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Next weekend at Barber Motorsports Park outside Birmingham, Ala., Will Power could become the first driver in the Indy Racing League’s 15-year history to win the first three races of a season. He wouldn’t be the first do so at the pinnacle of U.S. open-wheel racing – as recently as 2006, Sebastien Bourdais and Newman/Haas Racing won the four opening races of the Champ Car World Series. Nor would he be the first to win three consecutive IndyCar Series races – Dan Wheldon and Andretti Green Racing achieved that in 2005.http://www.racer.com/insight-will-powers-surge-toward-history/article/167205/

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They had. It’s called Alabama in July. Inside a closed cockpit. Wearing a fire suit. Driving over hot asphalt.

It wasn’t a fun race if you were driving in it.

But those days of de hydration are over. The Porsche 250 at Barber has been moved to April this year on the same weekend as the Indy race.

Ganassi driver Scott Pruett and his co-driver, Memo Rojas, couldn’t be happier.

“Racing in the summer the heat is so high that physically, it was really challenging,” Rojas said.

So drivers might not need post-race IVs and have to pack the cool suits that were no match for Alabama humidity.

But a cooler race will be different, Pruett said.

“I think that in itself is going to be one of the biggest challenges for us,” Pruett said, “Being there when there’s probably more grip on the track and certainly cooler conditions.”

A cooler track will make for a faster race, he said.

“Sometimes it’s so hot, it’s just oppressive,” Pruett said. “In those conditions — two things. One, you lose the efficiency of the engine, so you lose more power from that side. And two, because the air is thinner, you don’t have as much energy to generate more downforce.

“And so both of those things together and cooler temperatures with the tire, I think all of those pieces, we are going to see higher speeds. And with that, potentially, there’s differences with the car that we are going to have to address, whether it’s a spring-shock, combination-type issue or whether it’s a downforce issue.

Overall, in cooler conditions, especially at Barber where you are so commanded on downforce and acceleration, I think we are definitely just going to see some higher speeds.”

But that doesn’t necessarily mean that there will be more passing during the race.

“If you’re passing at Barber, you have to take some pretty big chances and there’s just some really thin ground where you can get it done, and I don’t see that changing,” Pruett said. “I do see the higher speeds, though, and you never know. Potentially maybe, you could pull off a move on a second line that we haven’t experienced before because of the ability to get a little more grip.”

Pruett, who won at Barber in 2008 and finished second last year, has plenty of experience at the track, but it hasn’t gotten much easier over the years.

“It’s a very tough track,” he said. “It’s a very physical track. It’s a very technical track. And not just that.

Going in Turn 2, you actually can’t see Turn 1 where you go down the hill there and there’s a lot of blind areas and it keeps you incredibly busy as a driver because there’s no real straightaway.”

And there are plenty of places on the track to get in trouble.

“When you get off in Turn 1, it’s big. If you get off in Turn 2, it’s going to be big,” he said. “The kink — it’s not too bad but if you get off, it’s going to be a big crash. The hairpin across is probably one of the more safer areas. Down in front of the museum, it’s incredibly tricky. That kink on the back straight for us is a huge challenge. And then you go into that whole section, that left hand, downhill, right, uphill, right, downhill, coming back towards pit end, that ride is really tough, and if you have a problem there, it’s a huge crash.”

But this year, at least, it won’t be an endurance test — for drivers or fans.

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This will be the third new team to debut in the Rolex Series GT class in as many races. Lou Gigliotti LG Motorsports first raced in the Grand Prix of Miami at Homestead-Miami Speedway, while Marsh Racing joins the tour with a Corvette in the April 10 Porsche 250 at Barber Motorsports Park.

Skip Bennett is the car owner, and will co-drive for the Annapolis, Md.-based team with Mike Skeen at VIR as the first step in a planned assault on the 2011 Rolex 24 At Daytona. They expect to run with fellow NASA Spec E30 drivers Chris Cobetto, Mike Davidson and Jon Allen at Daytona. That series features close competition among 160 HP 1987-1991 BMW 325is.

Bennett began his racing career in 2005 at a Summit Point Raceway driving experience. His first race was a NASA event at VIR in 2006, driving a Porsche 966, and also ran in the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge at VIR, going from last to 28th in a field of 55 cars. He finished fourth overall in the USA Ferrari F430 Challenge series in 2007, and has raced in the NASA Spec E30 Series the past three seasons.

“We’re looking forward to joining the Rolex Series and racing at VIR,” Bennett said. “I’ve spent a lot of time at that track and am very familiar with it. Depending on how we do, we also hope to run at Watkins Glen and the Daytona race in July, and are also considering New Jersey Motorsports Park.”

Skeen, who starred in the 2008 edition of Setup on SPEED, won the 2008 NASA SpecE30 national championship as well as two regional series championships. He raced in the SCCA Muscle Mile Trans-Am last season, going from last to second in his debut race at Road Atlanta – earning him the Hard Charger and Star of the Race awards. He has two starts in the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge, debuting in 2008 at VIR with Freedom Autosport.

“This grassroots effort has developed very quickly, and our crew has put in a lot of hard work to make this possible,” Skeen said. “I’m sure we will learn a lot at VIR to help us prepare for future events.”

Practice for the Bosch Engineering 250 begins at 9:30 a.m. ET on Friday, April 23, with qualifying at 3:45 p.m. (SPEEDtv.com, live). The two-hour, 45-minute race takes the green flag at noon ET on Saturday (SPEED, live) and will be followed at 3:30 p.m. by a Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge race

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Power cruised to an easy win over Justin Wilson today in the Honda Indy Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, a race delayed from Sunday by rain.

Power has established himself as a formidable force on the road and street courses that make up the early part of the Indy schedule. His win today gives him two straight victories, having won the season opener in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

The Penske driver now takes a commanding leader in the standings with three drivers tied for second 44 points back. Power started on the pole, but the race featured numerous lead changes and quite a bit of passing.

The next race is the inaugural Indy race at Barber Motorsports Park, where Power turned in the fastest time during a February test session.

Power’s Penske teammates, Ryan Briscoe and Helio Castroneves, finished third and fourth.

Dario Franchitti came back from a spin on Lap 1 to post a fifth-place finish. Alex Tagliani was sixth and Danica Patrick finished seventh. Patrick might have had an even better finish if not for the softer red tires she was running at the end of the race.

Raphael Matos was eight. Graham Rahal, driving for Sarah Fisher Racing, finished ninth, even after getting together with Simona De Silvestro and running over her front wing. De Silvestro was in position for a possible top 10 finish but settled for 16th.

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Last year, Power, a refugee from the shuttered Champ Car series, was tapped by Penske to stand in for Helio Castroneves, who was (successfully) battling federal tax evasion charges. But in August, at the race at Infineon Raceway in California, Power crashed hard in practice, and left the track in a medical helicopter. His back was badly broken, and his prognosis as a driver was uncertain.

So with the victory in Brazil, it was official: Will Power is back. “It was quite emotional to be honest,” Power said last week, “because when you have an injury like that, you have a lot of downtime during the recovery period. You can become a little bit uncertain whether you’ll come back as strong as you were, and whether you’d be as quick as you were, and that was just confirmation that everything is back as it was.”

This race is also the return to the U.S. market for Danica Patrick, whose much-publicized foray into NASCAR earlier this year is on hold until after the Indianapolis 500. Patrick has had a frustrating time in the IRL this year as she has had trouble getting up to speed in both practice here and at the Brazil race.

She is joined in the field this year by Swiss driver Simona de Silvestro, a graduate of the now-defunct Atlantic series, where she had multiple wins — something Patrick couldn’t accomplish when she was racing in the Atlantics. Backmarker Milka Duno is back, to make a total of three female drivers in the 24-car lineup. Duno qualified 24th, more than five seconds behind the next-slowest car. Patrick qualified 21st, and de Silvestro starts 14th, one spot behind 2009 series champion Dario Franchitti.

Also worth watching is Graham Rahal, son of Indy 500 winner Bobby Rahal, who found himself without a ride as the season began because his Newman/Haas/Lanigan team lost the McDonalds sponsorship. He sat out Brazil, but driver and team owner Sarah Fisher, who is more comfortable on ovals than street and road courses, offered her Dollar General-sponsored car to Rahal for this race and at the next race April 11 at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama. In an unfamiliar car, Rahal, the 2008 winner, will have a tough time repeating this year after qualifying 16th. Also starting from deep in the pack is last year’s winner, Ryan Briscoe, who is in 19th.

Today’s 100-lap IRL race is preceded by a Formula 2000 race at 8 a.m., a World Challenge race at 10:15 a.m., a Star Mazda race at 11:40 a.m., and an Indy Lights race at 12:45 p.m., which will include Kissimmee racer Jonathan Summerton. Typically the American Le Mans Series races here this weekend too, but with the 12 Hours of Sebring being just last week, the ALMS thought it would put too much pressure on the teams to get ready for St. Pete. If the St. Pete race returns to a schedule that allows two weeks between this race and Sebring, expect the ALMS to come back.

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Legends of Motorsports co-founder Bobby Rahal was a frequent rival of Andretti in the course of their respective, storied careers. The three-time CART champion and 1986 Indianapolis 500 winner said this about his long-time respected nemesis, “Mario Andretti is one of the most formidable race car drivers to ever live. No matter what the series, his talent and determination made him a threat to win every time. It’s an honor to have him celebrated at the inaugural Legends of Motorsports event at Barber Motorsports Park.”

Andretti is one of only two drivers to win races in Formula One, IndyCar, World Sportscar Championship and NASCAR. He also won numerous races in other racing disciplines including midget cars and sprint cars. During his career, Andretti won four IndyCar titles, the 1978 Formula One World Championship, the 1974 USAC Dirt Track Championship and IROC VI. To date, he remains the only driver ever to win the Indianapolis 500 (1969), Daytona 500 (1967) and the Formula One World Championship. No American has won a Formula One race since Andretti’s victory at the 1978 Dutch Grand Prix. All told, Andretti amassed 111 career wins on major circuits.

In addition to on-track competition, the Legends of Motorsports event at Barber will also include a charity gala on the evening of Saturday, May 22, at the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum, featuring Andretti as its honored guest. The museum houses one of the world’s largest collections of Lotus race cars. Much of Andretti’s Formula One glory came behind the wheel of Lotus entries. Lotus also will serve as the official marque for the Legends of Motorsports weekend.

Barring overriding obligations at Indianapolis 500 qualifications, Andretti will be a highly visible part of Legends of Motorsports race day activities at Barber on Sunday, May 23, including leading a featured Lotus race.

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“But there was never any doubt about what he wanted to do,” Rahal said Wednesday during a stop at Barber Motorsports Park to promote his Legends of Motorsports Series race in May.

As a youngster, Graham Rahal would accompany his dad to dinners with sponsors and sit quietly, soaking it all in — just as Bobby Rahal did when he traveled with his own father in the 1950s to race at the airport course in Courtland.

Nonetheless, Graham Rahal had some serious convincing to do.

“It took a lot of effort, because with my dad,” Graham said, “it was like he knew firsthand how dangerous it was. And my mom did. And really the only way I could get him to let me go go-karting was my brother and I came up with this plan that we were going to go go-karting together and it was something we were going to do together and the family experience type of thing.

“Well, my brother after basically the first event decided that racing was not for him,” he said. ¶
But by then the die was cast. Graham struck a deal with his dad that he could race if he kept his grades up.

Graham went on to become one of the rising stars of the Izod IndyCar Series. He’ll be at Barber for the April 11 Indy Grand Prix of Alabama, driving for Sarah Fisher’s team in a two-race deal that includes the March 28 race at St. Petersburg, which he won last year. in 2008.

His dad will be racing at Barber too — driving a Lotus in the feature race of the Legends of Motorsports event, a new racing series co-founded by Bobby Rahal that will feature vintage cars from the¤’60s and¤’70s.

The Lotus that Rahal will drive is a car that he sold to a man in California in 1973. Rahal said he tracked the guy down and he still had the car — virtually untouched and stored in a barn all these years. Rahal bought it back and restored it.

So, will there be a friendly competition to see who finishes higher at Barber, father or son?

“Unfortunately, I think he has it a little easier than I do,” Graham said of his dad’s competition. “He’ll try to tell me it’s tough. But the thing is that my dad, he’s just awesome and we were talking about this the other day, talking about (Formula One champion) Michael Schumacher. They both love racing, and my dad, the series he’s put together, I think he selfishly put it together so he could go racing all the time.”

Graham is still looking for a full-time Indy ride this year, a situation that has many Indy fans upset as they see numerous foreign drivers securing rides in the series.

Bobby Rahal said part of the problem is that Indy teams don’t have enough relationships of their own with sponsors, so they depend on drivers to bring their own sponsors.

Graham Rahal said there just aren’t as many skilled open-wheel American drivers as there are in other countries.

“I was talking to someone the other day .¤.¤. asking them why didn’t they have very many American drivers,” Graham said. “Simply put, ‘We’ve tested a lot of American drivers and none have been able to do the job properly.’

“And it’s sad to say, but that’s been the case and I think that people sometimes have the approach that it should just be given to you if you have good results and stuff,” he said. “Right now the Europeans, the Brazilian drivers, first of all, the results are there. Second of all, they have a lot of support.”

The Legends Series is expected to bring 180 cars to Barber to compete May 21-23 in nine classes with the Lotus race being the marquee event.

The grand marshal for the Lotus race is scheduled to be racing legend Mario Andretti.

That’s assuming his grandson, Marco Andretti, makes it into the field for the Indy 500 on Saturday, May 22. If Marco has to wait until Bump Day on May 23 to qualify for the Indy 500, Mario may have to skip the Barber race to be in Indianapolis.

But either way, the world’s best-known driver will be at Barber for a fundraising event on May 22.

The Thursday before the race weekend will feature a parade of cars from competitors and local car clubs from the track, down U.S. 78 to Montevallo Road to Mountain Brook Village, where a street festival is planned. Or, as Mountain Brook Mayor Terry Oden put it, “We’re going to make it a soiree.”

Asked if the Mountain Brook police will go easy on race cars zipping through the city, Oden joked, “That’s the way we anticipate making our budget this year.

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The feud that has dragged on for months between DirecTV and the Versus sports network that broadcasts Indy races and NHL games has finally ended.

That means DirecTV customers can now see Indy races once again on Channel 603. And that’s good news for the race at Barber Motorsports Park because one of its goals is to showcase Alabama to viewers around the country. It’s sort of hard to do that if the race isn’t shown on one of the biggest satellite providers.

The season opener in Brazil on Sunday actually saw an increase in ratings of 76 percent over last year’s season opener in St. Petersburg. The rating was still a 0.4, which is an average of 411,000 viewers, so the numbers nationally are still anemic. But it was the third-highest rating for a race on Versus.

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