It could be déjà vu all over again for Hunter-Reay with Milwaukee repeat - MotorSportsTalk

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He’s not as far back in the championship standings as he was this time last year, but Ryan Hunter-Reay has the opportunity to repeat his second half surge thanks to his second straight win at the Milwaukee IndyFest.

He’s the first to pull off that feat in the IZOD IndyCar Series at the Milwaukee Mile since Tony Kanaan in 2006-’07. For that matter, he’s also the only driver to win an Andretti Sports Marketing-promoted event – he is three-for-three with two wins in Milwaukee and one at Baltimore last fall.

Hunter-Reay, driver of the No. 1 DHL/Sun Drop Chevrolet for Andretti Autosport, entered Milwaukee a year ago seventh in the championship, 75 points behind then-series leader Will Power. His win and Power’s 12th-place finish at the 2012 race promoted him to fourth, just 41 points back.

Of course, it also set the stage for his run of three straight victories from Milwaukee to the next short oval a week later in Iowa, and a third triumph on the streets of Toronto.

“In sports, when you get into a momentum, a rhythm, it’s not something you can put a price tag on or finger on, it just happens,” he said. “It kind of saturates the team with this feeling that, Hey, we can get it done. If we perform to our best, to our potential, we can absolutely win races.

“That carried over week in, week out. We were able to win four more races than anybody else last year. It all started here last year. This is a great place to start. Andretti has great cars. You put the two together, and hopefully it comes out the way we want.”

Hunter-Reay has improved his qualifying this year to match his race pace (starts of eighth or better in all nine races, including seven top-four starts). He was due another win after podiums at Indianapolis and the first Detroit race since his win at Barber in April.

This race was actually shaping up as a battle between Hunter-Reay and teammate E.J. Viso in the race’s first 100 laps. But a caution for their third teammate, Marco Andretti, being stopped on track, promoted Takuma Sato and Helio Castroneves up the leaderboard thanks to their off-sequence strategies.

“We were setting the pace of the race early,” Hunter-Reay said. “The yellow came out. I’m not sure for what. Maybe it was for Marco. That shuffled us back into the field a bit, which put some of the guys off strategy, Helio, Takuma, etc., into the lead.”

“Yeah, E.J. is always very good here,” he added. “I saw him coming up from behind about halfway through the race. I knew it was going to be tough. I thought it was going to be between him and I at the end. He was very strong. We really seemed to click getting through traffic at the end of the race better than anybody.”

Hunter-Reay also appreciates the history of Milwaukee, the oldest active race track in North America.

“Every time I have the opportunity to race here, I feel blessed,” he said. “Such a challenging place. When you get it right, there’s no better feeling in IndyCar than at Milwaukee Mile. Indianapolis definitely is right there with it, but this place is very special.”

Vicki Golden has earned a career worthy of a thousand stories and 805 Beer tells at least one of them, as “Inverted Perspective” premiered March 30 on the company’s website and YouTube channel.

Golden did more to break the glass ceiling in SuperMotocross than she ever thought possible. She knows this because riders have never felt the need to explain any of her accomplishments with the disclaimer, “for a girl”.

At this point in Golden’s career, she’s been the first woman to finish top 10 in AMA Arenacross Lites, the first woman to qualify in the Fast 40 in Monster Energy AMA Supercross and the first woman to compete in freestyle Moto X competition, earning a bronze medal by doing so.

Her love for moto came from childhood while she watched her dad and brother ride. By seven she was on her bike and making waves throughout Southern California.

Golden, 30, is still madly in love with the sport and has no plans on moving away but her career is already one to talk about. 805 Beer’s film series wanted to do exactly that.

“I’m taken aback by it all,” Golden told NBC Sports about the documentary. “It’s just crazy to see your story, it’s one thing to live your life and battle everything that comes about but it’s another to just sit there and talk about it.”

805 approached Golden about the feature by asking, “Do you even realize that what you do, and your story is special?”

Golden took the question as a blank canvas to map out the highs and lows of her career and life.

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The title “Inverted Perspective” came from a brainstorming session with Dominick Russo and it highlights Golden’s outlook on the sport of SuperMotocross and her life in general.

“My whole life, my whole career was thinking differently and looking at things that shouldn’t be done and aren’t there, while being able to make a place for myself, where no one thought there should be a place,” Golden said. “It’s inspiring someone to think in different ways. It sums up my life.”

*Vicki Golden is not “fast for a girl”; she’s just fast. – 805 Beer*

While Golden is no stranger to the spotlight, this was the first time she’s been fully involved with the storytelling and creation of a feature about herself.

“It’s not like a full new experience,” Golden said. “Obviously, you get your standard questions about your upbringing and accomplishments, but I’ve never really put into perspective things that happened in my past with my dad and putting that to light. Also, certain other things that maybe got overlooked in previous interviews or films. I wanted to touch on these and Dom wanted to create a story. It’s just cool to see it come to light, it’s a nearly impossible thing to tell somebody’s life story in 40 minutes.”

Golden’s father was left paralyzed after an ATV accident, robbing him the opportunity to ride again. This happened a few months before the father-daughter duo was set to compete in the Loretta Lynn’s Amateur Nationals when Vicki was 12. While she might have been unable to grasp the severity at the time, it’s something she carries with her. Golden continues to ride in his honor.

Years later, an accident in 2018 nearly sidelined the then 25-year-old Vicki when a freestyle accident almost resulted in the amputation of her lower leg.

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Golden 805 Beer — *Vicki Golden has ridden a variety of disciplines in SuperMotocross, which gives her a unique perspective. – 805 Beer*

“Inverted Perspective” highlights her father’s diligence in helping Vicki continue with her career and the kindness and strength he carried while fighting his own battle.

“My dad was the entire reason that I started riding in the first place,” Golden said. “So, to honor his memory and to honor what we went through and how hard he pushed to keep our dream alive and keep everything going – in that sense then, it was really special to be able to honor him and talk about him.”

The 40-minute feature was filmed entirely in black and white, a stark contrast from the oversaturated world of motocross where the brighter the suit the easier it is for fans to find their rider and follow him in the race. By filming in monochrome Russo and Golden had the chance to focus on the race and track from a different perspective.

“It was cool to be able to film it differently,” Golden said. “It created a challenge in the sense of what was going to be more visually impactful for the film.

“I couldn’t be here without the companies that back me but at the same time, it’s not like the logos or colors disappeared, it’s just different lights shed on different spots. It’s just a cool way to do it and to take color away and still be impactful. When you think of black and white, you think of old school, the OG way of doing things.”

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