Round 14: Gallagher Grand Prix, Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Aug 11-12

[bjohnsonsmith]

Round 14: Gallagher Grand Prix, Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Aug 11-12

This weekend will be the fourth consecutive year, a second race at the IMS Grand Prix circuit will be held. Like the previous two years it will be a single race event.

History
On October 1, 2013, after a feasibility test which had previously been held in September, it was announced that an IndyCar race for 2014 would be held on the GP Circuit, either as a double-header event in the Month of May prior to the Indy 500, or as a stand-alone race in the autumn/fall. Up until the announcement IndyCar hadn't raced on the GP Circuit, though Indy Lights had four times.

The inaugural race was held on May 10, 2014 and was won by Simon Pagenaud, driving a Dallara DW12- Honda HI14RTT for Sam Schmidt Motorsports. The race featured a standing start, something IndyCar had tried out for a couple of races in the previous season.

The standing start was not without incident, when Pole sitter Sebastián Saavedra stalled as the lights went out and his car was rear ended by Carlos Munoz's and Mikhail Aleshin's cars, showering the track with carbon-fibre and forcing a restart. It was decided that from 2015 onwards there would be a conventional rolling start.

In 2020, as part of the revised schedule due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a second event the Harvest Grand Prix, was added to the race calendar and held at the IMS Grand Prix circuit, from October 1-3. It was also the fifth double-header of the 2020 season.

IndyCar decided to keep the event on the calendar for the 2021 season. However, it would be just a single race rather than a double-header. There was an entry list of 28 drivers, the second largest field to compete outside of the Indy 500. The largest field was the abandoned Round 17, of the 2011 IZOD IndyCar Series at Las Vegas, with 34 cars.

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Some trivia
Driver with the most wins 2:
Will Power, 2020, 2021.

Team with the most wins 3:
Team Penske, 2020*, 2021.
*2020 was a double-header event, with Team Penske wining both races.

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IMS Grand Prix Circuit



Length:
2.439 Miles (3.925 Km)
Turns: 14

Lap record:
Will Power, May 12, 2017. 1:07.704, 129.69 mph (208.44 km/h).
Team Penske, Dallara DW12-Chevrolet IndyCar V6.
Verizon IndyCar Series.

Last Year's Race
https://www.indycar.com/news/2022/07...llaghergp-race

Pole:
Felix Rosenqvist,
Arrow McLaren SP,
Dallara IR18-Chevy IndyCar V6

Winner:
Alexander Rossi,
Andretti Autosport,
Dallara IR18-HI22TT Indy V6

Laps: 85
Distance: 207.315 Miles (333.641 km)
Race Time: 1:48:39.1825
Average Speed: 114.483 Mph (184.243 Km/h)
Fastest Lap: Simon Pagenaud-Team Penske, Lap 12. 71.4537 sec. 122.882 Mph, (197.759 Km/h)

Cautions: 2
Laps: 3 - 4, 36 - 38

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Practice and Qualifications

Practice 1
Friday, Aug 11.
8:00 AM - 10:30 AM ET

Qualifications - Round 1 Group 1
Friday, Aug 11
12:30 PM - 12:40 PM ET

Qualifications - Round 1 Group 2
Friday, Aug 11
12:55 PM - 1:05 PM ET

Qualifications - Round 2
Friday, Aug 11
1:20 PM - 1:30 PM ET

Qualifications - Firestone Fast 6
Friday, Aug 11
1:45 PM - 2:00 PM ET

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TV Broadcast:
Saturday, Aug 12
USA, Peacock: 2:00 PM ET. 6:0 PM UTC, 7:00 PM BST
Sky Sports F1. 7:00 PM BST