The Official Blog of the IZOD IndyCar Series

We all know how much fun can be had on (and obviously off) Twitter, but our IZOD IndyCar Series, Firestone Indy Lights, Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear and the Cooper Tires USF2000 powered by Mazda drivers always provide us with some entertaining content via the social network.

But can you guess who said what? (Note: On occasion some of the tweets listed will come from prominent voices within the IndyCar community as well.)

Let’s see if you can pair the driver up to tweets listed.

(Answers will be revealed next week with the next installation of Guess That Tweeter)

1. Just realized that despite seeing every parody of it, I don’t think I’ve seen the actual ‘Call Me Maybe’ music video. And I’m ok with this.

2. Gotta love the London Underground !! #sweatbox #whofarted @tagliani

3. #fact Slow motion shots of 100m sprinters are funny.

4. #YouGetMajorPointsIf You’re French Canadian or can just speak French in general! I miss you GP3R!

5. Gf’s O2 sensor tanking just became an awesome excuse to go get new tools. Unfortunately I didn’t require a blowtorch. #Ireallywantablowtorch

6. My favorite time of the year!going to the indianapolis state fair tonight!with @rmiller @IndyCar!#thisshouldbeentairtaining.

7. Holy smoke these guys run so fast TV doesn’t make justice. Wow it is almost as impressive as @IndyCar going by at the @IMS from pit lane

8. Seeing the Dark Knight Rises for a second time. I sort of have a Batman problem… I will own a legit suit one day. #fact

9. Never leave your phone unlocked with Stig around.

10. On my way to the Glen to try to win another one with Alex ! Peter called wednesday this time…

Post your guesses below.

Simona de Silvestro on the tee at the TPC River Highlands.

Bunkers straddle the fairway on the 321-yard (women’s tee), par-4 18th hole at the TPC River Highlands, placing a premium on accuracy. No problem for Simona de Silvestro, who drives it as straight as her Nuclear Clean Energy car for Lotus HVM Racing.

“Good power on her drives just like her drives,” said playing partner, PGA Tour pro Y.E. Yang, during the pro-am of the Travelers Championship in Cromwell, Conn., on June 20.

De Silvestro was particularly pleased as she closed with a birdie for the round.

“I made a really long putt, but I think it was because Y.E. gave me a new putter,” she said of Yang, who has two tour victories. “I can drive the ball, but chipping is pretty terrible. He helped me out and helped me read the putts. He was a really cool person to play with.

“I had an unbelievable time, the first time I ever did a pro-am. It was just a lot of fun, especially with the people from (sponsors) Entergy and Westinghouse. It was cool that they invited me.

“It was fun to play with things like grandstands and having a caddie. Even the driving range was so nice and the course was really beautiful.”

De Silvestro took up the sport when she was 12 or 13 in her native Switzerland, which doesn’t quickly come to mind as a European golf destination (it has about 60 courses).

“That’s when they just opened a course about 5 minutes from our house,” she said. “That’s where I first started, me and my dad. I started watching golf on TV last year and started to get into it. I got new clubs and started playing more often. I’m still not great, but it’s a fun game and it kind of gets your mind off all the craziness we go through (during the IZOD IndyCar Series season).

“I have to practice more if I want to beat Graham (Rahal) because he plays well. We’ll work on it.”

This is my first blog as a Firestone Indy Lights team owner on the Mazda Road to Indy for Jeffrey Mark Motorsport. In fact, this is my first blog ever.

I want to give race fans an inside perspective of the second best thing to being a race car driver.

From as far back as I can remember, and my wife will tell you that’s about two days, I wanted to be a race car driver. Unfortunately, there were two things that stood in the way of that ever happening: my mom and my mom. As a kid I was invincible. Others would call it clueless and my wife prefers the latter.

Juan Pablo Garcia

My driver this year is Juan Pablo Garcia. Juan Pablo is a very talented race car driver from Mexico City. He is as nice a person as he is a driver and has a good sense of humor. Bryan Herta Autosport, 2011 Indy 500 winner, is running my race team for 2012 and Jeffrey Mark Motorsport is being run out of their race shop in Indianapolis. This was the best option for me in my first year.

Bryan Herta and Steve Newey have been great mentors and great people to work with. Our first race is March 24 on the streets of St. Petersburg, Fla. We have had a couple of test days for Juan Pablo in Sebring, Fla., Putnam Park road course west of Indianapolis and Barber Motorsports Park road course leading up to that race.

I look forward to having everyone follow along as I pursue my rookie season. It will be exciting and filled with laughter, sweat, tears and many podium finishes.

Shannon McIntosh is beginning her second season of USF2000 competition. She competed in the season opener at Sebring International Raceway on March 15 and advanced two positions to finish 15th. The 22-year-old St. Petersburg, Fla., resident is part of the Women Empowered initiative of TrueCar, and spoke about gearing up for the next chapter of her career. 

Q: Before we get talking about the season-opening races at Sebring, it’s been a busy offseason for you. Recap what you’ve been up to.

Shannon McIntosh

A:

The offseason has been a whirlwind. Once the season was over, we started reaching out to some teams as I began looking toward a fresh 2012 in USF2000. I tested with Pabst Racing at IMS in October, and being at the Brickyard was a experience in itself. After the test, I started working toward putting a program together with Pabst because I felt it was a place where I had the support I needed to excel, and a team that was behind me and my success. It was shortly after this that my management BRANDed and I were able to close a deal for the 2012 season with TRUECAR.com along with an opportunity to represent Tag Heuer in their Time for Rebels campaign alongside Actor Neil Patrick Harris. Before we knew it, the season was here.

Q:  The Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship powered by Mazda is going to look a bit different than it did when you ran last year, with a whopping 35 cars this year. How great is it to see the series grow so much over such a short period of time?

A: I think it is phenomenal; the car count that we’ve got this year. I couldn’t be more excited to be in a premier series with a stacked field because I’ve always said you gain the most from racing the toughest competition you can find. I am so proud of Andersen Promotions/USF2000 for getting this series to where it is today.

Q: How do you feel you’ve grown as a driver over the break, and what new knowledge do you take into the season opener?

A: I feel like a new person. After lots of time reflecting on what the reality of last season was, I am in a great position as I start what I have recently referred to as “year one”. Not only do I have a new sponsor and team, I have the incredible opportunity to work with driver coach Mike Zimicki, who has an extremely impressive track record and resume in working with champion drivers. The greatest knowledge that I think I have as I enter the new season, is that it is essential, to have an entire team that is behind your success, in order to be successful.

Q: Sebring is going to be bustling this week! How much fun is it to run with a big event like the 12 Hours of Sebring, and later in the season when USF2000 races with the IZOD IndyCar Series events?

A: When I jumped to the open-wheel side of the motorsports world, the beauty of the ‘Mazda Road to Indy’ was that we raced at high profile events alongside series’ like American Le Mans and the IZOD IndyCar Series. Not only is it inspirational and motivating, it gives my sponsors greater value, and I feel very fortunate to have that opportunity.

Q: Which race on the schedule are you most looking forward to?

A: I think that St. Pete is going to be the most exciting for me. Not only am I a resident of St. Pete now, it was one of my favorite courses last year. St. Petersburg is one of the most beautiful cities and racing a few blocks away from my home makes it even better.

Q: On another note, you’ve been chosen as the host of the famous Grand Prix After Party at PUSH in St. Pete, something that Dan Wheldon did for several years. Tell us a little more on how special is it to you to take over that honor.

A: As a resident of the same city that Dan Wheldon called “home” for many years, I am honored to be able to be a part of a celebration that we are having to benefit the Dan Wheldon Family Trust. It is important to me that I help carry on his legacy in even the slightest way, and I hope that the Grand Prix After Party is a success for the Dan Wheldon Family Trust for many years to come.

A.J. Foyt will be seen around his native Houston a bit more these days. Foyt is part of an initiative at St Luke’s Episcopal Hospital in Houston in which patients share their stories.

Foyt’s story is spreading a bit farther as he is featured in a 30-second commercial that is airing locally. He’s also featured on seven billboards in the area with the tagline: A.J. Foyt still has the heart of a champion.

Foyt’s story actually began with his wife Lucy undergoing open-heart surgery last winter (from which she has made a full recovery).  When doctors asked Foyt the last time he’d had his stents checked (installed during a procedure in 2000),  they didn’t like his answer. When they checked him, they found a blockage.

Foyt underwent a procedure to install another stent to open the blockage — complicated by the fact that the doctor had to go through an existing stent to reach it (an open-heart surgery team was standing by in case the procedure didn’t work). Fortunately, the procedure was successful.

When asked if he would share his story, Foyt didn’t hesitate to express his gratitude to the staff of the Texas Heart Institute’s cardiology team.

Salvador Servia laughs heartily – loud enough for his son, Oriol, a few yards away to pivot and return a smile. He’s relaying a story culled from more than four decades as a rally racer, enjoying the rides in the deserts and rocky outcrops across Europe with his wife/navigator Montse (above with Salvador and Oriol).

“In a rally that we won she felt bad and that was because she was pregnant with Oriol,” he chuckles at the memory. “I like to say Oriol was born in movement.”

That’s understandable as Salvador has been in perpetual movement long before his son’s birth. He’s been a rally racer who was twice the Spanish champion and competed at Dakar 13 times and Monte Carlo 11 times; a  politician who was elected senator of the province of Girona; a political economist. Now he’s track director of the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona – host of a Formula One race.

And, in another of life’s tangents, he’s also recently a published author of “Lead the Life.”

“I am old but I feel young; I’m not interested in history,” he relays about a Spanish publisher’s initial interest in a manuscript. “Then they proposed to write a book about stories, and they liked it. They are stories about a long racing life. I have been racing rallies for 42 years, always rallies. Road and desert, and at all this time by my side has been my wife. So I wrote some recollections.

“It’s easy to read and hopefully interesting.  At the end of each story I put a line with a message, and this is good today for the market.”

The Servias, who recently watched an IZOD IndyCar Series race in person, usually follow their son’s exploits via indycar.com and TV.

“When he was 12 he participated in school of driving karts. He traded water skiing for karts,” Salvador laughs. “And then he passed to Formula 3000 in Europe. But at the moment Formula 3000 was going down, he came to the U.S. and he did Indy Lights. He won the 1999 championship and had the opportunity to upgrade to Indy car.

“We have been in motorsport all our lives and we always helped him to reach his potential. Things are going really good for him this year. We’re very happy for him.”

IZOD IndyCar Series drivers Tony Kanaan and Vitor Meira were victorious in a different type of race over the weekend.

“Now I can say I’m an Ironman,” Kanaan relayed a few hours after crossing the finish line in the Ford Ironman World Championship in Hawaii.
Kanaan and countryman Meira completed the grueling 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and 24.2-mile run in under 13 hours. Both had competed in Ironman 70.3 events, but this was their first full-scale endurance race.

“The day after a car race doesn’t feel this bad,” said Kanaan, who checked in at 12 hours, 52 minutes, 40 seconds.

Meira completed the race in 12 hours, 24 minutes, 2 seconds. A total of 1,918 male and female triathletes who qualified or participated via a lottery jumped in the Pacific Ocean in Kona for the start of the event.

“This was awesome, and painful,” said Meira, who along with Kanaan is resting and recovering before getting in the race car Oct. 13 for the initial practice session at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the IZOD INDYCAR World Championships Presented by Honda. “The pros are unreal.”

Maybe this will spur on the 36-year-old Kanaan and the 34-year-old Meira: Craig Alexander, 38, of Australia, won the event for the third time and set a course-record 8 hours, 3 minutes, 56 seconds in the process. How awesome is that? After completing the consecutive swim and bike, he ran a 2:44.03 marathon.

Helio Castroneves and Graham Rahal are featured in general interest magazines out later this week. One (Rahal in Cosmopolitan Magazine) displays a designer watch prominent in the photo. The other (Castroneves in ESPN The Magazine’s “Bodies We Want” issue) shows a whole lot more, but not a designer watch.

“First of all, I’m honored to be in the magazine,” says Castroneves, who joins more than 20 other athletes who were captured all natural in poses related to their sport. “There are so many amazing athletes. I was just so surprised because I’m not the type of guy — 6 foot tall, broad shoulders – that I thought they would want.”

The three-time Indianapolis 500 champion, who’s 5-7 and about 145 pounds, laughs at what was proposed by photographer Luis Sanchis on the set that included a tire swing. The tire, of course, is the link to the IZOD IndyCar Series, but producers at least could have used a Firestone Racing tire instead of a passenger car tire.

“I thought they’d do something like you wear underwear and they would air brush it out,” he says. “But when I got there it was a big surprise. I would be completely naked. It was done in an artistic way. I’m comfortable with the group that was there.

“It was a unique experience. Hopefully, the fans will enjoy it.”

Rahal’s image, captured during the Toronto race weekend in July, accompanies the online piece for readers to select the “Bachelor of the Year.” He represents Indiana, where the Ohio native has resided since December. Rahal also is featured in the magazine’s November print issue (on newsstands Oct. 11).

Vote for Rahal through Oct. 16 at http://www.cosmopolitan.com/sex-love/bachelors-2011/bachelors-2011-indiana. The top 10 vote-getters will be the semifinalists, and Cosmo editors will select the “Bachelor of the Year,” which will be announced Oct. 18 when all the  state (plus the District of Columbia) representatives will gather in New York for the annual Cosmo Bachelor of the Year party hosted by editor-in-chief Kate White.

Though the 22-year-old Service Central Chip Ganassi Racing driver isn’t a reader Cosmopolitan (maybe thumbing through it once or twice?), he appreciates the attention it brings to the team, the IZOD IndyCar Series and, yes, himself. Much like Castroneves’ pages in ESPN The Magazine, though Rahal says he wouldn’t agree. “It’s just not my thing to be running around with my shirt off.”

What magazine would he like to be the cover story? “Any sort of sports or golf magazine; that’s what interests me.”

It hasn’t been too long since Simona de Silvestro visited her home country of Switzerland, and on Sept. 29 a little taste of home was a nice treat for the IZOD IndyCar Series driver who has been nicknamed the “Swiss Missile.”

Simona de Silvestro visits Switzerland

De Silvestro visited Vevay, Ind., a small town in Switzerland County. She visited a Swiss bed and breakfast, investigated the downtown history and went to Ogle Haus Inn, a landmark in town. Some of the locals who showed up shared their heritage with de Silvestro.

Not all was familiar to her, however. De Silvestro had the opportunity to blow into an alphorn, the national instrument of Switzerland.

“I had never tried one, so that was pretty fun,” de Silvestro said. “It took me a while to figure out how to do it. But then when I figured it out it was fun. But it was pretty funny, I made some funny faces while trying.”

The autograph session at Twin Ring Motegi is unlike any other on the IZOD IndyCar Series circuit.

Danica Patrick receives gifts from Japanese fans

In exchange for a photograph and a signature, some fans present gifts to their favorite drivers. Most gifts consist of photos, books, cookies and other sweets, and traditional Japanese items such as chopsticks or fans. But some fans go above and beyond the call in an effort to show respect.

EJ Viso shows off one of his new gifts

One fan gave Marco Andretti a hand-made model of a HondaJet, complete with Honda logos, while Tony Kanaan received a 1/4-scale statue of Brazilian racing legend Ayrton Senna from one of his biggest fans in Japan. Another fan dressed his infant son -– whose middle name is Teekay in honor of Kanaan -– in a KV Racing Technology-Lotus onesie just like his namesake.

Danica Patrick received one of the biggest gifts -– a pair of daruma, Japanese good luck dolls, one painted to match her racing helmet and the other in the colors of primary sponsor GoDaddy.com and signed with well-wishes from a number of Japanese fans.

“These are great,” Patrick said after receiving the traditional Buddhist good luck items. “I am going to put these in the house back in the U.S.”

Daruma dolls, also known as Dharma dolls, are a Japanese traditional Buddhist toy used in goal-setting and wishing for good luck in achieving that goal. They are painted with only one eye with the other eye filled in once the goal has been achieved.

“I hope they aren’t Cyclops for long,” Patrick said.