In the run-up to today’s inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis, drivers have pretty much offered near universal praise for the revised Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
That’s to be expected, because lest you be viewed as “the critic” who isn’t trumpeting the series’, or track’s, efforts to make this a circuit worthy of the “hallowed ground” distinction that IMS has held for more than 100 years.
You don’t want the law coming after you saying, “Hey, why aren’t you pimping this new race and new track?”
And while the IMS road course doesn’t pose a threat to the purpose-built, North American natural parks disguised as permanent road courses like Road America and Barber Motorsports Park, I can confirm the drivers aren’t BS-ing when it comes to the quality of this track.
The IMS road course is freaking legit, and that’s with a view from the passenger’s seat in a Chevrolet Camaro.
The Indy Racing Experience always makes both pace car rides and two-seater rides available, and while the latter would have been incredible, the former was no slouch.
I saddled up with my man Anders Krohn, who’s carved quite a career outside the driver’s seat between his NBCSN Indy Lights TV analyst role, his co-founding of the CoForce International driver development program and his continued role with IRE driving both the pace cars and the two-seaters.
Here’s the funny part. As part of NBCSN’s Indy Lights coverage, Krohn has already done stand-ups and called Race 1 of the double-header weekend, but only having completed a single track walk lap before our rides this morning.
“Now I get to understand the lines that I’ve been telling them to run,” “The Viking” joked.
Believe it or not the first thing that came on the radio as a pump-up to the lap was DJ Hardwell, who will be playing the Turn 3 Snake Pit on Indianapolis 500 race day. “I’m down with that,” I cracked, much to Krohn’s amusement.
But we got our game faces up and burned out of the pits – Krohn driving a manual transmission for the first time in a while – behind the quartet of two-seaters.
Turn 1 is tight, like full-on 90-degree right-hander tight. This has clearly been tightened from the almost flowing right off the banking used by Formula One in its run here, and based on yesterday’s three Mazda Road to Indy events there’s going to be a wealth of passing as has been projected.
Turns 2 through 4 will test how hard these guys can push with the quick left, right and right again. We’ve already seen a number of incidents in Turns 3 and 4 and the apex and line through 4, as projected, will be crucial to the run down the backstraight.
Krohn hit both apexes nicely on the Turns 5/6 chicane and powered down Hulman Blvd., a.k.a. the backstraight on the run down to Turn 7. Like Turn 1, this is another full-90, tighter than it was in the F1 era. Even at 8:35 this morning, there’s fans already camped out on the hillside mounds.
Grip’s high at all points on this track, as there’s no sliding.
The back section of the course from Turns 7 through to 12, a left, right, left, and three rights complex, is where teams that have opted for a higher downforce setting should be in good shape, and perhaps have the opportunity to pass into Turn 12.
The entry to 12 is a bit hard to nail, as you’re briefly back on the oval and not completely flat, but have to apex tighter into the right-hander, then be in proper position for the left-handed Turn 13 that will prove pivotal as cars launch through Turn 14 and back onto the front straight.
Not bad for Krohn’s first lap, and certainly not bad from the passenger’s seat.
And by not bad, I mean freaking awesome.
Thanks to Indy Racing Experience and Chevrolet for the opportunity.
