Local teams have different expectations in opener
The street-airport track for IndyCar’s season-opening Grand Prix of St. Petersburg has 14 turns. For the new team of Michael Shank Racing, it also has a learning curve.
After competing for the first time in the Indianapolis 500 last year, the Pataskalabased team dove into its first regular-season IndyCar event Friday in Florida with the opening practices headed toward the race Sunday.
Driver Jack Harvey, a series rookie, was 23rdfastest of 24 drivers, but as Shank cautioned, first steps are rarely bold charges.
“I am very pleased and would call that a very solid day,” tweeted Shank, who intends to enter just IndyCar races this year, including the Indianapolis 500, as the team builds for the future. “We have a lot of room for improvement, and this weekend is going exactly as I had hoped.”
Considering the veteran-laden Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing team’s success in preseason test sessions, its first day was expected to be better. Takuma Sato was 10th-fastest, and New Albany native Graham Rahal was 20th.
Headed into the start of the season, though, Rahal said his confidence in his team has never been stronger and indicated it is built for such challenges as getting the car right for qualifying Saturday and the race.
“The depth of our engineering staff is a huge part of this,” said Rahal, referring to Tom German, Eddie Jones, Mike Talbott and Martin Pare. “It’s extremely cohesive. We’re all on the same page.
“We have our guys who are in their specialized departments, and they don’t really step outside those boundaries, which is good, but when it’s needed, and we get lost, and the question goes out, ‘What do you think about this?’ Bam, we get four good suggestions.”
And first days often aren’t harbingers. Last year, Rahal was sixth in the first practice but 17th in the race after getting caught up in an early melee. That poor finish set the tone for the early part of the season, something he said the team is determined not to repeat this year.
“If we hadn’t started the year off with three or four throwaway races, I bet you we would have been top three in the championship, no problem,” said Rahal, who wound up with two wins — both ends of the Detroit Grand Prix doubleheader — later in the season. “Yet what happened was we didn’t score a point until May, until the Indy Grand Prix.
“So the good start is what we’re looking for this year. Yes, we’ve got a spring in our step, but we’re also pretty focused.”