Following a second place finish two weeks ago, Ryan Hunter-Reay came back strong this weekend in Long Beach as he won the pole for the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. Hunter-Reay had been close before, having qualified in the runner-up spot three times, though this marks his first pole on the 11-turn temporary street circuit, sixth career pole overall.
“It’s been frustrating as of late,” he noted of coming close before. “At Long Beach we’ve been on the outside pole by hundredths of a second, not tenths of a second, but hundredths. So to finally get the pole here is very fulfilling. The guys gave me a great car when I needed it. What was most entertaining about the session though was the fact that it was anybody’s. You didn’t really have a favorite. It was anybody’s session, and you didn’t know who was going to put up that last lap. So that’s why the competition at IndyCar right now is pretty ridiculous, actually. It’s amazing.”
Hunter-Reay added that it’s tough to put that lap down as you’re trying to hit the throttle as soon as you can, but also fighting for grip.
“We’re on the edge, so I smacked the wall earlier today in practice,” he continued. “Luckily it was flat. It was a flat hit, a pretty broad hit. So it hit the front and the rear at the same time. It didn’t bend anything, but it’s easy to do for sure.
“On a street circuit, you’re dealing with inches, not feet. If you make a mistake by a couple inches, it means a toe length and you’re in.”
With five different teams in the Firestone Fast Six and both top teams Team Penske and Chip Ganassi Racing not being included, Hunter-Reay’s sentiment for the weekend is playing true – expect the unexpected.
“There is just so much that this race has,” he commented. “It’s different race strategy, it’s different fuel strategy, tire strategies. You’ll see guys on the Black Firestones and on the Reds at different times in the race.
“It’s a standing start now. That’s all about the standing start the key there is all about like the first 20 or 30 feet off the box is where you get the most traction. Whoever kind of times that just right will have a huge advantage. So we’ll see how it goes. It will be interesting. But one thing’s for sure, it’s going to be a tough one with the competition the way it is. Everybody’s so, so close right now.”
While some people aren’t too thrilled about the standing start, Hunter-Reay doesn’t care what they do either way – just wish that they’d choose standing or rolling for all the races and stick with it.
“The switching back and forth I really don’t understand that,” he commented. “But I’m the driver of the car. So they tell me how we’re going to start the race and I start it that way. If the fans like the standing starts and that sells more tickets and gets more seats filled, then I’m all for it.”
Hunter-Reay says with the standing start, though, comes the challenge of trying to avoid the ca ahead of you if they don’t get going while you do as there’s not a lot of room.
“The one challenge with standing starts in IndyCar on street circuits is that let’s compare it to Formula 1 or something where they have a football field width, we have a swimming pool size width that we’re trying to avoid cars and make passes on,” he explained.
