Anyone familiar with the road circuits of the USA and the UK could have predicted that Takuma Sato would love Mid-Ohio and prove extremely quick there in the latest round of the IndyCar Series. After all, the Lexington circuit’s fast, sweeping curves, exaggerated gradients and narrow asphalt are reminiscent of the tracks on which he dominated the 2001 British Formula 3 Championship.
 
And so it was: Takuma and his # 5 KV Racing Technology Dallara-Honda were super-fast at Mid-Ohio, qualifying in third position, and then running as high as in second place in the actual race. But then, sadly, came a poor pit-stop and a crash while trying to recover, putting him out of the race at one-third distance.
 
“This circuit reminds me a lot of Oulton Park,” said Sato. “I instantly thought this on my first lap. We finally – finally! – had a test the week before the race, our first test on a road course since Barber Motorsports Park in February. It was a good day, very productive, because we did a lot of things. Track conditions constantly change over race weekends due to all the support races, so you can never evaluate things or do back-to-back tests. We could do this on the test day, so we got great understanding from that and it was so nice to test.”
 
That work carried through to Friday practice. “It wasn’t great in the standings, but I wasn’t worried at all because I knew what we were doing and I wanted to make sure everything was correct. It was good continuous development.”
 
Saturday WAS great in the standings. Third in his opening qualifying group, he was then third again in the top-12 second round, and then placed third once more in the Firestone Fast Six shootout for pole. “Every time I jump in the car I get more confident and faster,” said Sato. “Every set-up change was very positive. It looked like I was in the wrong group again for the first round, with all three Penske cars, but the field was so tight.
 
“I was very happy to go in the Firestone Fast Six again. It was a great achievement. I knew Penske and Ganassi were quick, but knew it would be very tight. I tried everything I could but I was very happy to be in third position, splitting the Penske and Ganassi cars. A great satisfaction.”
 
And so to the race… “It was a great view in front, only concentrating on Will Power and Dario Franchitti in front of me, with Ryan Hunter-Reay alongside. I was really looking forward to a great battle.
 
“I made a good start and was right under the gearbox of Will, side-by-side with Dario, and took second position. But then on the back straight he got me on the tow and passed me again. I settled into third – it was great because I could hold these two top guys. Behind me there was some attack from Scott Dixon, but then we were pulling away from him. I started fuel saving and the lap times were still very good – my engineer was so happy.”
 
Then it all started to go wrong. A caution period meant everyone made their first pit-stops together. “If we didn’t have the yellow I’d be interested to know where we would have come out. It was very unfortunate that the pit-stop took so long – there was a problem with the fuel rig I think. The stop was so long and I lost so many positions. Then after the restart I had the opportunity to go alongside Scott at the end of the back straight. We were able to go side-by-side under braking but the inside was so slippery I just locked up the wheels and went off. I’m so disappointed.”
 
Still, Sato showed ever-greater pace, and the following round at the Sonoma Sears Point course in California in two weeks’ time is a similar kind of circuit to Mid-Ohio. There’s work to do first for Taku, as he heads straight from Mid-Ohio to Laguna Seca, another classic Californian circuit, for a special event with Lotus. “We’ll be there for three days and then we’re going up to Sonoma for a test on Friday. It’s great news to have the opportunity to test again, and hopefully we’ll be competitive again at the race.”

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