In the Rain: Texas race ‘Shanghaied’

Rain was the underlying theme Sunday at two of the three major series’ races, with NASCAR of course taking its usual place under an umbrella as rains lingered over Texas Motor Speedway, the Samsung Mobile 500 postponed until Monday. For the second time in the last three Sprint Cup races, rain has forced a Monday race.

But if there’s one racing body that truly knows what to do in the rain, it’s Formula One. In China Sunday for the Chinese Grand Prix, F1 put a soggy foot forward where NASCAR fears to tread, sending 25 cars off the starting grid at Shanghai International Circuit. After a dicey start in which all but the race leaders came in following Lap 1 to change to wets, an unusual leaderboard unfolded. Gone were the Vettels, Webbers, Hamiltons, and Massas, while up front ran Brawn Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg and McLaren’s Jenson Button, who both gambled to remain out on super-soft slicks to maintain track position at Nos. 1 and 2.

The strategy worked. The track stayed dry enough long enough for the pair to pull away in the first 10 laps, before they too opted for the rain-weather intermediates. Later, a bobble by Rosberg enabled Button to take the lead, and the 2009 F1 world champion took it home from there for his second victory of 2010. With the win, Button assumes the top spot in the driver standings, 10 points up on Rosberg, who claimed a podium-finish third place. Button’s McLaren teammate, Lewis Hamilton, making four stops to Button’s two, showed his immense talent in the rain throughout, unlike former “Der Regenmeister” (Rain Master) and seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher, now 41, who was passed continually by the sport’s younger drivers on the wet surface. Hamilton finished as race runner-up, only one second behind Button. Schumacher, four races into his ballyhooed comeback, placed 10th.

As the song goes, it never rains in Southern California, so wet weather was never an issue on the sun-blasted downtown streets of Long Beach, Calif., long one of the legendary IndyCar (as well as CART/Champ Car) circuits over the years. The testing road course known as the Grand Prix of Long Beach was the perfect venue Sunday for Ryan Hunter-Reay, a newcomer to the reconfigured Andretti-Green Racing team, now solely under Michael Andretti’s leadership and renamed Andretti AutoSport six months ago.

Penske pole-sitter Will Power took control of the race for the first 17 laps before inadvertently hitting the pit-row speed limiter exiting Turn 11, heading onto the long front straight. The gaffe allowed Hunter-Reay and Justin Wilson, then running second and third, to zoom by Power, with Hunter-Reay never seriously headed after that. The victory was all the more special to Hunter-Reay, who proposed to his future wife at the Long Beach circuit last year. He has one previous IndyCar series win (four total in open wheel, including one each in CART and Champ Car) to his credit. After Wilson became entangled with the rear of a lapped car at the race’s midpoint, dropping him back to third, he executed the pass of the day on Lap 66 of the 85-lap race, displacing Power for second place. Danica Patrick finished 16th.

Alan Ross is the author of 32 books and a regular contributor to American Profile. E-mail: alanross_sports@yahoo.com
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