All posts by Christopher DeHarde

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer ELKHART LAKE, Wisconsin — Magnus Racing has been on a roll lately in the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship and rolled into Road America by setting the fastest class time in the first practice session ahead of Sunday’s Continental Tire Road Race Showcase. Andy Lally managed to bring the Audi R8 LMS GT3 around the 4.048 mile natural terrain road course with a GT Daytona (GTD) class-leading lap of 2 minutes, 7.048 seconds for an average speed of 114.702 mph. For Magnus Racing, this part ofRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer Mazda announced today that the automaker will conclude their involvement in the Mazda Road to Indy presented by Cooper Tires at the conclusion of the 2018 season. After announcing their involvement on the Road to Indy in late 2010, Mazda has handed out over $12 million in scholarships to drivers advancing their careers in motorsports, including Spencer Pigot (twice), Josef Newgarden, Kyle Kaiser, Oliver Askew (twice) and Victor Franzoni. This announcement comes at a critical time for the Road to Indy. The top two steps onRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer Sebastien Bourdais had a less than ideal qualifying session this past Saturday at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course as his mistake in the first round brought out a red flag, dropping him to last place for Sunday’s Honda Indy 200 for the Verizon IndyCar Series. The No. 18 Sealmaster Honda lined up 24th and relied on an aggressive three stop strategy to get to the front. Pitting for the first time on Lap 10, Bourdais had worked his way up to 19th place. Using the newly-found advantageRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer LEXINGTON, Ohio — Stockdale, Ohio native Zach Veach managed to score a 10th place finish in Sunday’s Honda Indy 200, his first Verizon IndyCar Series start at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Starting 12th, Veach was in ninth before his first pit stop on Lap 13 as his team committed to a three stop strategy. Veach stayed around the edge of the top-10 during the rest of the race, passing Jordan King for 10th on Lap 50 to solidify his position and Veach never fell below tenthRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer LEXINGTON, Ohio — Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing is the only other team besides Team Penske and Chip Ganassi Racing to win at Mid-Ohio in the last 11 years and they have an excellent chance to add to that as their two drivers start seventh and eighth for today’s Honda Indy 200. Graham Rahal won at Mid-Ohio in 2015 and will start ahead of teammate Takuma Sato but both drivers could have advanced higher up the grid with a bit more luck. Schmidt Peterson Motorsports’ James HinchcliffeRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer LEXINGTON, Ohio — Sebastien Bourdais has never won at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, but has had a strong car all weekend ahead of Sunday’s Honda Indy 200 for the Verizon IndyCar Series where the Frenchman will start 24th (last) after causing a red flag in the first round of qualifying. Bourdais drives for Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser/Sullivan, one of the smallest teams in the IndyCar paddock but one of the most competitive as he has two of the more experienced engineers in the paddock workingRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer LEXINGTON, Ohio — A Honda-powered driver has not won the Honda Indy 200 since Graham Rahal’s triumph in 2015 but the 2018 Verizon IndyCar Series visits the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course with Honda having a decent edge through Friday practice. In the opening practice, Honda had eight of the top 10 positions while in the second session they had seven of the top 10. On the odd side of statistics, only one driver stayed in the top five in both practice sessions and that was EdRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer LEXINGTON, Ohio — Charlie Kimball and Max Chilton have driven the last couple of seasons for Chip Ganassi Racing and after moving to Carlin for the 2018 Verizon IndyCar Series season, the duo have had an uphill battle to climb with a new team. As part of being a new IndyCar team, Carlin has an extra few days of testing and they used a day at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course ahead of the Honda Indy 200, working to gather a baseline to help them move furtherRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer LEXINGTON, Ohio — The Verizon IndyCar Series heads to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for the Honda Indy 200 and if past performances are anything to go off of, the rest of the field should be afraid of Scott Dixon. The current INDYCAR points leader has five victories at Mid-Ohio (2007, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014) and currently leads Josef Newgarden by 62 points with five races to go including Mid-Ohio. Behind Dixon and Newgarden in the standings are the top half of Andretti Autosport’s quartet. Alexander RossiRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer In what was a part-time effort now turned full-time in the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship, the No. 86 Acura NSX GT3 of Katherine Legge and Alvaro Parente finished fourth in the GT Daytona class Saturday in the GT-only Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park. The Meyer-Shank Racing entry started 16th overall, four positions behind the GTD points leading Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 of Madison Snow and Bryan Sellers. Both of the MSR Acura NSX entries struggled in qualifying with the No. 93Read More