The oval on steroids proved tough for Indy car drivers at the inaugural Iowa Corn 250 today. Indy 500 winner Dario Franchitti kept the lead just ahead of Marco Andretti to also put some air between himself and his pursuers atop the Indy car series. Wife Judley Ash Ashley Judd approved as she watched from the pits, in the track outside of Newton -- which is about 30 miles northeast of Des Moines. (Note: can't believe we typied in Judley Ash, which is funny. Eye-witnesses to the race said she was wearing a huge hat which made her very visible in the pits).
NEWTON, Iowa (AP) -IndyCar Series points leader Dario Franchitti held off a furious late charge from teammate Marco Andretti to win the inaugural Iowa Corn Indy 250 Sunday.
Franchitti, whose other victory in 2007 came at the Indy 500, won by 0.0681 seconds.
Scott Sharp was third, followed by Buddy Rice and Darren Manning. Seven of the top 10 drivers in the points standings, including Tony Kanaan and Sam Hornish Jr., were either involved in crashes or had mechanical trouble through the first 100 laps.
Andretti finished his first oval Indy race in 8 tries, trying to get around Franchitti, however unable to overtake the Indy winner by going high on the oval. The heir of the Andretti family settled for second and his first completed small oval race.
About 60 miles from where we type, the Iowa 250 super-oval opened for big time racing this year. Designed by Rusty Wallace with a 12-13-14 degree compound banking system, the idea was to allow three car width racing without dangerous corner lift. However, on at least one occasional the speed-driven drivers forced 4 cars abreast with disastrous results on chaotic restarts.
In one of these crowded 4 car episodes, Indy car driver Dania Patrick met her Iowa-250 race end. She was not pleased, blaming the cold overcast weather, the hard tires, and other lead footed agressive drivers coming out of the restarts. Patrick hoped for her first Indy series race win (NBC News), but ended up the race early in the pits.
The Iowa 250's first run at the Wallace designed course in Newton Iowa, gave a much needed infusion of excitement to the smallish Iowa town (about 25,000). Last year, it was announced in the city where the washing machine was invented, that Maytag Corp was ceasing operations. Rusty Wallace and a group of investors decided the town, the open corn fields, and the prairie sky would be a perfect place to build a state of the art racing oval on steroids.
From the Des Moines Register:
Newton, Ia. - It's OK, Iowa, to be proud, even a bit breathless, about this one. You hear the success when the scream of an engine turns your ears to mush. And feel it when the ground shakes. And see it when the jet-like contraptions - powered by fuel made from Iowa corn - fire up, hit the track and blast past your grandstand seat at nearly 200 mph.
Iowa's newest racetrack is, indeed, going big league this weekend, hosting the largest motor sports event in the state's history. That's in terms of size - more than 35,000 people will jam into the Iowa Speedway today for the Iowa Corn Indy 250 - and in terms of significance as the world's top drivers race in the nationally televised event...
(As Newton's mayor said): "It's bringing a lot of smiles to a town that has seen some tough times lately with the closing of Maytag, its largest employer. The three-day racing event will bring an estimated 50,000 people to Newton, spending money at motels, restaurants, gas stations and stores."
Rusty Wallace commented on how weird it was to see the glamorous Indy drivers eating breakfast at small hole-in-the-wall-greasy-spoons alongside the Iowa farmers.
Hopefully there will be many more breakfast blue plate specials in the future for the glamor Indy drivers and their glamorous entourages in the middle of the Iowa corn fields. But drivers, take the foot off the gas during the restarts, OK?
Congratulations for being on top again! Keep it up!
Posted by: hgh online | 05/23/2011 at 04:56