Andretti Indy Lights trio upbeat after maiden IndyCar tests

By Aug 13, 2016, 3:00 PM EDT
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Andretti Autosport’s Indy Lights trio of Dean Stoneman, Shelby Blackstock and Dalton Kellett were left content following their maiden IndyCar tests at Watkins Glen on Thursday.

Ahead of the Verizon IndyCar Series’ return to Watkins Glen on Labor Day weekend for the penultimate round of the 2016 season, eight teams put in the laps in mixed conditions on Thursday.

Indy Lights title contender Stoneman split running with regular Andretti driver Ryan Hunter-Reay in the no. 28 DHL Honda, and used 2016 rookie Alexander Rossi’s data as a guide for finding more lap time.

“Yesterday was a new learning curve for me and I had been really looking forward to it,” Stoneman said, having recorded a best lap of 1:27.14.

“We started by getting a feeling for the car with a quick out-lap and an in-lap, so the engineers look over that data. I took about five laps for me to get a feeling for the car.

“It was really enjoyable to drive the car and over the runs we were able to get quicker and quicker, making improvements more and more. I was looking at Alexander’s data compared to mine and just seeing where I could improve.

“There are some high-speed corners that just rely on confidence from me – knowing what the car is going to do and the way it behaves.

“The car is quite physical to drive, but it is a great car. I think I did a great job this morning, bear in mind that I have never driven an Indy car before.”

Blackstock’s maiden IndyCar test was the culmination of a five-year road with Andretti, having driven for the American marque in all three Mazda Road to Indy series. The 26-year-old shared the no. 26 Honda with Carlos Munoz, posting a fastest time of 1:28.76.

“The day went pretty well yesterday and it was great to be back at Watkins Glen,” Blackstock said.

“The day started out good, we progressed really well. Once we put on the sticker tires, I was able to feel the real weight of the steering. Luckily, when Carlos jumped into the car right after me, he said it was a bit excessive too.

“That was the only fall back I had. We were going to try the steering a bit lighter for the afternoon session, but unfortunately the rain started and we didn’t have the opportunity to go back out.

“Overall, I am really happy with the experience – I had a blast in the car and seeing how the Andretti IndyCar team is ran.”

Kellett put in 50 laps behind the wheel of Marco Andretti’s no. 27 United Fiber and Data/Snapple Honda, recording a fastest lap of 1:29.96.

“It felt great to be at Watkins Glen and get behind the wheel of an Indy car. The track was a lot of fun – there are a lot of high-speed corners,” Kellett said, who noted the step up from the Indy Lights cars.

“Getting used to the physicality of the car and track has definitely been an adjustment. The steering wheel was not as heavy as I thought it was going to be but there’s definitely a lot of force on the neck.

“We were focusing on building up to getting used to the car during the morning session yesterday since these cars are a lot different than the Indy Lights cars.

“There’s lot of power – the response from the Honda engine is very good – so it was definitely an adjustment to what I am used to with the IL-15.

“The car is a great package. It’s a lot of fun to drive, just the way the car handles the curves and the way you can really tackle the entries – and I think that was one of the things that I had been working on was just getting used to the downforce and using the grip on entry.

“It was great working with Marco and his team. They were very helpful to getting me up to speed with the car.”

Roger Penske vows new downtown Detroit GP will be bigger than the Super Bowl for city

By Jun 1, 2023, 2:00 PM EDT
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DETROIT – He helped spearhead bringing the town a Super Bowl 17 years ago, but Roger Penske believes the reimagined Chevrolet Detroit GP is his greatest gift to the Motor City.

“It’s bigger than the Super Bowl from an impact within the city,” Penske told NBC Sports. “Maybe not with the sponsors and TV, but for the city of Detroit, it’s bigger than the Super Bowl.

“We’ve got to give back individually and collectively, and I think we as a company in Michigan and in Detroit, it’s something we know how to do. It shows we’re committed. Someone needs to take that flag and run it down through town. And that’s what we’re trying to do as a company. We’re trying to give back to the city.”

After 30 years of being run on Belle Isle, the race course has been moved to a new nine-turn, 1.7-mile downtown layout that will be the centerpiece of an event weekend that is designed to promote a festival and community atmosphere.

There will be concerts in the adjacent Hart Plaza. Local businesses from Detroit’s seven districts have been invited to hawk their wares to new clientele. Boys and Girls Clubs from the city have designed murals that will line the track’s walls with images of diversity, inclusion and what Detroit means through the eyes of youth.

And in the biggest show of altruism, more than half the circuit will be open for free admission. The track is building 4-foot viewing platforms that can hold 150 people for watching the long Jefferson Avenue straightaway and other sections of the track.

Detroit GP chairman Bud Denker, a longtime key lieutenant across Penske’s various companies, has overseen more than $20 million invested in infrastructure.

The race is essentially Penske’s love letter to the city where he made much of his fame as one of Detroit’s most famous automotive icons, both as a captain of industry with a global dealership network and as a racing magnate (who just won his record 19th Indy 500 with Josef Newgarden breaking through for his first victory on the Brickyard oval).

During six decades in racing, Penske, 86, also has run many racetracks (most notably Indianapolis Motor Speedway but also speedways in Michigan, California and Pennsylvania), and much of that expertise has been applied in Detroit.

“And then the ability for us to reach out to our sponsor base, and then the business community, which Bud is tied in with the key executives in the city of Detroit, bringing them all together,” Penske said. “It makes a big difference.

“The Super Bowl is really about the people that fly in for the Super Bowl. It’s a big corporate event, and the tickets are expensive. And the TV is obviously the best in the world. What we’ve done is taken that same playbook but made it important to everyone in Detroit. Anyone that wants to can come to the race for free, can stand on a platform or they can buy a ticket and sit in the grandstands or be in a suite. It’s really multiple choice, but it is giving it to the city of Detroit. I think it’s important when you think of these big cities across the country today that are having a lot of these issues.”

Denker said the Detroit Grand Prix is hoping for “an amazingly attended event” but is unsure of crowd estimates with much of the track offering free viewing. The race easily could handle a crowd of at least 50,000 daily (which is what the Movement Music Festival draws in Hart Plaza) and probably tens of thousands more in a sprawling track footprint along the city’s riverwalk.

Penske is hoping for a larger crowd than Belle Isle, which was limited to about 30,000 fans daily because of off-site parking and restricted fan access at a track that was located in a public park.

The downtown course will have some unique features, including a “split” pit lane on an all-new concrete (part of $15 million spent on resurfaced roads, new barriers and catchfencing … as well as 252 manhole covers that were welded down).

A $5 million, 80,000-square-foot hospitality chalet will be located adjacent to the paddock and pit area. The two-story structure, which was imported from the 16th hole of the Waste Management Open in Phoenix, will offer 70 chalets (up from 23 suites at Belle Isle last year). It was built by InProduction, the same company that installed the popular HyVee-branded grandstands and suites at Iowa Speedway last year.

Penske said the state, city, county and General Motors each owned parts of the track, and their cooperation was needed to move streetlights and in changing apexes of corners. Denker has spent the past 18 months meeting with city council members who represent Detroit’s seven districts, along with Mayor Mike Duggan. Penske said the local support could include an appearance by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Witmer.

Denker and Detroit GP  president Michael Montri were inspired to move the Detroit course downtown after attending the inaugural Music City Grand Prix in Nashville, Tennessee.

“We saw what an impact it made on that city in August of 2021 and we came back from there and said boy could it ever work to bring it downtown in Detroit again,” Denker said. “We’ve really involved the whole community of Detroit, and the idea of bringing our city together is what the mayor and city council and our governor are so excited about. The dream we have is now coming to fruition.

“When you see the infrastructure downtown and the bridges over the roads we’ve built and the graphics, and everything is centered around the Renaissance Center as your backdrop, it’s just amazing.”