The 13-turn, 2.258-mile Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course is a picturesque racing facility carved out of the rolling hills of Morrow County. But don’t be fooled. It has plenty of high-speed action spots, and after a morning thunderstorm plenty of wet areas. Drivers will face changeable track conditions.

As the temperature this weekend has been hot, let’s take a look at the “Hot Spots” for the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio:

TURN 4

At most racing facilities, the green flag is waved and the field roars into Turn 1. But not at Mid-Ohio, where the start/finish line is actually located at Turn 3 midway through a long straightaway out of the “Keyhole” section of the race course.

That gives the 25-car field a chance to get up to speed and get sorted out before hitting the tight right-hand Turn 4, which begins the “Esses” portion of the course. Turn 1 includes a bridge and this move was made decades ago to prevent incidents where cars could hit the bridge if something happens on the first lap.

“The pits and Turn 4 are the hot spots,” said three-time Mid-Ohio winner Scott Dixon. “With the old rule you couldn’t defend going into a turn but with the new rule you can defend. I think it takes some of the opportunities away from this track.

“It’s purposely for the start to make it clean and have a good braking zone going into Turn 4, the hairpin there. It’s visually a lot better for the fans because Turns 4, 5, 6, 7 that section everybody camps out and it’s packed there. To start the race there is a good spot. The finish is over by start/finish and it’s the only track where we start and finish in the same spot. That’s quite unique. But as a driver that doesn’t play too much. You focus on the start and the finish two totally different times. I think it is perfect for that track. For me Turn 1 with the bridge there in the new car in qualifying will be almost flat. It’s going to be crazy quick. It’s exciting. That’s going to be a tough corner. The Keyhole and Turn 2 is a 180-degree turn but it goes over a rise and is very grippy. It’s got massive grip.”

This provides a high-speed start to Sunday’s race.

“We start the race into Turn 4 and that is always a tricky place,” explained Team Penske’s Ryan Briscoe, who qualified sixth. “You can get through 4 in the starts two-wide and through five two-wide but it gets to a point in the Esses where it has to get single-file so there is often a lot of contract through the Esses there so that is an exciting place to watch on starts and restarts.”

TURN 9

After navigating all five turns that begin with the Esses, it’s through a short kink that is Turn 8 and then into a hard right-hand Turn 9.

“It’s the most difficult corner on the track,” Briscoe said. “It’s pretty fast, third-gear, off-camber, over a crest, blind. Helio Castroneves found that out the hard way when a car spun out on the exit what can happen. It’s a tricky corner for lap times.”

THE KEYHOLE

Every great road course has its unique parts of the track and Mid-Ohio has two. The first is the Keyhole, which is a very tight hairpin turn in Turn 2 followed by a long straight that resembles a key.

“This track is great,” Briscoe said. “It’s grass-roots racing but I’m used to. There is also a lot of grip and rubber that goes down. Turn 2 in the Keyhole is a passing zone for sure. You have to get through Turn 1 good and then it’s into the Keyhole. It’s either a passing zone or where you set up to pass going down the back straight. As the race goes on it gets really dirty offline there.”

WET AREAS

A cold front moved through the area in the morning, spawning thunderstorms.

“It will be pretty interesting,” Dixon said. “All of us have run a handful of laps around here in the wet. The surface is very strange here. In the future they might want to put something down because it’s hard to get up to speed from the previous session. It’s a weird surface that only gets magnified in the rain.”

The race could feature portions of wet and dry track conditions, which will make it a guessing game by the crews when to change from the wet tires to the dry.

“It’s going to be difficult with the mixed weather,” Team Penske driver Will Power said after the winning the pole. “If this race was going to be dry the entire race I would be feeling pretty good but considering it’s wet that will change things a lot. It will be more interesting for the fans. The push-to-pass will still help because power is power. If the track dries up it really mixes everything up and will make it an interesting race for everyone.”