2010 IZOD Indycar Series Season-Opener; Very Entertaining

03.14.10 -irv.can - Race 1 - WOW! That's the expletive that comes to mind after witnessing the season-opening Indycar event in Sao Paulo, Brazil. This race was fantastic! It had more storyilines than an episode of the hit television series 24. It contained as much drama as the Young and Restless and it was won by a driver, who just a few short months ago, was wondering if he would ever drive competitively in the series again.

After all the diamond-ground concrete dust and the late-summer South American tropical rainstorm had settled, Third-wheel Penske Driver, Will Power claimed victory in this event-filled race. As his last name suggests, Will powered by late-race leader and series sponsored driver, Ryan Hunter-Reay to achieve his 2nd-ever IZOD Indycar series event and 1st since his return to the series from last seasons' horrific crash that kept him out of competition til now.




This race featured a lot of firsts for the Series:

- Qualifications were moved to the morning of the event due to the slick concrete surface that had the drivers slipping and sliding during the first three initial practice sessions. This prompted the IRL to halt all track activiity and diamond grind the concrete sections of the track that was causing these issues. This was the 1st time that qualifications for an Indycar event were held on raceday.

- Simona De Slvestro, The 1st Swiss born female to race in the Series, led her first Indycar event in her 1st start.

- Ana Beatriz made her 1st Indycar start driving for the Dreyer-Reinbold team and was among 4 female drivers in the field.

- Vitor Meira, driving for AJ Foyt/ABC racing made his 1st start and finished on the podium in third after his horrendous crash in last year's Indy 500 sidelined him for the rest of the year.

The track layout featured the longest straightaway ever for the series, 9/10 of a mile, and allowed for plenty of passing during the event. But the biggest issue of the weekend, caused the scariest incident of the race. After the league had ground the concrete front straight, it caused a tremendous amount of dust during the start of the race.

This led to very-little visibility as the drivers took the green and tried to funnel down to the first hairpin turn. Brazilian Mario Moraes plowed into the back and accidentally finished on top of Marco Andrett.i It took more than five minutes to remove Moraes' car so the medical team could attend to Andretti, who was not injured.

Four other drivers were caught up in the dust-filled incident including Dixon, Briscoe, three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves and former Formula One driver Takuma Sato.

Miraculously, only Moraes and Andretti could not return to the event, and after the restart, the race settled into a nice pace until the torrential rains hit just after halfway. This caused a red flag delay because water was puddling in areas of the track and officials scurried to make the track raceable again.

"We couldn't be more pleased with all aspects of our first race here, despite the tight timeline," said Terry Angstadt, president of the IRL's commercial division. "At each and every stage, when a problem arose, the Brazilian team found a solution.

Yes, It was a wild season opener, complete with track problems, a spectacular crash and exciting racing that makes me believe that we will have another competitive year in the IZOD Indycar Series.