Four corners, four straights

Dragonspeed Racing entered the 2019 Indy 500 as rookies, but with a highly experienced race engineer. Paul Thomas takes us through the experience of learning Indy’s unique set-up process

- ANDREW COTTON

It is now a long-debunked theory that oval racing is just about making a car turn left around four corners. Preparing the car for one of the greatest races on earth, the Indianapolis 500, is as complicated as any other racetrack, more when you consider the speeds and forces involved in straight running or in an accident. Then there’s the fact the series has a one-make chassis supplier in Dallara, plus a spec tyre from Firestone.

In order to get the most out of the package, a team has to have an intimate understanding of its car and the track, and the relationship between the two, in order to give the driver their best possible chance of success. That was why, when Dragonspeed Racing announced it was going to the Indy 500 in 2019 with a rookie driver, Ben Hanley, it was widely assumed they would have difficulty even making the cut for the race itself.

The fact they did owed as much to the engineering expertise behind the preparation of the car as to Hanley’s driving.

The car qualified on the ninth row of the grid at an average speed of 227.482mph, just over 2mph down on pole-sitter, Simon Pagenaud. That was a huge improvement over the team’s first practice session in the week leading up to the race, when Hanley was more than 7mph slower that the fastest car of Will Power.

In the race itself, the team’s Chevrolet lasted 54 laps before a driveshaft bearing failed and Hanley retired just 45 minutes into the race. However, while several other high-profile teams and drivers failed to make the grade, to have even started was a fantastic achievement for the team.

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