STEAM CORNERS, OHIO -- Road racing has become the bread and butter of the Verizon IndyCar Series, and the open-wheelers headline one of America's top summer road racing festivals this weekend at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
The Honda Indy 200 weekend features not only the IndyCar Series, but the full Mazda Road to Indy lineup as well as multiple classes in the Pirelli World Challenge, creating three days of dawn-to-dusk action.
While oval tracks like Texas Motor Speedway and Iowa Speedway struggled to fill the seats this summer, business was booming for IndyCar in June on its return to the Road America road course in Wisconsin after a nine-year absence. The Honda Indy Toronto also demonstrated a substantial increase in attendance this year as well, and Long Beach, St. Petersburg and Barber Motorsports Park continue to perform well for IndyCar at the gate.
Boosted by the presence of the Columbus-based Truesports team and driver Bobby Rahal, open-wheel racing built a substantial crowd base in Ohio when the CART-sanctioned IndyCar Series raced there from 1983-2003. After dropping off the calendar in the latter years of the IndyCar split, Mid-Ohio's crowds have grown every year since 2007, the year the modern IndyCar Series made its debut on the 2.38-mile road course located -- logically enough -- midway between Columbus and Cleveland.
The IndyCar event, known as the Honda Indy 200, succeeds almost in spite of itself. Mid-Ohio was built in the early 1960s, updated and expanded in the early '80s, and it is still state-of-the-art 1983. That's part of its charm, but it's also frustrating to think just how much potential the venue would have if track owners Kevin Savoree and Kim Green would make the same kind of investment that has resulted in Road America maintaining its old-fashioned allure while providing modern amenities to spectators and competitors.
At Mid-Ohio, it's the facility itself that continues to draw people. The hilly, wooded terrain is perfect for camping and hiking, and the race track that winds through the land is a gem for spectators, compact enough to walk most of a lap and watch from almost all of the 14 corners in an hour.
It's a favorite among drivers too. You'll often hear words like "technical," "challenging," and "physically demanding" come up in discussion.
The corners range from the 50-mph hairpin known as the Keyhole to the fearsome Turn 1, an off-camber, 90-degree left-hander taken flat in fifth gear more than 100 mph faster. There's hard braking into the Keyhole and the unique banked Esses, and many good qualifying efforts have been thrown away when a driver failed to properly negotiate the Carousel that ends the lap.
"It's a course that really has a bit of everything," observed Chip Ganassi Racing's Charlie Kimball, who earned his only Indy car win with a dominant drive in 2013. "Tight corners, flowing corners, elevation changes -- it can be challenging, for sure."
More than any other team, Ganassi Racing has gotten a handle on Mid-Ohio and its quirks. Ganassi drivers have won six of the last seven Indy car races at Mid-Ohio, with a total of 10 wins since 1996.
Four-time IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon is responsible for half of those victories, taking the honors in 2007, '09, '11, '12 and '14. There have been times when the New Zealander has been simply peerless, such as in 2009 when he won by nearly 30 seconds.
Dixon arrives at Mid-Ohio this year not only needing a win to get back into championship contention (he's fourth in the IndyCar Series standings, 83 points behind leader Simon Pagenaud) but also to gain some momentum and positive attention for Ganassi in the wake of this week's news that longtime sponsor Target Stores is ending its support of the team at the end of the 2016 season after 27 years.
Dixon was unofficially fastest in a recent open test at Mid-Ohio, reported lapping about 0.1 second under his track record of 1:04.55.
"It's a place that we always feel that all four of our teams will have a shot at winning, and there aren't many tracks out there where your confidence level is that high as a team," Dixon stated. "We always have a stable platform to work with at Mid-Ohio and it's a track that really feels like home."
Mid-Ohio truly is a home track for Graham Rahal, who despite no longer living in greater Columbus, has taken on his father's mantle as the local favorite.
Graham Rahal's victory at Mid-Ohio in 2015 was one of the most popular wins in recent memory, and he made it even more special to the partisan crowd by wearing a helmet designed to look like an Ohio State Buckeyes football helmet.
This year, Rahal has refined the design, adding additional buckeye stickers to signify the five podium finishes he achieved in the last year -- and a few grass stains too. He'll also wear a firesuit that incorporates Steak n' Shake branding into an OSU football uniform theme.
"To win at Mid-Ohio is a career accomplishment that I will never forget or take for granted," Rahal remarked. "The way it all came together last year, every aspect of it, made it perfect for me."
Other drivers to watch this weekend include points leader Pagenaud, who has seen his margin shrink to 47 points over Will Power. Helio Castroneves is 74 points back as Team Penske drivers hold down positions 1-2-3 in the IndyCar Series championship standings.
Pagenaud was pleased with his recent Mid-Ohio test program, declaring "We're ready to go."
Castroneves owns two Mid-Ohio wins, but they came back in 2000 and '01 in the CART-sanctioned Indy car series. Team Penske's fourth driver Juan Montoya won at Mid-Ohio for Ganassi Racing in 1999.
Surprisingly, Power has never won at a track that would seem to suit him. He's earned multiple poles and led many laps, but never bettered a second place finish.
"We've built a lot of momentum in the middle part of the season and we'll look to keep it going at Mid-Ohio," Power said. "We've gotten ourselves into the championship fight, but it's still a little early to be counting points. We just need to keep doing what we have been and let the points manage themselves.
"It is not a track that I've won at before, so this would be a great time to do that," he added. "But we'll need to work hard to accomplish that."