Practice Report: INDYCAR Grand Prix at the Glen

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. Sept. 2, 2016—Jack Hawksworth set the pace for the Honda-powered contingent as the Verizon IndyCar Series returned to the super-smooth and super-fast Watkins Glen International road course for the first time since 2010.

Hawksworth, who had never seen the track before his track walk yesterday, made a big leap from practice 1 (where he was ranked 19th) to practice 2 where his No. 41 ABC Supply Honda clocked in as sixth fastest and the first among the Honda-powered Dallaras. His quickest lap of 1 minute, 23.4463 seconds (145.387mph) was almost three seconds and four miles an hour faster than his first session (1 minute, 26.0642 seconds, 140.965mph).

“It was a fun day,” Hawksworth said climbing out of the car after the two-hour practice session. “We hadn’t tested here so we worked our way into it and ran through our plan. It was good because we worked systematically. By the end, I think we had a decent understanding of the track. Really nice conditions, a really cool track, incredibly fast, I’ve never been to a track like this in my entire life. Literally…Never! So, so fast and the grip level is incredible. I mean it’s a three and a half-mile track and we’re doing 1:23s, I don’t know what the average speed is but it’s insane. Really enjoyed it and we did some good work, so we’ll try to continue that tomorrow and see if we can put it together in qualifying.”

Takuma Sato was 12th quickest in the No. 14 ABC Supply Honda and third fastest among the Honda-powered cars. He posted a quick time of 1 minute, 23.7894 seconds for a speed of 144.792mph.

“It’s good to be back in Watkins Glen, such an outstanding track, very high-speed flows,” Sato commented, having run at the track in 2010 in his rookie season in the IndyCar Series. “They’ve done a great job with the re-surfacing, the track has good grip and is lots of fun. We had a very productive day for a first day since we missed the test. We had quite a lot of work to be done so I think today was a very good day.”

Scott Dixon was the fastest in practice with a time of 1 minute, 22.8740 seconds (146.391mph). He was the only driver in the 22-second bracket.  Second through fifth were: Helio Castroneves, Will Power, Tony Kanaan, and Juan Pablo Montoya.

The teams have a 45-minute practice session tomorrow morning before qualifying gets underway tomorrow afternoon at 3 p.m. ET. The session will be broadcast on a tape-delay that evening from 6 – 7:30 p.m. ET.