Race Report: Honda Indy Toronto

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.”