Honda Indy Toronto – Streets around Exhibition Place
IZOD IndyCar Series
RACE NOTES/QUOTES for Race 1 of “2 in T.O.” – Saturday, July 13, 2013
JAKES FINISHED 11TH IN RACE 1 OF THE “TWO IN T.O” HONDA INDY TORONTO; RAHAL FINISHED 20TH AFTER “AVOIDABLE CONTACT” FROM VAUTIER
GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 Midas / Big O Tires Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “Unfortunately I saw in my mirror that Newgarden had stalled and I was thinking ‘There goes that.’ I was kind of excited about the start; I thought that it would be fun but then again I also wasn’t all that disappointed. I know the fans will be but to be honest IndyCar racing isn’t Formula One, it’s not about the standing starts. And I’m not sure we need them. Tradition in this sport goes back 100 years.
“My start was good, I think I passed four guys. I got by Sato and a couple of others in the second lap and felt pretty strong initially. The tires went away from me early and I struggled with the rears on the reds and we pitted to get on the blacks and unfortunately Vautier hit us as I was trying to pass Pagenaud. It was kind of a mess and Pagenaud appeared to be struggling with the rears (tires) so I was trying to get by him and Vautier drove over his head and I should have known it could happen. He couldn’t have even had his (car) nose next to my rear pod and the contact didn’t leave a mark on the tires which tells you something.
(On learning things today for tomorrow’s race:) “The laps that you do today help. As dad said on the radio, this became a test session for us. Unfortunately with the issues that we had getting the car started, we lost a few laps and knew we were totally out of contention for anything but a top-20 at best. So you just try things like driver lines and I figured some stuff out but we have some work to do before tomorrow.”
JAMES JAKES, No. 16 Acorn Stairlifts Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “I was ready to make a standing start and it just didn’t happen which was a shame. I think the fans were looking forward to it too. I got a shocking start either way. Pagenaud nearly spun and I got boxed in. I got blocked to the inside on the initial start and lost a few positions there. We tried to work our way up but struggled. The track temperature came up and it really seemed to affect us. When its cool, we’re pretty quick if not one of the quickest cars out there. It’s a shame that we didn’t get tenth place. I made a mistake on the restart after the last caution and two cars got passed me. I’m disappointed but we’ll move on and see what we can do tomorrow.”
1 POLE, 5 PODIUMS FOR RAHAL LETTERMAN LANIGAN RACING AT TORONTO… It is the 14th (and 15th) Indy car races for the team in Toronto and second/third since 2003. The team also competed in the Atlantic Series races here in 2003 and 2004. The team earned a total of four second place finishes (Rahal 1992, 1994, 1995; Michel Jourdain Jr. 2003) and best start was pole in 1992 by Bobby Rahal. Prior to the 2013 event, the team prepared a total of 22 Indy car entries for drivers Bobby Rahal (1992-98), Mike Groff (1994), Raul Boesel (1995), Bryan Herta (1996-99), Max Papis (1999-2001), Jimmy Vasser (2002), Michel Jourdain Jr. (2002-03) and Takuma Sato (2012). The team also prepared three Toyota Atlantic entries (Danica Patrick 2003-2004; Chris Festa 2004). The team has earned FIVE podiums (3rd – Rahal 1996), 9 top-five’s and 17 top-10 finishes at the track.
NEXT UP: Warm-up for Race 2 of the Honda Indy Toronto “2 in T.O.” will take place from 10:50-11:20 a.m. ET Sunday and the Green Flag will fall for Race 2 at 3:33 p.m. ET and be televised live on NBC Sports Network beginning at 3:00. Timing and Scoring information is available for all sessions from www.indycar.com.
PHOTO AND VIDEO AVAILABLE: Media members who register on the IndyCar Series media site have access to photography and video. Register for access at: http://www.indycarmedia.com/pages/ApplyforAccess