Taku`s Kansas Report

[Mark H]

Takuma Sato’s first-ever oval race produced plenty of thrills, and a potential fairytale finish in the top six, but unfortunately ended in a collision with fellow Japanese driver Hideki Mutoh with just 14 laps remaining at Kansas Speedway.

 

Up to that point, Taku and his Lotus-backed KV Racing Technology Dallara-Honda had made steady progress through the field, as the ex-Formula 1 star belied his lack of oval experience by battling with - and overtaking - some of the best exponents of the art of oval racing.

 

The 1.5-mile Kansas tri-oval features average lap speeds of 210mph plus, definitely far removed from what Sato is used to! The initial plan, for Taku and the other IndyCar Series newcomers, was to undertake their rookie test in the week after the preceding race at Long Beach, but that was cancelled due to bad weather.

 

It was rescheduled for Wednesday, and Taku was happy with the outcome. “It was my first taste of an oval. I did more than100 laps and it was important in understanding how an IndyCar works on an oval, and set-up choices. On your own it was quite comfortable and I got a lot of understanding.”

 

The weather caused further delays to the race weekend on Friday, but finally the full field got out for practice, presenting another new experience for Sato. “It was just so different running on an oval with the other cars. There was a lot of turbulence in the pack and the car can lose grip easily so the lines have to be different to get more air for the down force. It was valuable experience and I definitely needed that understanding before the race.”

 

For his first oval qualifying session, Taku did an extremely good job to complete the 13th fastest run of four consecutive laps. He was promoted to 11th on the grid due to penalties applied to two cars ahead of him, and was the fastest of the three KV team drivers, both of whom had at least a season’s oval experience to their credit. “I was very pleased with the qualifying performance,” he said. “We were concentrating on the race set up in practice so it was good to see that my first ever qualifying trimmed car performed well.”

 

Come the start of the race, it was easy to spot the oval newcomer, as caution prompted Sato to drop several places down the field. “Once you lose momentum you lose so many places! But after that I was able to just settle, keep working and battle a lot.”

 

Indeed, Sato was on the fringe of the top 10 as the first pit stops rolled around, and crucially was on the lead lap when the first caution period arrived. That made a big difference, as Taku was pincered between Dan Wheldon and Milka Duno as he exited the pit lane, making contact with the Venezuelanand being forced to make an extra, precautionary stop. “Dan just came up to me and Milka also kept closing so really I had nowhere to go. We had a collision and really it was a big shame because it meant another pit stop and I lost a couple of positions.”

 

From there, Taku went forward again, racing and passing some big names of IndyCar racing, until he was battling with Helio Castroneves inside the top six. “One by one I gradually moved my position up. It was definitely great fun to be racing side by side and battling with some great drivers. The whole thing was 100 per cent racing. You would go side by side for three consecutive laps, not quite manage to pass, and just back off a bit and then work it out again. It was really exciting racing.”

 

Sato’s spotter, keeping him informed over the radio, was Roger Yasukawa, a driver who was racing in England at the same time Taku was winning in Formula 3 and who then became a regular in the IndyCar Series for some years. “We’ve always got on well and he has good experience in IndyCar so it’s great to work with him.”

 

Unfortunately, the afternoon ended just as the race went green after what should have been the final caution. “There was a big pack in front. We’d just done our pit stops, Hideki and I, and we were running P5 and P6. At the restart I was side by side with Hideki. For me, what I saw was he came up and we ran out of road. But afterwards I found out that Simona de Silvestro, who we were lapping, had moved up quite unnecessarily. Hideki was aware that I was there but had no choice. There was nothing we could do. It was very unfortunate.”

 

Next comes a test at Kentucky Speedway in a couple of days’ time, following by promotional work in Japan in advance of the Motegi race, and then the build-up to the big one: the Indianapolis 500, which is the next race. “It’s going to be the busiest month of the year! But I’ve had a great experience understanding what oval racing is. Indy will be very different characteristics to Kansas, but we will keep a good momentum going from this weekend and I am very much looking forward to having a new challenge.”

 

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