IndyCar teams are back in action this weekend at another of the famed permanent road courses on the schedule. The Mid-Ohio track is pretty much in the middle of nowhere but it’s worth finding. The picturesque track provides a great atmosphere, the racing is often exciting and it’s frequently played an important role in the championship battle.
It doesn’t have the concrete walls of destruction to worry about like street courses but to run up front at Mid-Ohio you need to be precise. It’s a challenging course for drivers and those that can move quickly through the tight and tricky areas are likely to do well.
One of those drivers that Mid-Ohio has proven to be a welcome stop for is Ganassi’s Scott Dixon. Five victories in 11 races will certainly make a driver eager to return. Dixon has also finished a remarkable top-five in nine of his eleven starts at the 13-turn, 2.258-mile course near Lexington, Ohio.
Another great drive will be necessary if Dixon has any hope of climbing back from fourth in the championship point standings to overtake any of the three Penske drivers that are ahead of him. Overall leader Simon Pagenaud, followed by Will Power and Helio Castroneves have also enjoyed various levels of success at Mid-Ohio.
Pagenaud has three podium finishes, Castroneves is a two-time winner and the hottest driver in the last month has been Will Power with wins in three of the last four races and top-five finishes in four of seven starts.
Pagenaud’s lead over second place has shrunk to 47 points and during his hot streak Will Power has done remarkably well to make it a battle, but with only four races remaining after this weekend it appears Pagenaud is going to have to suffer some bad luck for it to be a real title fight.
Qualifying at every event is important but especially so on this challenging track. There is one good passing zone heading into turn four at the end of the backstretch and another that can work is turn two. If you don’t start near the front you can end up having a long afternoon.
Unless you use a little strategy and have it play out the way hometown hero Graham Rahal did last year, when he was able to stretch his fuel score an emotional win to keep him alive in the championship fight.
After his podium-finish at Toronto a couple of weeks ago Oakville’s James Hinchcliffe will look to build on that momentum this weekend. Hinchcliffe finished on the podium the last time he raced here a couple of seasons ago.
There’s also been lots of speculation regarding the race schedule for next season and beyond. And when the series passed through Toronto there was the usual suggestion of adding another Canadian stop, most talked about recently has been in Calgary.
While there have been some discussions and there appears to be desire from several parties about adding Calgary to the mix, nothing appears to imminent.