The Official Blog of the IZOD IndyCar Series

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.

Yang Ou, 22, is the champion of iRacing.com’s IZOD IndyCar Premier Series.

The spoils of Ou’s many online racing victories include a cash prize.

Yang Ou and Tim Doyle

A native of Wu Han, China, Ou resides in Copenhagen, Denmark, where he is studying media technology.  It goes without saying that Ou is a fan of the real world IZOD IndyCar Series.  He also follows Formula One and the NFL and, when not studying or sim racing, plays a bit of football (soccer and American-style), not to mention rock/heavy metal on his electric guitar.

Ou amassed 16 wins in 25 starts (the iRacing format features multiple races at a given track each week) to beat Finland’s Aleksi Elomaa and Germany’s Andre Boettcher for the road course title and Tim Doyle (Winchester, Va.) and Elomaa for the oval crown.

Although he owns a variety of iRacing cars, the IndyCar Dallara – and the IZOD IndyCar Series – are Ou’s preferred choices.

“IndyCar is what I know best and my favorite car to race as well,” he says. “I appreciate the diversity in different type of circuits, as drivers have to master road/street courses, short ovals, 1.5-mile ovals and superspeedways. The car handling, setups and styles of racing are very different with every car configuration, which is of course also the case in the real world IndyCar Series and it is a cool challenge.”

That challenge appeared particularly daunting early in the 2011 season, as Ou suffered disappointing results in the opening races at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and MIS.  On the oval side, he got into high gear in the second week of competition at Phoenix International Raceway with a pair of wins.  Similarly, he visited the winner’s circle in the second round of the road racing championship, and from then on was virtually unbeatable, scoring consecutive victories at Road Atlanta, Sebring, Road America, Mid-Ohio and in the finale at Infineon.

“It did feel like a slow start (on the ovals),” he concedes, “but it was an unfortunate incident that prevented me from leading the season from start to finish.  I got run over by the second-place car while pitting from the lead with eight laps to go, but he apologized for that later on and even with a lot of aero damage for the rest of the race I still finished third so it’s not too bad.

“On the road side I definitely got a slower start . . . I was relatively off pace from Team My3id’s Klaus Kivekäs and Aleksi at Laguna Seca. The car balance was good in qualifying and only slightly lacked downforce, but the race setup was very unstable and I had to drive conservatively. By Week 2 at Barber Motorsports Park, I already figured-out the most important setup settings. With .3 sec in reserve, I was still .25 sec faster than the second fastest qualifier, so it was a great improvement (and) I continued to learn about road course setup for the Dallara throughout the season.”

As has been well documented, iRacers are liable to find themselves competing with “real world” racers at any moment.  Yang Ou is no exception.

“I’ve raced against Will (Power), Oriol (Servia), Tscheck (Tomas Scheckter), Justin Wilson and also Dale Earnhardt Jr.,” he says.  “They drive in iRacing the same way they do in real life.  Will and Tomas were incredibly aggressive; Justin was less aggressive and made very calculated moves.

“Junior was fantastic at avoiding spinning cars as there were many ‘big ones’ during that race.  Yet, every time, when the smoke clears, he was almost the only one that made it through.  In the end, there were only a few cars left in the race and the two of us had a great battle.  Junior won, but I learned a lot and it was fun battling with him.”

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.

This coming week will mark the IZOD IndyCar Series’ final round of the season at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. For the occasion the boys at ArtRotondo.com decided to break the walls down and unleash one of their finest works yet — Graham Rahal’s Sin City helmet.

This helmet was produced to pay tribute to the Indycar’s arrival to the city and to the city’s great attributes. Hoping that this helmet will be enough of edge that Graham will need to lead the final lap of the race and take the checkered flag to end his 2011 on a high note.

The end of season marks a lot of other end of season helmets for many others, including Vitor Meira’s latest helmets that he will also be sporting in Las Vegas along with Sebastian Saavedra’s upgraded more colorful Colombian influenced helmets.

In the DTM series, Mercedes top driver Gary Paffett unveiled his end of season helmets which include a special matte “Bizarro” version of his classic helmet which is already making head waves throughout the racing world.

Finally US racing prodigy Alexander Rossi hopes to finish on top of his World Series by Renault season with his brand new modified helmet style complete with his trademark ghost pattern palm trees to pay tribute to his native of California, so that the entire world see’s what he’s accomplishing and most importantly where he comes from as being the only american with a valid Formula Super License in the world.

The end of season is always a sad time for us as before everything else, we are avid racing fans, but work never stops and which is why you have to stay posted on the Indycar blog throughout the off season for our full updates on all of our upcoming projects and remember to also check in to www.artrotondo.com for day to day updates and on our Twitter and Facebook fan pages.

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.”

INDYCAR CEO Randy Bernard wants to hear YOUR thoughts on the IZOD IndyCar Series! Every Monday for the rest of the season, he will post a poll here on the INDYCAR Blog asking for your opinion. Today, he wants to know what you enjoyed most about the Kentucky Indy 300! Answer below, and follow him on Twitter to hear his response later today!

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.

Some IZOD IndyCar drivers will go to any length to get a competitive advantage over their fellow competitors.

Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender James Hinchcliffe used the Playstation 3 game Gran Turismo to get his first look at Twin Ring Motegi’s road course.

Of course, he didn’t plan on spending three days to take his first lap around the track.

“Maybe not one of my proudest moments,” said Hinchcliffe, who not only purchased the game and a memory card but borrow a Sony PlayStation 3 before he turned a lap. “Fortunately, I had a couple of teammates – my roommates – who did much of the grunt work. You try and learn a new track any way you can and video games these days are shockingly accurate. You’ll learn more in the first two laps in the actual car, but at least it gave me a little bit of a sense of where to go.”

Hinchcliffe and his roommates “spent three days in the basement” unlocking cars and tracks before finally getting to turn laps on the 14-turn, 2.983-mile road course. But because IndyCars are not in the game, he had to choose a car that is similar in speed.

“Part of the reason it took so long, was a) we had to unlock the tracks and b) I wanted to drive a car that would give me a feel of an IndyCar. I ended up driving the Konica Minolta Nissan Group C sports car. It was worth it.”