Meijer Indy 300 Race Report

Circuit: Kentucky Speedway (1.5-mile oval) Sparta, KY

2009 Winner: Ryan Briscoe (Team Penske Honda) 200.893 mph average

Weather: Clear, mild, 74 degrees F

Staying on track for another six laps while his competitors made their third round of pit stops, Team Penske’s Helio Castroneves was able to stretch his final tank of ethanol from Lap 147 to the finish Saturday night at Kentucky Speedway to win the Meijer Indy 300.

Following the third round of scheduled stops, Castroneves emerged at the tail end of a 10-car lead pack, headed for much of the night by Panther Racing’s Dan Wheldon, pole qualifier Ed Carpenter and series points leader Will Power. But all of these potential winners – and everyone else still on the lead lap –were forced to make one final stop for fuel during the final 10 laps of tonight’s 200-lap event – handing the lead and a second victory of 2010 to Castroneves.

Following Castroneves to the checkers was Carpenter, runner-up in Kentucky for the second consecutive year, and his teammate, Wheldon, who led a race-high 93 laps. All 27 drivers and teams completed the race weekend without a single failure of the Honda Indy V-8 engine. This weekend, drivers logged a total of 10,506 trouble-free miles around the bumpy, high-speed Kentucky Speedway oval.

Tony Kanaan led a revitalized Andretti Autosport team, clawing his way from 26th on the starting grid to fourth at the finish, with teammates Marco Andretti, sixth, and Danica Patrick, ninth. In the fourth Andretti entry, Ryan Hunter-Reay also ran in the lead pack and appeared headed for a top-10 finish until a rear suspension upright failure ended his race on Lap 174.

Will Power led 83 laps, second only to Wheldon, but a slight delay during his third pit stop dropped him to eighth, while championship rival Dario Franchitti’s fifth-place finish moved him to within 17 points of Power with two races remaining. Conquest Racing’s Bertrand Baguette continued his run of strong late-season performances to round out the top 10 finishers and once again lead the rookie field.

The IZOD IndyCar Series now takes a week off before making its longest trip of the 2010 season – to the Honda-owned 1.5-mile Twin Ring Motegi oval north of Tokyo for the Japan Indy 300 on Sunday,

September 19.

Helio Castroneves (#3 Team Penske Honda) started 8th, finished 1st, 2nd IndyCar win of 2010, his

first win at Kentucky Speedway: “You should be interviewing [team vice president] Tim Cindric, not

me! He won the race for us tonight, what a great call [to pit on Lap 147, last of the leaders to pit]. We

didn’t have much to lose, so it was worth the risk. After the [last] pit stop, I just kept making the [fuel

mileage] numbers they asked. We dropped back from the leader [pack], but stayed on the lead lap so

when they all came back in one last time, we were in the clear.”

Ed Carpenter (#20 Panther Racing Honda) started 1st, finished 2nd, also finished 2nd here in 2009:

“This one was definitely more disappointing [than 2009]. Dan [Wheldon] and I both had great cars all

weekend, and Dan was especially fast right from the green. We had to make a pretty big wing change at

the first [pit] stop, but after that the car was great. Our last pit stop was really fast and after we all had

cycled through [the stops] I thought we were in great shape, but when I looked up at the scoring pylon I

saw the number ‘3’ and I knew Helio would try to go the distance. If he made it, there wasn’t going to be

anything we could do about it, and that’s the way it worked out.”

Roger Griffiths (Technical Director, Honda Performance Development) on tonight’s race: “I think what

we saw in Chicago and what we saw tonight is setting us up for a great finish to the season. Dan

[Wheldon] ran a very strong race, he’s going into Motegi with a lot of confidence and he’s done well there

before. Dario [Franchitti] is putting a lot of pressure on Will [Power], but Helio [Castroneves] is just so

wily. The Penske team are past masters of fuel strategy and they demonstrated that again tonight. It

was really nice to see Ed [Carpenter] turn a strong qualifying effort into a great race performance. I know

that team is really excited heading into [the season finale at] Homestead.”

Race Results:

Fn. St. Driver Team Engine/Chassis Laps Average Speed/Notes

1. 8. Helio Castroneves Team Penske Honda Dallara 200 174.402 mph avg.; led 7 laps

2. 1. Ed Carpenter Panther Racing Honda Dallara 200 -13.1597 seconds; led 11 laps

3. 3. Dan Wheldon Panther Racing Honda Dallara 200 -13.9214 seconds; led 93 laps

4. 26. Tony Kanaan Andretti Autosport Honda Dallara 200 -13.9931 seconds

5. 11. Dario Franchitti Target Chip Ganassi Honda Dallara 200 -14.1968 seconds

6. 15. Marco Andretti Andretti Autosport Honda Dallara 200 -14.5669 seconds

7. 4. Scott Dixon Target Chip Ganassi Honda Dallara 200 -15.1025 seconds; led 1 lap

8. 2. Will Power Team Penske Honda Dallara 200 -15.6142 seconds; led 83 laps

9. 17. Danica Patrick Andretti Autosport Honda Dallara 200 -15.8494 seconds

10. 6. Bertrand Baguette-R Conquest Racing Honda Dallara 199 Running

11. 16. Justin Wilson Dreyer & Reinbold RacingHonda Dallara 199 Running

12. 23. Paul Tracy Dreyer & Reinbold RacingHonda Dallara 199 Running; led 4 laps

13. 18. Alex Lloyd-R Dale Coyne Racing Honda Dallara 199 Running

14. 10. Tomas Scheckter Conquest Racing Honda Dallara 199 Running

15. 13. Alex Tagliani FAZZT Race Team Honda Dallara 199 Running

16. 20. Raphael Matos de Ferran Dragon Racing Honda Dallara 199 Running

17. 5. Hideki Mutoh Newman Haas Racing Honda Dallara 199 Running

18. 7. Mario Moraes KV Racing Technology Honda Dallara 198 Running

19. 24. Milka Duno Dale Coyne Racing Honda Dallara 195 Running

20. 25. Graham Rahal Sarah Fisher Racing Honda Dallara 195 Running

21. 27. Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Autosport Honda Dallara 174 Did not finish – suspension

22. 21. Sarah Fisher Sarah Fisher Racing Honda Dallara 134 Did not finish – gearbox

23. 12. Vitor Meira A.J. Foyt Racing Honda Dallara 79 Did not finish – crash

24. 9. Ryan Briscoe Team Penske Honda Dallara 79 Did not finish – crash; led 1 lap

25. 19. Simona de Silvestro-R HVM Racing Honda Dallara 78 Did not finish – crash

26. 22. E.J. Viso KV Racing Technology Honda Dallara 45 Did not finish – suspension

27. 14. Takuma Sato-R KV Racing Technology Honda Dallara 0 Did not finish – crash

IZOD IndyCar Series Championship (after 15 of 17 races):

1. Will Power 552 (5 wins)                     6. Ryan Hunter-Reay 404 (1 win)

2. Dario Franchitti 535 (3 wins)             7. Tony Kanaan 392 (1 win)

3. Scott Dixon 469 (2 wins)                    8. Marco Andretti 347

4. Helio Castroneves 448 (2 wins)       9. Dan Wheldon 346

5. Ryan Briscoe 418 (1 win)                   10. Justin Wilson 335

Lierop, Netherlands – LS Motors Honda were able to see CRF450R riders Tanel Leok capture sixth place overall and Davide Guarneri taking tenth position in the Grand Prix of Benelux.

Nürburgring, Germany – Jonathan Rea took a win in race one at the Nürburgring and made it four victories for the season by holding off the challenge of Carlos Checa in race one.

Misano Adriatico, San Marino – Dani Pedrosa achieved victory in the San Marino MotoGP race but the event was dominated by the tragic death of Japanese rider Shoya Tomizawa (Technomag-CIP, Suter), who passed away after an accident during the Moto2 race.

Kramolin, Czech Republic – Toni Bou and Takahisa Fujinami were placed third and fifth respectively on the final counting day at the Grand Prix of the Czech Republic, to secure first and third in the final standings.

SPARTA, U.S.A. – Team Penske’s Helio Castroneves was able to stretch his final tank of ethanol from Lap 147 to the finish at Kentucky Speedway to win the Meijer Indy 300.

Honda has made its current Power Product Guide available for download in pdf format.

Top Euro NCAP score for sporty hybrid

The Honda CR-Z, due in Australia mid 2011, has been rated one of Europe’s safest cars, achieving a maximum 5-stars in the latest independent crash testing results from Euro NCAP.

Euro NCAP’s rating scheme focuses on the vehicle’s overall safety performance which gives consumers an easy to understand single score. The system considers occupant protection in frontal, side, pole and rear impacts, child protection, pedestrian protection and the availability of driver aids.

The rating scheme uses a weighted score, combining many aspects of a car’s safety performance: adult (50%), child (20%) and pedestrian (20%) protection assessment results with the availability of safety assistance devices (10%). To qualify for inclusion, safety assistance devices (VSA for Honda) must be fitted as standard across 90% of the EU 27 2010 model range.

The CR-Z is the latest in a series of Honda cars to receive top marks. The Honda Insight, which will be introduced later this year was also  named “safest hybrid vehicle” as well as the 2nd safest vehicle tested in 2009.

Euro NCAP’s new assessment reflects Honda’s commitment to overall vehicle safety, complimenting Honda’s long standing in-house safety testing which seeks to improve real world safety. Honda’s car-to-car crash test facility at the Tochigi R&D centre analyses impacts between models of different sizes and weights and develops solutions to mitigate injuries for both for passengers and pedestrians. The omni-directional vehicle-to-vehicle crash test facility opened in 2001 and is the world’s first indoor all-weather facility of its type.

Safety in the Honda CR-Z

Vehicle Stability Assist
Vehicle Stability Assist (VSA) is designed to assist the driver in maintaining control during cornering, acceleration and sudden manoeuvres by applying braking assistance to any of the wheels as necessary and modulating the engine torque output as required.

Braking
Ventilated front and solid rear disc brakes ensure road stability, which is further enhanced by the Anti-lock Braking System (ABS), Electronic Brake-force Distribution (EBD) and Brake Assist (BA).

Advanced Compatibility Engineering (ACE)
Developed in the car-to-car crash testing facility at Tochigi, the Advanced Compatibility Engineering™ (ACE™) body structure is now a well-established strength of Honda’s safety credentials.

The ACE™ body structure is a Honda exclusive body design that enhances occupant protection and crash compatibility in frontal collisions. The ACE design utilises a network of connected structural elements to distribute crash energy more evenly throughout the front of the vehicle. This enhanced frontal crash energy management helps to reduce the forces transferred to the passenger compartment and can help to more evenly disperse the forces transferred to other vehicles in a crash.

Pedestrian Protection
The CR-Z also incorporates many features designed with pedestrian-protection in mind. Research has shown that these features can dramatically improve a pedestrian’s chance of survival if struck by a moving vehicle. Features include windscreen wiper pivots designed to break away on impact, energy absorbing front wing mounts and bonnet hinges, as well as an unobstructed area beneath the bonnet allowing greater space for deformation.

Airbags and Seatbelts
On all models in the range, the driver and passenger Supplemental Restraint System (SRS) front and side airbags are complemented by full length curtain airbags to protect all occupants. There are three-point Emergency Locking Retractor (ELR) seatbelts in all seating positions, the front seatbelts also have two stage Energy Absorption (EA) load limiting pre-tensioners.

Active headrests
The CR-Z is equipped with front seat active headrests which reduce the likelihood of neck injury in rear impacts. As the occupant is pushed against the seat back, a rigid plate in the seat presses a link to the headrest pushing it up and forward to support the head.

A research project will be conducted this week in Linz, Austria, to discover what the ideal interaction between people and humanoid robots ought to be in the future, Honda R&D and Ars Electronica Futurelab announced.

Honda announced a summary of automobile production, Japan domestic sales, and export results for the month of July 2010, including an all-time record for any month for production in Asia and China.