Today’s IZOD IndyCar Series, Firestone Indy Lights and Mazda Road to Indy headlines:
1. Two teams face grid penalty at Houston
2. Drivers serve up native cuisine
3. Will anyone pick up SONAX Perfect Finish Award?
4. Viso and Hunter-Reay to mark milestones
5. Home race on historic site
6. Race 1 standing start procedure the same as Toronto
7. Drivers get behind disc-throwing robots
1. Two teams face grid penalty at Houston: IZOD IndyCar Series officials have penalized the No. 10 car of Target Chip Ganassi Racing and No. 15 car of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 10 grid spots each for unapproved engine changes prior to the doubleheader event at Houston’s Reliant Park.
Both cars failed to comply with rules 15.1.4 and 15.5.1.
15.1.4. Each Full-Season Entrant may use no more than five fresh built Engines from the first Open Test until the end of the Race season. Using more than five fresh Engines in this period will result in a penalty. Engines beyond the fifth fresh Engine may be fresh or part-used.
15.5.1. The minimum mileage threshold (“Change-Out Mileage”) is 2,000 miles.
The No. 20 entry of Ed Carpenter Racing will utilize a fresh engine this weekend but is not subject to penalty under Rule 15.5.5, which allows for a penalty-free engine change when it’s brought on by circumstances beyond the control of the team and manufacturer. The team’s car and engine suffered smoke damage in a transporter fire coming back from a test at Auto Club Speedway on Sept. 25.
15.5.5. An Engine that has experienced a problem deemed sufficient to require change-out as mutually agreed by INDYCAR and Engine Manufacturer that is beyond the reasonable control of either the Entrant or Engine Manufacturer (such as faulty fuel, damage to the Engines caused by act of God, etc.) may be replaced with an Engine from the pool without penalty.
Click HERE for the latest Fresh Engine Update
2. Drivers serve up native cuisine: “I’ve found my winter internship,” Simona De Silvestro said as she put the finishing touches on another layer of a Swiss Cremeschnitten during a culinary kickoff event Oct. 3 at Reliant Center for the Shell and Pennzoil Grand Prix of Houston.
De Silvestro, of Switzerland, was joined by fellow IZOD IndyCar Series drivers Takuma Sato of Japan and Sebastien Bourdais of France in assisting in the creation of dishes representing their homelands.
Sato, of Tokyo, helped ground wasabi for the autumn-inspired appetizer of chef Hori of Kata Robata, which included Alaskan king crab and sea urchin with caviar; Japanese eggplant with sweet miso; hay-smoked Hamachi; and Matsutake mushrooms with duck breast tataki.
“Japan has four different seasons so these dishes are from the sea, the forest and the farm,” Sato said. “Japan food is diverse.”
Bourdais, who won the past two Indy car races in Houston in 2006 and ’07, assisted chef Philippe Gaston of the Cove and Haven restaurant in preparing a French country style lunch of pan-seared veal sweet breads with wild mushroom sauce, roasted garlic potatoes and rocket salad.
“French cuisine is actually very diverse, very much owing its roots to its surroundings,” said Bourdais, of Le Mans. “So you have influences from Spain and Italy and Germany, among other countries, and their traditional dishes. With the sea, the forests and the grazing lands, you get a lot of different dishes that are very flavorful.”
De Silvestro and chef Gerhard Schaefer of Roland’s Swiss Bakery handled dessert.
“Most people when they think of Switzerland think of chocolate and other sweets, but we do have pretty normal food, too,” De Silvestro said. “The problem, as a race car driver, when I go home it’s kind of difficult not to go crazy (on the sweets). My go-to thing is a tart or a slice of black forest cake.
“If I wasn’t a race car driver, I definitely could see myself as a pastry chef.”
3. Will anyone pick up SONAX Perfect Finish Award?: Scott Dixon accepted a $100,000 check for earning the SONAX Perfect Finish Award at Toronto. Will a driver collect the $50,000 prize this weekend in Houston?
SONAX, a global leader in the manufacturing of premium car care products, will pay a $50,000 bonus if a driver can sweep the Shell and Pennzoil Grand Prix of Houston doubleheader. The 90-lap races on the 1.683-mile, 10-turn street circuit are Oct. 5-6.
Dixon won both races on the Exhibition Place street course in July. The SONAX Perfect Finish Award rolled over the first $50,000 to Toronto after Mike Conway and Simon Pagenaud split the doubleheader in Detroit in early June.
“It was nice for me but it is extra special for the crew guys who work hard and get a portion of this prize money,” Dixon said. “It’s great for SONAX to post such a big check for the weekend and to have them in the sport.”
4. Viso and Hunter-Reay to mark milestones: Andretti Autosport teammates E.J. Viso and Ryan Hunter-Reay will mark Indy car milestones in Race 2 on Oct. 6.
Viso will make his 100th Indy car start while Hunter-Reay, the reigning IZOD IndyCar Series champion, will compete in his 150th Indy car race.
“It’s gone by super fast,” said Viso, driver of the No. 5 Team Venezuela PDVSA CITGO car. “I never really stopped to think about how many races I’ve done. It’s easy to say, 100 races, but it seems like yesterday that I moved to the States. I’m grateful that my career has always been stable here and hopefully it will stay that way.”
5. Home race on historic site: Four-time Indianapolis 500 champion and Houston native A.J. Foyt, the grand marshal of the Shell and Pennzoil Grand Prix of Houston, won his first Midget race at Playland Park in 1953.
The dirt oval was on the site of Reliant Park, where the IZOD IndyCar Series doubleheader will be contested this weekend. A.J. Foyt Racing is entered with the No. 14 ABC Supply car for driver Takuma Sato.
6. Race 1 standing start procedure the same as Toronto: A standing start, with procedures and the lighting system the same as Toronto, will be utilized in Race 1 at Houston.
It was in Race 2 at Toronto that Dixon, the pole sitter, got a clean getaway from the standing start and went on to the victory.
Firestone Racing will provide primary and alternate tire specifications used this season at St. Petersburg, Long Beach, Detroit, Toronto and Baltimore. Each entry receives nine sets of primary (black) Firehawks and three sets of alternate (red sidewall) Firehawks for the race weekend.
7. Drivers get behind disc-throwing robots: Drivers Charlie Kimball and Josef Newgarden will pair with Texas high school teams and their disc-throwing robots for a competition Oct. 5.
The driver-controlled robots, Viper and Apex, try to hit as many goals in an allotted time. The higher the goal, the more points scored.
The robotics teams from Greenville, Texas, and League City, Texas, are part of FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), a competitive robotics group for K-12 students created by inventor Dean Kamen to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders.
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The next IZOD IndyCar Series race is the Shell and Pennzoil Grand Prix of Houston presented by the Greater Houston Honda Dealers doubleheader on Oct. 5 and 6 at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center Speedway at Reliant Park. Both races will be televised live by NBC Sports Network (3 p.m. ET on Oct. 5 and 1 p.m. ET on Oct. 6) and broadcast by the IMS Radio Network, including on Sirius and XM Channels 211, www.indycar.com and the INDYCAR 13 App for most smartphones and tablets. The next Firestone Indy Lights race is the Grand Prix of Houston on Oct. 5 at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center Speedway at Reliant Park. The race will be televised by NBC Sports Network at 4 p.m. (ET) on Oct. 6.
