Watkins Glen could be considered the most competitive road-course performance to date for Takuma Sato on his first IndyCar Series with KV Racing Technology, but sadly the result did not go his way.

Takuma qualified the Lotus-backed Dallara-Honda in fifth position, ran fourth in the early stages and looked a real threat at the front, but a series of events left him down in a frustrated 15th at the checkered flag.

The latest race weekend provided the Japanese ex-Formula 1 star with a showing at least as well as he did at Barber Motorsports Park back in April, but this time without the benefit of a pre-race test.

The Watkins Glen circuit in rural New York state, which was home of the United States GP up until 1980 (when Taku was three years old!), is extremely challenging. “We had hoped to test but couldn’t because of bad weather,” said Sato, “so that made it very hard to go through everything in practice – we had only two one-hour sessions before qualifying, so we were really restricted on time.

“It is a great track! It really reminds me of Oulton Park or Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit (both tracks in Britain where Sato won in Formula 3) – a lot of sweeping corners with great elevation change. There are a lot of bumps as well – really difficult but great fun to drive.”

Takuma was 10th in the Saturday free practice session, which gave no indication of his qualifying form. But he breezed through his initial group (with the field divided into two) in fourth place, then took sixth in round two to graduate to the Firestone Fast Six pole shootout, where he managed to grab fifth place from his friend, fellow ex-Formula 1 driver Justin Wilson.

“In practice it felt like it wasn’t going to be easy, but qualifying was great. We were now back on road-course tires, with again only two sets of red ‘alternate’ tires, and the first time you use them is in qualifying. Because the field was so tight everyone had to use the alternate in the first round of qualifying, so we were guessing on set-up based on the black-tire feeling.”

The start of the race was thrilling, but Sato dropped two places to seventh as he lost out to Wilson and Scott Dixon. “It was quite exciting. Into Turn 1 it was three-wide, and I had a great battle with Justin and Scott. Initially Scott was leading me, but I immediately overtook him at exit of turn1 but the Ganassi car was so fast and he overtook me again going up the hill.”

A collision between Dixon and Helio Castroneves then promoted Taku to fifth, and he moved up to fourth when he swept past Wilson going into the Bus Stop chicane just after the 10th lap of 60. The first caution came out when Dan Wheldon was spun around, and most of the field dived into the pits. Unfortunately, Sato was jumped at this point by team-mate Mario Moraes and Raphael Matos, and at the restart he was side by side with Tony Kanaan and ran wide briefly at Turn 1, losing places to Tony and Marco Andretti.

“It was a fun battle with Justin, and running fourth was great, but at the pit-stop there was nothing I could do and I lost a few places. Now I was running on the black tires and really we lost our speed. People were maintaining the same cornering speeds as us but were faster on the straights. I lost my speed and balance and it never came back.”

Going back onto the red alternate tyres at the final stop was the obvious choice, but unfortunately that stop came a lap early, and the crew was not ready when Takuma entered the pit lane. The delay left him well down the field. It also meant that he had to stop one more time as the KV team was unable to squeeze in enough fuel to make the finish, which Sato did under the second and final caution, caused when Simona de Silvestro crashed.

“There was a misunderstanding of communication with the team and I lost so many positions. But if I’d stopped one lap later we would still have needed a late splash or to save a massive amount of fuel – it would have been a close call.”

It was a lost cause, but at least Takuma was back on the red tires, with easily enough fuel to the finish, so he was able to go racing again on this fabulous circuit. With a few laps to go he repassed Alex Tagliani, and on the final lap he re-passed Adam Carroll so that he was able to claim 15th place. “With the softer tire our car worked well, but it was so disappointing. I really wanted to have a strong result today…”

But still the IndyCar adventure continues, and the next move is north of the border to Canada for the next two rounds, beginning with the famous Toronto street circuit in two weeks’ time. The speed is there. Will the luck accompany it this time?

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