TUSC: Indianapolis Motor Speedway 2014
IMS is a temple of Speed and it was looking for sacrifices during the 9th round of the TUSC championship. This round was a Friday afternoon support race for the Brickyard 400, and run on the roval part of the track. The layout was a last minute change that used the same layout that Indy Car used for the Grand Prix of Indianapolis in May, weeks before the 500. Usually “roval” and “support race” do not get the sports car faithful excited, but this is Indy, and its roval has been a venue for F1. Overall, the day did not disappoint.
The NASCAR Haulers were all lined up behind the pits waiting for the main event.
Team Falken has had a whole new learning curve with their new 991. All of the previous data generated for the 997 no longer applies and new tire compounds are being created.For the sports car faithful, the event is definitely truncated. A few practices and qualifying, followed by races on Friday and the event is over before the weekend even starts. Teams were breaking everything down shortly after the grid walk early Friday afternoon. If you like to walk around, plan to get there early or settle for looking at a bunch of haulers. Regardless, the TUSC series ran a quick practice, followed by the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge, followed by a late in the day TUSC race that ended at dusk.
Even though they have had limited success on the track this year, their team always generates a lot of fan interest. Falken's new 991 looks like a toy when you first see it.
