Tuesday, August 20, 2013

GoPro Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma - August 25th

ENGINE MANUFACTURER COMPETITION With seven race victories and 105 points apiece, Honda and Chevrolet now are tied in the battle for the 2013 INDYCAR Manufacturers' Championship, with five races remaining. Honda drivers and teams have won the last four IZOD IndyCar Series events. The streak began at the Pocono Indy 400 in July, and has extended through the doubleheader race weekend at the Honda Indy Toronto, and the Honda Indy 200 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course earlier this month. Target Chip Ganassi Racing's Scott Dixon has won three of the last four races, beginning at Pocono and continuing through both rounds of the Toronto weekend. His Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing teammate, Charlie Kimball, won at Mid-Ohio. Of Honda's seven wins this year, four have included podium sweeps: Long Beach, a one-through-four finish led by Takuma Sato, Graham Rahal, Justin Wilson and Dario Franchitti; The second of two races at Detroit, a one-through-five result led by Simon Pagenaud, James Jakes, Mike Conway, Scott Dixon and Franchitti; Pocono, won by Dixon with Kimball second and Franchitti third; Mid-Ohio, with Kimball winning, followed home by Pagenaud and Franchitti Dixon's Pocono win in July was Honda's 200th victory in Indy car competition. With three wins, Dixon is second in the driver's championship, 31 points behind current points leader Helio Castroneves. Honda's 203 Indy car victories include 104 race wins in seasons with manufacturer competition, as well as 99 victories in the six-year period (2006-2011) when Honda supplied engines to the entire IndyCar Series field. Honda's remaining race win this season, in the first Detroit race, was recorded by Dale Coyne Racing's Mike Conway. Teammate Wilson finished third, with Dixon fourth.

4 comments:

  1. Honda has supplied the winning engine in seven of the previous eight IndyCar races at Sonoma, including the inaugural 2005 event, when multi-manufacturer competition was still part of the series. Tony Kanaan and Buddy Rice scored a 1-2 finish for Honda over the Toyota-powered cars of Alex Barron and Patrick Carpentier. Tomas Enge was the highest-finishing Chevrolet entry, in fifth.

    ReplyDelete
  2. During the era of single engine supply to the IZOD IndyCar Series, Will Power won twice, in 2010 and 2011. Other Sonoma winners include Marco Andretti (his first IndyCar victory, in 2006); Dixon, 2007; Castroneves, 2008; and Franchitti, 2009.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Did you know that the new 2013 Honda Accord Coupe, which will be utilized as the IZOD IndyCar Series Safety Car this weekend, made its debut at this year's Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. This Accord was originally built by Honda of America Manufacturing in Marysville, Ohio, and developed into a series Safety Car at Honda Performance Development in Santa Clarita, Calif.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Modifications installed on the Accord by HPD include Sparco seats and four-point racing harnesses; an HPD high-performance brake system, with four-piston calipers, competition rotors, racing pads, and stainless brake lines; a Honda Genuine Accessory aerodynamic body kit; Firestone Firehawk high-performance tires mounted on Enkei alloy wheels; and an IndyCar Series graphics package.

    ReplyDelete

Blog Archive