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IndyCar
INDYCAR: Mid-Ohio Highlights Indy Car’s Evolution
The Indy 500 has been the standard for oval progress, but when it comes to road courses, Mid-Ohio is like an encyclopedia of open-wheel development.
The fastest Indy car lap set at Mid-Ohio--done when tobacco advertising was still the norm--has yet to be beaten. (Photo: LAT)
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway has long served as the reference standard for speed throughout the 101-year history of the Indy car, but when it comes to road courses, Mid-Ohio is like an encyclopedia of open-wheel development and progress.
Dating back to the first Indy car race held at the storied facility in 1980, fans, drivers and engineers have been fortunate to witness the march of open-wheel technology in a stable environment.
With only one major change to the track distance and corner count since the inaugural race, charting the progress made with aerodynamics, chassis construction, suspension, tires and engines through fastest laps isn’t exactly a scientific exercise, but it does paint a portrait of how the Indy car has evolved over the last few decades.
At 2.4 miles and 15 turns, the Mid-Ohio layout that was in play from 1980 through 1989 saw Indy cars move from archaic oval creations to truly versatile and multi-purpose machines. And from 1990 onwards, the current 2.2-mile, 13-turn configuration has hosted some of the fiercest open-wheel cars ever produced and at least one that will soon be forgotten.
The 15-turn configuration is still in place, with the extra two corners serving as a “Bus Stop” chicane that sits on the right of the track between Turn 1 and the the Keyhole.
Mid-Ohio’s inaugural Indy car race, the final event held under joint USAC and CART sanctioning before CART struck out on its own, saw Al Unser earn the distinction of claiming the first pole at 1:24.87 seconds in the Williams FW07-based Longhorn LR01-Cosworth DFX.
The slow, lumbering lap was attributable to a number of factors. Still in its infancy, CART had yet to usher in the wave of road and street courses to balance the oval-heavy USAC calendar, and with Mid-Ohio serving as the first road race of the season, the teams that entered the race weren’t necessarily at their peak when it came time to find a perfect road course setup.
Just eight of the 24 starters made it to the finish of the 65-lap race, with spins and crashes taking out almost half of the 16 drivers who DNF’d.
Johnny Rutherford would start second and drive to victory in his Chaparral 2K-Cosworth DFX “Yellow Submarine,” more than 23 seconds ahead of Gordon Johncock in second…
John Barnard’s masterpiece used Formula One’s ground effects to perfection, and with 750 reliable ponies on offer from his turbocharged DFX and the best tires Goodyear produced, Lonestar JR set the original bar for the series at Mid-Ohio.
Under its own sanction, CART returned to Mid-Ohio in 1983 after a two-year hiatus, and Bobby Rahal took pole with a lap of 1:21.36 seconds, 3.5 seconds faster than Unser managed in 1980. Rahal’s March 83C-DFX benefitted from improved torsional rigidity and slightly better Goodyear tires, but the greatest cause for the jump in lap times came more from an elevated level of road racing expertise throughout the series. If USAC was an oval series that flirted with a few road races—akin to NASCAR with its pair of races at Sonoma and Watkins Glen, CART struck a steady balance of road and oval racing and its entrants knew the fast way around any track they visited.
By 1985, and with the dominant March 85C-DFX at his disposal, Rahal brought the qualifying record down to 1:15.26 seconds, a staggering improvement of 6.1 seconds over his 1983 pole.
“The March 83C and the 84C were just bigger cars,” said Rahal. “The 1984 Lola was the car to beat, but that too wasn’t the smallest car ever. For ’85, Adrian Newey designed the 85C and it was a typical ‘Adrian’ car. He went back the opposite way and made the overall car smaller. He tidied up the aerodynamics a lot, too.”
Newey, who would go on to see his designs win Formula One championships for Williams, McLaren and Red Bull, was clearly ahead of his time with the all-conquering March 85C.
To date, the 85C’s 6.1-second gain over the 83C is the biggest improvement in any one- or two-year span in Mid-Ohio’s history.
Dating back to the first Indy car race held at the storied facility in 1980, fans, drivers and engineers have been fortunate to witness the march of open-wheel technology in a stable environment.
With only one major change to the track distance and corner count since the inaugural race, charting the progress made with aerodynamics, chassis construction, suspension, tires and engines through fastest laps isn’t exactly a scientific exercise, but it does paint a portrait of how the Indy car has evolved over the last few decades.
At 2.4 miles and 15 turns, the Mid-Ohio layout that was in play from 1980 through 1989 saw Indy cars move from archaic oval creations to truly versatile and multi-purpose machines. And from 1990 onwards, the current 2.2-mile, 13-turn configuration has hosted some of the fiercest open-wheel cars ever produced and at least one that will soon be forgotten.
The 15-turn configuration is still in place, with the extra two corners serving as a “Bus Stop” chicane that sits on the right of the track between Turn 1 and the the Keyhole.
Mid-Ohio’s inaugural Indy car race, the final event held under joint USAC and CART sanctioning before CART struck out on its own, saw Al Unser earn the distinction of claiming the first pole at 1:24.87 seconds in the Williams FW07-based Longhorn LR01-Cosworth DFX.
The slow, lumbering lap was attributable to a number of factors. Still in its infancy, CART had yet to usher in the wave of road and street courses to balance the oval-heavy USAC calendar, and with Mid-Ohio serving as the first road race of the season, the teams that entered the race weren’t necessarily at their peak when it came time to find a perfect road course setup.
Just eight of the 24 starters made it to the finish of the 65-lap race, with spins and crashes taking out almost half of the 16 drivers who DNF’d.
Johnny Rutherford would start second and drive to victory in his Chaparral 2K-Cosworth DFX “Yellow Submarine,” more than 23 seconds ahead of Gordon Johncock in second…
John Barnard’s masterpiece used Formula One’s ground effects to perfection, and with 750 reliable ponies on offer from his turbocharged DFX and the best tires Goodyear produced, Lonestar JR set the original bar for the series at Mid-Ohio.
Under its own sanction, CART returned to Mid-Ohio in 1983 after a two-year hiatus, and Bobby Rahal took pole with a lap of 1:21.36 seconds, 3.5 seconds faster than Unser managed in 1980. Rahal’s March 83C-DFX benefitted from improved torsional rigidity and slightly better Goodyear tires, but the greatest cause for the jump in lap times came more from an elevated level of road racing expertise throughout the series. If USAC was an oval series that flirted with a few road races—akin to NASCAR with its pair of races at Sonoma and Watkins Glen, CART struck a steady balance of road and oval racing and its entrants knew the fast way around any track they visited.
By 1985, and with the dominant March 85C-DFX at his disposal, Rahal brought the qualifying record down to 1:15.26 seconds, a staggering improvement of 6.1 seconds over his 1983 pole.
“The March 83C and the 84C were just bigger cars,” said Rahal. “The 1984 Lola was the car to beat, but that too wasn’t the smallest car ever. For ’85, Adrian Newey designed the 85C and it was a typical ‘Adrian’ car. He went back the opposite way and made the overall car smaller. He tidied up the aerodynamics a lot, too.”
Newey, who would go on to see his designs win Formula One championships for Williams, McLaren and Red Bull, was clearly ahead of his time with the all-conquering March 85C.
To date, the 85C’s 6.1-second gain over the 83C is the biggest improvement in any one- or two-year span in Mid-Ohio’s history.
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