IZOD IndyCar drivers will run a newly-configured circuit for the August GoPro Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma. STEVE PAGE, President/General Manager of Sonoma, announced Tuesday that after many months of work and consultations, the IndyCar series will have a new race track, unique for it. Team Penske IndyCar driver, RYAN BRISCOE of Australia, was on hand for the announcement, to discuss his input and experience with the new configuration. To cap it all off, Briscoe took two flying laps around the track in a new Chevrolet Camaro with a GoPro camera to record the laps. GoPro recently announced a three-year contract with Sonoma for title sponsorship of the Sonoma IndyCar race.
The Sonoma track was changed in Turns Seven, Nine and Eleven, adding 200 feet. The 12-turn track length now will be 2.310 miles instead of the previous 2.303 miles. The race will be ten laps longer, making it an eighty-five lap race. The added ten laps came from IndyCar as it calculated the cars would go faster – and it didn’t want a fuel mileage race. Because of the longer track and race length, Briscoe, however, didn’t think the lap times would increase on the new configuration.
Page said a new configuration had been on the radar for the past two years, in an effort to increase the excitement for the race, which he said had been boring the last two years. “It was the track’s responsibility to provide an interesting race for the fans.”
Turn Seven will become a wider hairpin turn, creating passing zones and the need for braking. Turn Nine will be widened ten feet, making for a 50-foot wide exit, giving a nice head start for the new Turn Eleven, which will be extended 200 feet before its hairpin.
After last year’s race, Page said he and others visited the IndyCar season’s finale race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for Qualifying, and met with IndyCar and other officials where talks began in earnest for a Sonoma track change. He said they received a lot of input, listening to anyone who wanted to weigh in with ideas. There were eight versions before the decision was finally made. The short list got down to two or three overall serious versions, with four to five versions for T11. Changing Turns Seven and Nine was “pretty easy.” Page noted there hadn’t been heavy input from drivers requesting a change.
The Sonoma track had been certified this Spring by CHARLIE WHITING of Federation Internationale de l”Automobile, the governing body for world motor sport. Whiting’s overall track certification included Turn Eleven tire barriers of his design. BILL VAN de SANDT, IndyCar Director of Operations, and IndyCar weren’t comfortable with that and chose a different version with a shorter Turn Eleven with deeper runoff – which didn’t affect the FIA certification. Van de Sandt spent half a day walking the track working on a reconfiguration.
After his turn behind the wheel, Briscoe was beaming and pronounced the new configuration “really exciting, tricky. Turn Seven is impressive – tight, but so wide up there. There will be a ton of passing up there. The cars will overdrive the braking. Seven definitely will be the major passing zone. I think T7 is one of the most exciting corners in the series – much like the hairpin in Brazil. There will be some good two-car battles. The old T7 entry was too fast, and it was easy to defend without blocking.
“Turn Nine is tricky for passing.
“Turn Eleven was different, with the passing zone before the hairpin. I estimate the cars will run 15 mph faster coming into T11. It will become a passing zone. We’ll have to see where when the kerbs are put down.”
Briscoe said it will be interesting to see how the car wears, and what demands will be made of the brakes. “This year’s car is a lot stronger. Tires will be crucial. The red tires degrade quicker. In the past his pit strategy was for two stops. Now it will be a clearcut three-stop strategy.”
Briscoe likened the circuit to Barber.
When asked about body contacts in the cars, he said “that ‘voluntary contact’ was not condoned by IndyCar.”
Briscoe praised the track, saying it “has been honest about our (drivers) input. They didn’t want to not hear anything.”
The IndyCar drivers will test on the new configuration 17 August 2012, prior to the race on 26 August 2012. The track may have some surface touchup prior to the race. There could be paving at the Turn Nine left apex.
Page said overall track attendance at Sonoma was marginally up in 2011 compared to 2010 and 2009.