TORONTO (July 17, 2016) – The joy and agony of racing was felt by the ABC Supply team today. For Takuma Sato and the No. 14 crew, there was pure elation as they turned their 20th place start into a top-five finish in the Honda Indy Toronto at Exhibition Place. Sato’s fifth place netted him the Hard Charger Award as the driver who improved his position the most in the 85-lap race around the 1.786-mile street circuit.
Jack Hawksworth, who fought hard for what would have been his first top-10 finish of the season, saw it evaporate with four laps to go when Simon Pagenaud punted the No. 41 car sending Hawksworth into the barrier. “Pagenaud just punted me!” Hawksworth called over the radio. Pagenaud, who escaped without a penalty because officials could not see video of his unsportsmanlike maneuver, went on to finish ninth. The luckless Hawksworth placed 21st.
Sato started the race on the outside of row 10 but he got a great start, avoided an accident that brought out a full course yellow, and was 17th at the end of lap 1. Hawksworth had started 13th but by lap 10 he was 11th and in the top 10 by lap 16. As teams began to employ different fuel strategies, Hawksworth pitted on lap 20, changing from red tires to black tires, and Sato pitted on lap 22, changing from black tires to reds. Both drivers dropped in the running order.
Having worked their way up to 12th and 13th, the next round of pit stops proved critical. Sato’s crew gambled and pitted under caution on lap 47 which was before their fuel window; they knew they might have to stop for a splash of fuel if the race went green the rest of the way. Hawksworth was going to pit with the leaders as he was running ninth, but a problem with his fueling rig on the first stop prevented him from getting a full load. Fortunately the team caught it before he ran out, and they brought him in five laps later on lap 52. Unfortunately, the stop was under green, which proved costly as he dropped to 20th.
When the full course yellow came out on lap 58 for Josef Newgarden’s one car accident, the ABC cars advanced as the leaders made their final fuel stop on lap 60. When the race went green on lap 63, Sato was in fourth and Hawksworth was ninth--and he soon moved into eighth.
With 30 laps to go, Sato held off Helio Castroneves for 10 laps before dropping back to fifth which is where he finished, tying his career best finish at this track.
“A difficult weekend that ended up quite sweet for the No. 14 car with a fantastic result after having had a difficult qualifying,” Sato said afterwards. “Larry [Foyt] and the engineers made the right call for the strategy and the ABC Supply Honda worked really well and the pit stops were really fantastic. I was able to overtake a few cars on track. We were able to save fuel which was really tight but a couple yellows saved us. I’m proud of my guys, we achieved a really good result.”
Team president Larry Foyt said of the strategy call to pit, “We were in a tough position because you’re in the middle of the pack. You have to take a gamble to try to get a good finish because the guys behind us were all going to pit, so I just decided we needed to do it even though it was a longshot. For it to work, we needed a couple yellows, but they came so it paid off.”
Hawksworth fought off Scott Dixon for nine laps before Dixon made a clean pass, dropping Hawksworth to ninth on lap 77. Hawksworth fended off Pagenaud until he hit the No. 41 in the rear as they were entering Turn 5. The impact shot Hawksworth into the barrier and Pagenaud swept past unscathed. Then his teammate Juan Pablo Montoya, who was racing Ryan Hunter-Reay through the corner (they were three cars behind), rear-ended Hawksworth, explaining that he had nowhere to go.
“Very difficult,” said an abject Hawksworth. “We weren’t very good on the reds [alternate tires] but we were okay on the blacks and we were running up there at the end. The brakes started to go away and we lost a little bit of performance. Then in the last five laps I didn’t have any front brakes and was just about hanging on and then Pagenaud ran into the back of me and that was it. I can’t believe it really. It is what it is.”
Foyt added, “Jack told me Pagenaud got into the back of him and from the quick video I saw it looked that way, but I guess the officials didn’t see it. It’s a shame because Jack was having a decent day and looked like he’d get a good top-10 finish. He was really fighting hard so it was a tough end for him and the 41 crew.”
Ironically, that final two-lap caution removed the worry about Sato’s fuel situation. The engineers calculated he had just enough to finish but he may not have been able to hold onto fifth place as he was saving fuel every lap until that caution.
Will Power won the race, while his teammate Castroneves finished second. Canadian James Hinchcliffe, the local favorite, scored a popular third place finish while Tony Kanaan was fourth ahead of Sato.
The team is headed to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course this week for a one day test on Thursday, July 21st. The Verizon IndyCar Series’ next race is the Honda 200 at Mid-Ohio July 31st. The race will be broadcast live on CNBC starting at 2 p.m. ET.
AJ Foyt Racing Press Release.
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