Suspension Failure Forces Taku Out In Texas

[Mark H]

Suspension failure forced Takuma Sato out of the latest IndyCar Series round at Texas Motor Speedway, and his resultant crash was a disappointing end to a race that had begun with great promise in his Lotus-backed, KV Racing Technology Dallara-Honda.

 

This was the third in a run of four successive oval races, with the track in Fort Worth featuring the steepest banking in IndyCar - and, as a result, very high lap speeds.

 

"It's definitely an interesting place," said Sato. "It's quite similar to Kansas, but bumpier and certainly the banking is very interesting! We had only one hour of practice before qualifying, so it was quite restricted what we could do, but I needed to get used to going through the banking. It felt strange after Indianapolis - in a crazy way it's very impressive!

 

"We were concentrating on race set-up, and it was very hot temperatures so very low grip. It was supposed to be easy to go two-wide, but that was very difficult with such a lack of grip."

 

Taku qualified a strong 11th. "I was happy where I landed in qualifying and felt comfortable. After that, we had an evening session to simulate the conditions that we would have in the night race on Saturday evening. But it was still only around seven in the evening so it was quite warm. Even so, half the banking was in the shadows and I was surprised at how much difference that made to the car. Everything is so temperature-related on the ovals, so that made things unpredictable for the night race. But there you go, and I was definitely looking forward to it!"

 

The race began well, with Sato battling strongly in the pack. "I went to the start cautiously, but I didn't need to be as cautious as I was in my first oval race at Kansas. I just kept a decent position and I was able to follow the pack, which was very exciting. Two-wide, three-wide and sometimes even four-wide! It's really crazy and because of the bumps there were sparks everywhere.

 

"I settled down and started working, and was quite happy with the first 15 laps. I lost a few positions in the first few laps but then I was able to make them up again. Then I started to struggle with balance and the car went to big understeer. You can use the anti-roll bars and the weightjacker in the car to transfer weight, but it was just stuck in understeer big time.

After 20 laps my pace went down quite significantly and I had to lift for most of the corners. I wanted to pit but I knew I had to stay on the lead lap."

 

Finally a yellow came, enabling the first pit-stop. "We had new tyres with different pressures and added front wing. It made a significant difference and I was overtaking people inside, outside and enjoying the race. But then I had a sudden feeling in Turn 2. The car sat down and was suddenly pointing in the wrong direction. I knew something had broken in the rear suspension, but it's not a nice feeling being a passenger, waiting for the crash into the wall."

 

Luckily, Taku emerged unscathed, and now looks forward to a test on the Watkins Glen road circuit this week, before the next round at the Iowa Speedway oval on June 20.

 

"Physically I'm OK," he said. "It's just a shame. I felt good in the car and could have had an enjoyable race. Iowa is a low-grip track and bumpy, so we will use a big wing from road courses. But before then I'm looking forward to turning right again at Watkins Glen!"

 

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