Graham Rahal, driver of the No.15 Fifth Third Bank Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda says he expects Road America to produce extremely high grip levels after the circuit was repaved.
Rahal is looking forward to the race this weekend and believes that the team performance from the Indy road course will translate to the Sonsio Grand Prix.
I’m excited for Road America. Even after being repaved, I do think the performance we had at the GMR Grand Prix at Indianapolis should translate to Road America. I’m excited to see how that works out and I’m interested to see the curbing and the transition. It looks like, in essence, that the curbing is all the same, the track itself aside from that has been repaved so I’m looking forward to experiencing that. I expect the grip to be very high considering its fresh and new. I think that Road America is just such a pure place, and it’s one of the last racing venues that really is like that. I think it’s going to be amazing. My expectation is that we are going to have a really great run. From the family perspective, it is kind of our family event. Outside of Mid-Ohio, it is the most family atmosphere that we get of the season. Maybe even more so, because our family is from the Chicagoland area. My uncle and all our friends tend to come up. With my grandfather racing there for so many years, then my father, and now me, it’s a special place overall for us. It’s one of the main events that I highlight every year and look forward to. Plus, everyone just loves Road America and the Elkhart Lake area and they enjoy Seibken’s so much that they can’t help but come and enjoy it every year.”
Jack Harvey in the No.30 MiJack Honda started last years race from 20th and scored his career-best result here of 13th and looking ahead to the race this weekend he says:
Road America is the favorite of many people. It’s certainly seen as the – if not one of — the most premiere tracks in North America. The atmosphere and track are fantastic. It looks like it’s just been resurfaced and the initial read is that the track has gotten quite a bit quicker and you’re never going to hear drivers ever complain about that so I’m definitely optimistic about heading there. Our road course car has been pretty solid. Certainly, the Indy GP is a good indicator of that. We certainly started pretty far forward a couple of times at Road America, equaled my best start in second and started third as well so I’m very optimistic about the weekend we can have in the Mi-Jack car and am excited to get going there, have a smooth weekend and kick start the second half of the season off.”
Christian Lundgaard in the No.45 Hy-Vee Honda is looking forward to the race this weekend saying:
“Road America is one of the coolest tracks on the calendar in my opinion. I love the carousel, and all the high speed corners and the track has been resurfaced this year, which I think is going to help us. As drivers, it’s going to produce more grip and by the sounds of it, it looks like it’s super-smooth so I’m looking forward to that. I’m excited to see if we can produce a good result at Road America coming off of our performance at the last road course we raced on where we put it on pole and finished fourth. I think the weekend will be quite good for the Hy-Vee team. Its one of the tracks we were stronger at last year during my rookie season so I’m looking forward to getting the weekend going there.”