Vautier, Rahal, Newgarden top 3 in Baltimore second practice - MotorSportsTalk

The second 45-minute IZOD IndyCar Series practice session for the Grand Prix of Baltimore presented by SRT (2 p.m. EST, Sunday, NBCSN) saw improved lap times and a Honda top-five sweep, led by Tristan Vautier. The Schmidt Peterson Motorsports rookie also led the first practice at Barber Motorsports Park earlier this year.

“I think it’s one of the rare street courses that’s this long and with this many corners,” Vautier said, praising the circuit. “Here you have everything with the chicanes, fast turns, 90-degree corner and hairpins. It’s very technical and requires a lot of commitment to get it all right. I feel it’s a complete street course, my favorite one.”

Vautier got down to a 1:19.4792 for his flier in the No. 55 Environmental Rail Solutions Honda, ahead of Graham Rahal in the newly reliveried No. 15 blu eCigs Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda. Rahal and new engineer Neil Fife are starting to gel, and the team did well unloading off the truck this weekend to begin straight on pace. Fife is based on Columbus while RLL’s IndyCar base is Indianapolis; Graham only sees his new engineer on the weekends.

“It’s a big improvement from where we’ve been; where we felt confident at any of our disciplines this year though, it’s been street courses,” he said. “There were improvements we made at Sonoma; you all can see it. You see where we were on road courses – we were terrible, the worst I’ve been in my career. Then we qualified eighth, right up front where we should be. We still need to keep improving and have quite a lot of work to do.”

Josef Newgarden clocked in third in the No. 67 Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing Honda. Newgarden is seeking a decent result in his first Baltimore IndyCar start.

“I’m so hot, it’s like driving in a sauna,” Newgarden told IMS Radio’s Nick Yeoman regarding the 89 degree ambient, 107 degree track temperatures and high humidity. “Yeah I’m trying to plow the car through there (the chicane). It’s one of the coolest things about this track. It’s a trick trying to nail it.”

Scott Dixon and Simon Pagenaud rounded out the top five. Will Power, in sixth, was the last driver in the 1:19 range and first Chevrolet-powered car. Power ended the session with a quick nosing into the tire barrier at Turn 9, a corner that has Dr Pepper signage prominent both on corner entry and exit.

“On the last lap there in the afternoon session I just locked up the tires going into Turn 9 and fortunately there wasn’t much in the way of damage to the front wing,” Power said.

Tony Kanaan, Takuma Sato, Sebastien Bourdais and Dario Franchitti rounded out the top 10.

Luca Filippi posted an impressive performance in the No. 98 Barracuda Racing Honda in 11th, just ahead of the returning Oriol Servia in the No. 4 National Guard Panther Racing Chevrolet.

Stefan Wilson, IndyCar debutante, found two seconds from this morning but was still shotgun on the 24-car field at 1:23.6238 in the No. 18 Nirvana Tea Honda for Dale Coyne Racing.

Points leader Helio Castroneves was 13th, with Ryan Hunter-Reay, also in the driver’s championship picture, 16th.

Several cars – James Hinchcliffe, Simona de Silvestro and Sebastian Saavedra notable among them – hit the chicane on the front straight pretty hard in the textbook definition of “crashing over the curbs.”

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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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