Auto Racing 2025

[harshness]

Again, this is a 500 mile race at the most demanding track on the planet.

How is Indy more demanding than Portland International Raceway, Road America or Laguna Seca (as examples)?

Are we talking demanding on the car, demanding on the driver or both?

 

[Yespage]

The speed and the low banked turns. With Indycar today, the engines are finally in a position of greater stability but for about 100 years, the fastest cars often didn't see the checker flag. The low banked, relatively rounded rectangle turns make the race 800 chances to mess up, like JR Hildebrand (last lap) and Emerson Fitipaldi (not last lap, but lapping 2nd place Al Unser Jr) who were both leading into Turn 4. They added more places to mess up with pit speed limits (talk to Dixon or Larson).

And then it is its stature. No track in the world has IMS's stature. Winning Long Beach matters, winning Monaco matters, but Indy, it has attracted the greatest. Racing at Indy is an 11 month ordeal. For some teams, it is their only race.

There are going to be more technically demanding road/street courses, but the whole package at Indy is a monster of mountain to tackle.

 

[harshness]

The speed and the low banked turns.

PIR, Road America and Laguna Seca doesn't feature much banking at all -- some even feature some negative banking.

In the grand scheme, speed = predictable downforce = more consistent control.

Elevation changes that some of the road courses (especially Laguna Seca) introduce shouldn't be discounted as complications.