It’s something cool to have part of my history. I’m very proud that IndyCar is here. It’s a representation of how the premier open-wheel series in the United States needs to be at one of the premier venues.”

Rossi said he cannot draw comparisons between his F1 experience with Monday’s run in an Indy car but the first practice session in 2012 was in the rain. But, the winner of the 100th Indianapolis 500 in 2016 believes there are some challenging areas of the race course for the Indy car.

“Probably, turns 3-7 because it’s very high speed,” Rossi said. “You have to be right in Turn 3 because if you are a quarter of a foot wide in turn 3, you are two feet wide in Turn 7. You have to be able to control yourself because of the entry speed you are carrying in the initial part of that sequence because if you overdrive it, it’s a pretty big penalty. If you underdrive it, it’s actually the way to go quicker.”

For the race fans that have attended the Formula 1 race at COTA, what can they expect to see that is different from IndyCar?

“You can expect a lot more fun and a lot more access,” Rossi said. “Formula One, you are watching some of the fastest race cars on the planet, which is great, but there is also a pretty big discrepancy between first and 20th as we saw last weekend. Here, the top 15 can be within seven-eighths tenths of a second of each other. That guarantees a great show, no matter what.

“And the fans can get up close and personal with the cars and drivers and be able to interact on a different level than told to go to turn 1, section 3, seat 4. You can go all around and get different perspectives and build a connection with the drivers and teams. That is unique and something IndyCar prides itself on.”
[Reference Here >>>]

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On the engineering side, Andretti’s Jeremy Milless enjoyed learning with Rossi on Monday.

“We unloaded with a setup that we are familiar with,” Milless said. “Before we came here I asked Alex what he thought about the track, and he felt it was a lower grip surface, so we went toward one of our road course setups that was bland. And all we ended up doing was adjust rear ride height and we were smokin’ fast, so it was pretty awesome.”

Milless found COTA to be a unique challenge compared to other natural terrain road courses on the IndyCar calendar.

“I just went through and did a bunch of metrics looked at what COTA was like versus the other tracks we go to, and man it has like six Turn 11s from Sonoma,” he continued. “It’s actually a super-slow track. There’s one second-gear corner, five first-gear corners, and then the high-speed corners are really fast. There’s no medium-speed corners for us here. And the long straights are all fed by slow corners, so we just worked on slow-speed stuff and it was worth it.”

With the stickier Firestone alternate tires affixed for qualifying and more than one day to learn the setup needs at COTA, Milless believes the leading IndyCar drivers will be faster once the race weekend arrives.

“The primary focus today was on the primary tire, so there’s a second or more coming from the tires, and everyone was on practice power, so I would say we’ll be at least two seconds quicker when we come back,” Milless added. “But I’m not worried about it. We put on a pretty good race, and there’s such a huge difference to those [F1] cars that you can’t expect us to be the same.”
[Reference Here >>>]

Alexander Rossi registered an unofficial IndyCar CoTA lap time of 1:47.800 and this was said to be fastest of the test day working with Firestone to develop a primary tire for the March 2019 race [NOTE: Rossi's qualification lap time for the 2015 USGP race was 2:04.176 in the wet - fastest lap for the 2015 USGP race was set by Nico Rosberg at 1:40.666 - for perspective].

... notes from The EDJE



TAGS: AJ Foyt Enterprises, Alexander Rossi, Andretti Autosport, CoTA, Firestone, Tony Kanaan, IndyCar, Motorsport, David Malsher, Autoweek, Bruce Martin, Racer, Marshall Pruett, Motorsports Journal, Honda, Chevrolet, The EDJE

Pocono's elevated sprocket drive shape gives IndyCar traction

Marco Andretti, driving at his family's home track for the first time as an IICS driver hopes to follow in his grandfather's footsteps and notch a win at Pocono Raceway ... something team owner and father has never done. Image Credit: Chris Owens via motorsport.com

Pocono's elevated sprocket drive shape gives IndyCar traction

For the first time since 1989, American open-wheel racing comes back to an area of the United States that has become known as racing's Magic Triangle due to the location of Pocono Raceway to the population centers of New York and Philadelphia.

Pocono Raceway is about 90 miles away from both New York and Philadelphia with New York having the distinction of the #1 largest TV market and Philadelphia, the #4 largest TV market. This also places the super-speedway within 200 miles of 60 million people and when you consider that the average NASCAR Sprint Cup fan (the main fan base that have used Pocono Speedway these last 24 years) travels 300 miles, this race track is in the highest population density of almost any other popular racing destination.

Everyone loves to bring their own analogy to this uniquely shaped racing venue ... being a triangle, people call the 'Tricky Triangle' a tri-oval or 'roval' because of its asymmetric configuration - an oval with three corners that drives like a road course, The Devil's Triangle, and, naturally, the Bermuda Triangle because of the good driving careers that have been dashed here by drivers and teams that can best figure out the set-up for a car that will encounter very fast speeds around three very differently shaped turns.

The concept of an elevated sprocket for driving the track was first introduced in production as far back as 1917 when the Dayton-Dick Company of Quincy Illinois, introduced its Leader Model 25-40 tractor ... as described in the book, Caterpillar Chronicle: The History of the World's Greatest Earthmovers. This approach has become the most successful track design for heavy equipment. Image Credit: chinesewheelloader.net

The best analogy may come from the design of a continuous drive track of a bulldozer known as an elevated sprocket drive found on modern tractor vehicles. The shape delivers superior traction and allows the machine operator great handling performance and control of this earth-moving device.

Pocono Raceway's shape can be described as follows - The front/main straightaway (no-name) leading to turn one is .7083 of a mile or 3,740 feet which enters the Trenton Speedway shaped Turn 1 and catches the cars at 14° banking. The “Long Pond” (the second longest straightaway) stretches for .5786 of a mile or 3,055 feet between Turns One and Two and enters the "Tunnel Turn" (designed to be similar to the high-speed turns at Indianapolis Motor Speedway) at 8° banking. Lastly, the 'no-name' stretch from Turn Two to Turn Three is a mere .3371 of a mile or 1,780 feet and enters the final turn, the Milwaukee Mile Turn 3, at 6° banking.

The unusual triangular configuration is conducive to many lead changes since this track sports the longest and widest straightaway with the longest and widest Pit Road of any on the modern NASCAR circuit. This gives Pocono a uniqueness that will certainly be exploited by the IZOD IndyCar Series open-wheeled DW12s.

During practice and qualifications leading up to this first open-wheel race, the traction of the cars to this unique asymmetrical track layout proved itself. All of the cars that had practiced on Thursday's first day of track activity broke the last open-wheeled race car speed record set by Emerson Fittipaldi at 211.715 mph, with the slowest practice fast lap recorded being Sebastian Saavedra of Dragon Racing at 215.001 mph. Compare this with the fastest speed registered by the other leading racing series to use the track - NASCAR's Joey Logano at 179.598 mph - June 9, 2012. 

Andretti Autosport's Ryan Hunter-Reay and James Hinchcliffe fill out the three-wide start front row to make it an all Andretti Autosport front row for the first time 'home track' race in the 2013 IZOD IndyCar Series season. Image Credit: Bret Kelley via motorsport.com

Qualifications had Andretti Autosport and Marco Andretti blister the track record by nearly 10 miles per hour with a 221.237 mph two lap average. Further, this 'home track' to the Andretti family, since the Nazareth, PA home base is only about a 20 minute drive from the "Tricky Triangle', had the three-wide starting front row filled with Andretti Autosport teammates of Ryan Hunter-Reay at P2 - 220.892 mph, and James Hinchcliffe at P3 - 220.431 mph. The only dark spot that could have had Andretti Autosport from filling the first four positions on the grid was that during his qualification run, EJ Viso's DW12 stepped out and hit the safer barrier wall ending his Lap 1 run at 219.952 mph.

Final Qualifications Results Here >>>

With the IZOD IndyCar Series visiting this Magic Triangle for the first time in 24 years, traction is the order of the day and the elevated sprocket drive shape of Pocono Raceway delivers on its promise of this nation's most unique super-speedway.

The Pocono Indy 400 Fueled by Sunoco race is set to take place at Pocono Raceway on Sunday, July 7, 2013 at Noon ET, televised on ABC, SiriusXM Channel 211 radio, IndyCar Timing & Scoring found at - racecontrol.indycar.com - , and mobile phone app INDYCAR 13.

... notes from The EDJE

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TAGS: Andretti Autosport, Ryan Hunter-Reay, elevated sprocket drive, Pocono Raceway, traction, Tricky Triangle, Magic Triangle, IZOD IndyCar Series, super-speedway, Bermuda Triangle, Marco Andretti, James Hinchcliffe, Motorsport, The EDJE

Gale Banks And Mike Ryan Will Be Breaking Bad At Pikes Peak

The Freightliner Cascadia racing machine of Mike Ryan, seen here 'drifting' through Turn 1 at Irwindale Event Center, is truly like no other. It competes in hill climb and drift competitions and currently holds records in both the Pikes Peak “Race To The Clouds” and the Mount Washington “Climb To The Clouds” events. Image Credit: Dr. Pneu via Facebook

Gale Banks And Mike Ryan Will Be Breaking Bad At Pikes Peak

The 91st Pikes Peak International Hill Climb (PPIHC), which got its start as the promotional brainchild of the developer/owner of the Broadmoor Hotel resort, has grown in stature over the years as one of the last remaining motor culture/motor racing events where people bring what they got to win fame, notoriety, and promote automotive technology solutions to the world.

The Indianapolis 500, in the majority of its history, was structured in this way but has devolved into just an endurance race with specification vehicles through the refinement of technology and safety concerns.

The pressures of this kind of human control have yet to dampen the creative spirit of the challenge of taking the 12.42 mile, 156 turn, and in its second year of having a fully-paved course that begins at 9,390 feet and ends at the 14,110-foot summit of Pikes Peak near Colorado Springs, CO.. An international field of 157 competitors, 70 automobiles and 87 motorcycles will include a purpose-built, diesel-powered, Freightliner Cascadia racing machine of Mike Ryan and engineered by Gale Banks Engineering.

The Freightliner Cascadia racing machine is equipped with a 14.0L Detroit Diesel 60 series engine with a compression ratio of 15-1 and a fuel red line of 2700 RPM. The body is constructed entirely of fiberglass and carbon fiber, even still weighing in at just over 5 tons. Like any well balanced race vehicle, it is a mid-engine design. This truck truly tests the merit of each and every one of its systems. Good acceleration requires a responsive engine, high speed requires massive horsepower and cornering and handling require extreme braking capability. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2013)

In a recent exclusive interview with Gale Banks, developer of the Straight-Shot Water-Meth (water and methanol) Injection System which is a high-tech application of a decades-old aircraft fuel technology, he exclaimed that this Water-Meth injection power enhancement to the diesel engine is addictive ... very addictive. Hence, the reference to the popular cable TV series 'Breaking Bad' where a down on his luck science teacher discovers making the drug Meth (speed) in the basement of his home allowed him to make a lot of money so he could help his family through its problems.

Replace the turbo-charger with a water-meth injected super-charger and gain top end red-line for a diesel. This injection technology is especially useful in turbocharged or supercharged applications, and often allows for ignition timing to be advanced for increased performance. The addition of methanol to the water contributes an anti-freeze property as well as including a combustible fuel in the charge which further increases power potential. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2013)

To have Gale explain it, when the driver, Mike Ryan, steps on the fuel pedal - "So what we've done is we've done a super-turbo set up wherein I have a very large 8.3 liter super-charger and we turn it about four-times the speed of the crankshaft, which is, the red-line on the engine is 2,700 rpm, which is high for this 14 liter Detroit Diesel (engine). Basically, what the super-charger does is it kicks the turbo-charger in the tail, makes it respond! I eliminated one turbo-charger and replaced it with the super-charger. So as you come off the turns, the idea here is, he (Mike Ryan) pedals it and it rips off the turns.

The other thing we've done with this is overlaid it with - we've created a new technology for an old technology - Water-Methanol injection ... or as the Germans called it, Methanol-Water injection.

The idea of putting methanol and water into an aircraft engine is a very old idea. So we have nominally an 80 year old idea and nobodies really refined it much beyond what we did and the Germans did in World War II (when this technology was first used aircraft). In other words, have a nozzle, turn it on ... some mechanical reference and it blows water-methanol into the intake system.

What we've done is taken to a new technological level, in that we're sensing things. Automobiles are becoming just sensors on wheels - remember that because it's going to be incredible on what's coming because of 'autonomous driving' - so, essentially, we now modulate the flow of the liquid which chills the air after its been compressed in a super-charger or a turbo-charger,  makes it more dense so that every cubic foot of air that engine displaces has more oxygen and is capable of supporting more fuel.

In its most elemental form this is a power improving technology - we've just mapped it like you would map the injection on an engine. We have created our own injection controller for our diesel engines, so why not do this?"

Charge air cooler with water spray enhancement help to increase the overall power output through cooling. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2013)

Other benefits that come through this injection technology approach are, Gale Banks continues, "We are able to reduce emissions output, we are able to improve fuel economy, we are able to - with our auto-chiller, which is the same mechanism spraying water on the face of the charge air cooler or inter-cooler - we're cooling the brake rotors by fogging into the inside of the rotor ... they're slotted, you know, they've got slots through the inside, so the thing is really a fan ... it's already pumping air to cool itself. What we're doing is adding a water mist - so we've actually got three systems on the vehicle doing three different things all based on the same technology which was originally to improve power output."

Enhanced fan cooling of the brake rotors through spray injectors allows the Freightliner Cascadia racing machine to drive deeper into the 156 corners of the Pikes Peak challenge - giving another way to express ... 'Brakeing Bad.' Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2013)

Gale mentioned that since this 5 ton (10,000 pound, plus) Freightliner platform will encounter 156 turns that these three injection systems (Water-Methanol, fog-cooling action on the brake rotors and etc.) allow Mike Ryan to "go further, at speed, before he sets up for the turn, then as he comes off of the turn, we've given him another 'bout 500 horsepower that he didn't have previously. This is like a maiden voyage with this technology."

The Banks Straight-Shot Injection system offers the user an unprecedented opportunity to control the injection process. In its simplest form, a user interface provides control over a pump that operates at system pressures up to 300 PSI to inject the fluid through an atomizing nozzle. Control strategy features include the ability to select injection start point and ramp rate. Input signals may include boost pressure, exhaust gas temperature (EGT), intake manifold temperature (IAT) and even throttle position (TPS). Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2013)

The record (for this type of vehicle) is about, nominally, 12 minutes and 39 seconds. If I can pick him up a tenth of a second per turn, and I can pick him up on maximum speed about 25 to 30 miles per hour - as we expect to, we'll be in the 11's!"

Gale shared that, while on with Adam Corolla on his internet radio show, he came to this revelation, "This Water-Meth set-up, and the way we are controlling it, is habit forming. To me, this is (equivalent of) automotive crack. This stuff is habit forming."

It now can be said that Banks Power, Gale Banks, with Mike Ryan at The 91st Pikes Peak International Hill Climb will be ... due to this new application of injection technology - Water-Methanol fuel shot in the engine and cooling for brakes and other parts ... 'Breaking Bad' or Brakeing Bad, in a good way, on the pursuit of a new Pikes Peak climb world record.

If successful, there will be no 12-step program for the people at Banks Power ... as in, "Hello, my name is Gale Banks, and I'm addicted to Water-Meth injection!"

... notes from The EDJE

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TAGS: 91st Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, Banks Power, Banks Racing, Breaking Bad, Gale Banks, injection, Mike Ryan, Super-Charger, The EDJE, Turbo-Charger, Water-Meth, Water-Methanol, WM

Qualifications for the Iowa Corn Indy 250 requires cheat sheets

Defending Iowa Corn Indy 250 race winner Ryan Hunter-Reay: "The Iowa Speedway oval is one of a kind; a very unique track that makes for some of the closest racing of the year. Last year's race came down to the wire and I expect the same this year." Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2012)

Qualifications for the Iowa Corn Indy 250 requires cheat sheets

Let's be honest, changing racing formats up to create attention and increase fan interest sounds like a good idea until one recognizes that the elements that have changed will not be televised. That's right, for Iowa Corn Indy 250 presented by DEKALB, the three 50 Lap sprint races (150 Laps total) to be run Saturday evening, used to establish the starting order (with bonus points awarded for positions 1-12 earned) of the official points paying race on Sunday, will not be televised.

The lack of television broadcast options leaves real fans with IndyCar Race Control Timing and Scoring, Smart Phones (IndyCar 13 App) and ... cheat sheets.

Iowa Corn Indy 250 presented by DEKALB cheat sheet. Eighteen-second laps on the .875-mile Iowa Speedway oval -- 150 Laps for qualifications and 250 Laps in the Iowa Corn Indy 250 presented by DEKALB -- is a dizzying pace for IZOD IndyCar Series drivers ... and spectators.  Image Credit: IndyCar.com

This excerpted and edited from IndyCar.com -

The heat races include transfers to Race 3 for the top two finishers in the first two qualifying races.

Positions in the three heat races will be determined by single-car, single-lap qualifying (4 p.m. ET) on the .875-mile, variably-banked oval. A blind draw will determine the qualifying order. Practice  (11:45 a.m.-1 p.m. ET) and qualifying also are featured on indycar.com and INDYCAR 13 with Timing & Scoring and the IMS Radio Network call.

Here's the format, which adds the lure of bonus points – from nine points for the Verizon P1 Award winner and descending by one point each position to three points for seventh-eighth, two points for ninth and 10th and one point for 11th and 12th:

Race 1 -- Will consist of the even-numbered positions, starting with position 8 from single-car qualifying. The results of Race 1 shall determine the even-numbered positions in the starting field, starting with position 12. The top two finishers will transfer to Race 3 and start in positions 8 and 10.

Race 2 -- Will consist of the odd-numbered positions, starting with position 7 from single-car qualifying. The results of Race 2 shall determine the odd-numbered positions in the starting field, starting with position 11. The top two finishers will transfer to Race 3 and start in positions 7 and 9.

Race 3 -- Will consist of positions 1 through 6 from single-car qualifying plus the first- and second-place finishers from Races 1 and 2 to determine the pole winner and the first five rows of the starting grid.
(Reference Here)

As far as the race is concerned, IndyCar, with its patchwork of television broadcasting of points paying races will have Iowa Corn Indy 250 presented by DEKALB be presented by the network general broadcast outlet of ABC and its affiliates. Anytime IndyCar can appear on general broadcast versus cable only outlets increases access and should be the major consideration for fan base expansion going forward post unification.

The lack of televised coverage (Cable Only or General Broadcast) for the 150 Laps of qualifications racing (more than half of the number of laps to be run in the race itself on Sunday), seems really counter-productive to fan interest development, especially when one includes the complexity of the 3 Heat Race format.

The race will also be available on IMS Radio Network affiliates, XM/Sirius 211, indycar.com (IMS Radio Network and Timing & Scoring) and INDYCAR 13 (in-car cameras, Timing & Scoring, IMS Radio Network).

... notes from The EDJE

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**Article first posted as Qualifications For The Iowa Corn Indy 250 Requires Cheat Sheets at Motorsports Unplugged**