Worldwide Motorsport News

The second race of the Verizon Indycar Series was contested at Phoenix International Raceway on Saturday as the series returned to the Arizona track for the first time in 11 years.

Brazilian Helio Castroneves started on pole and jostled for the early lead with both Juan Pablo Montoya and Tony Kanaan.

As the race progressed it looked very much like Montoya might be the man to make it two in a row. But blown tyres for both Montoya and Castroneves shuffled them back and they never really got back into contention.

Dixon dominated the rest of the race, taking the checkered flag under caution, in Chip Ganassi’s Target #9 machine. Penske drivers Simon Pagenaud and Will Power finished second and third respectively.

There are a few issues hampering the Indycar series so far this season, but you have to hand it to Scott Dixon. For years now the four-time series champion (and reigning champion) has been competitive, no matter what the series throws at him, and is consistantly in contention for the championship come the end of the season.

Of the 22 cars this season, 11 of them have Chevrolet Engines and aerokits. The other 11 have Honda packages.

Qualifying painted a bleak picture for Honda, with all of the top ten being Chevrolets. Honda faired slightly better in the previous race at St.Petersberg.

We need Honda to step up and match Chevy – and quickly – otherwise half the field are going to be out of contention before we get to the Indy 500 in May!

Only 2 Honda drivers seemed to be able to dial in any sort of competitive settings in their machines this weekend, with Graham Rahal and Ryan Hunter-Reay finishing the race fifth and tenth respectively.

They seemed to fair better than the other Honda runners, mainly due to their extensive experience in the series and very bold restarts.

The British Contingent had mixed fortunes in Phoenix.

Over the years I’ve seen many British drivers come into the series. Some instantly take to the oval tracks and others flounder. Rookie Englishman Max Chilton had his first outing on an oval track at Phoenix, and looked impressive with a seventh place finish.

The former F1 driver wasn’t particularly aggressive when trying passing manoeuvres, but he looked very comfortable behind the wheel and was matching the lap times of the leaders. It helps having veterans Dixon and Kanaan as team mates, as well as a Chevrolet powered Chip Ganassi Racing machine. But it was an extremely impressive performance nonetheless.

Yorkshireman Jack Hawksworth in AJ Foyt’s Honda powered number 41 car has not appeared to take to ovals so far. He clearly prefers road courses, on which we have seen some fine glimpses since he arrived in the series.

He struggled in Phoenix, finishing 19th, and will be looking forward to getting a better package from Honda and seeing what he can do in forthcoming races.

The race came in for some criticism from some sections of the media. Even some NASCAR drivers criticised the lack of passing in the race.

The general consensus was that there is too much downforce on the aero package which makes passing too difficult for the drivers.

The race was a little bit underwhelming, but had enough good moments to maintain an interest.

Indycar will need to listen to the complaints in order to protect a product that has been pretty competitive over the past few years.

With two races completed, the usual suspects have already drifted to the top of the Championship standings.

Before the first race of the 2016 season, many said that any of six drivers would be in contention for the championship this year.

Although Pagenaud leads the points, the two favourites – who have proven their mettle throughout the years – are Dixon and Montoya. After that, the Penske cars of Power, Pagenaud and Castroneves always seem to be there or thereabouts.

Will Power has been the driver with the most raw speed on road courses in the series for many years, but a mild concussion forced him to miss the first race in Florida, and now he is behind in the points.