KIMBALL MARKS CARLIN’S PROGRESS

Charlie Kimball couldn’t stop grinning after the Toronto race last weekend. His fifth place for Carlin owed something to attrition, of course, but almost all the cars that had wound up making sharp contact with concrete walls or tyre barriers had done so through driver error. Kimball, meanwhile, had started 20th, dodged the bullets and climbed into the top five, where he kept the pressure on James Hinchcliffe – a close friend and the person who’d married Charlie and his wife Kathleen.

This wasn’t the best Toronto result of Kimball’s career; his very first podium finish in Indycar came here six years earlier, driving for Chip Ganassi Racing, but that was a genuinely lucky outcome. This top-five finish was the result of a lot of hard work, and genuine race pace, and will have brought at least as much satisfaction.

In its rookie season in the series, Trevor Carlin’s team’s progress (on most types of track) is tangible and measurable.

“I’m just really proud of the Carlin guys,” said Kimball. “They fight and work so hard, weekend in and weekend out. They’re the first ones here in the paddock in the morning and the last ones out at night.

“We struggled a little on Saturday, but on race day we were able to bring it. We showed up in Toronto with a great foundation from the second Detroit race, a top-10 car, and we were able to make it a little better this weekend.

“The #23 crew had two fantastic pitstops – that second stop was just rock solid. To be able to come out with a top five, leaning on fourth at the end, was a great way to cap the weekend.”

Next stop Mid-ohio, where Kimball scored his sole Indycar victory in 2013, and where he should be a crucial tool for Carlin to craft its set-ups.