AUSTIN, Texas – After his second test at Circuit of The Americas, Will Power reiterated his enthusiasm for the layout. “I love it, love it, love it,” he gushed last month after stepping out of the car.
He wasn’t alone. Unlike Power, most NTT IndyCar Series drivers experienced COTA live for the first time during that test session. Power had tested here before in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet. Still, he felt as enthusiastic as they did, and vice-versa. That enthusiasm bubbles over this weekend when the series conducts its first race at the track, the INDYCAR Classic.
The reasons for the love are many, but most revolve around degree of difficulty. The 20-turn, 3.41-mile layout is challenging for the most skilled pros, and the most skilled pros always appreciate a challenge. COTA is technical and complex. It is strenuous and uneven. Just when drivers think they’ve got a series of turns mastered, they discover themselves out of rhythm and out of sync. No lap is ever the same. Believe it or not, the pros like that.
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The first thing newcomers notice about the facility is the long climb up the hill from the frontstretch into Turn 1, a sharp, uphill left-hander that wants to pull your spleen through your stomach. Take a look at a topographical map of the COTA layout. The approach to Turn 1 is the first hill of a wooden roller coaster – if a wooden roller coaster shot full bore up that first hill instead of slowly clickety-clacking against the force of gravity.
From there, the circuit becomes even more technically demanding and physically exhausting. First, it’s downhill through high-speed esses until Turns 7, 8 and 9, a sharp left-right-left combination that’s busy, to say the least. Then it’s up to the Turn 10 kink, then downhill to one of the circuit’s best passing zones, the Turn 11 hairpin. Imagine running as fast as you can downhill to a revolving door that spits you out in the opposite direction. Try not to break anything.
Some have compared COTA’s altitude changes and technical turn combinations with Watkins Glen. But it also contains elements of Silverstone, Spa-Francorchamps, Nurburgring, Road America, Suzuka and Laguna Seca. That was the intent of Hermann Tilke’s design: draw from some of the best elements of other classic road courses while keeping COTA uncommon and true to its natural terrain.
“There's a lot of high speed and a lot of low speed, so it's hard to say that it's like one track,” Harding Steinbrenner Racing rookie Colton Herta said after the February test. “Watkins Glen, through the esses, is somewhat similar. It's quite a bit slower. But that quick change of direction, you still get that here with the long corners and the boot as well, that are similar to turns like 6 and 7.
“I'd say Watkins Glen is a pretty close track, but (COTA) is really a unique track. The surface is pretty abrasive. I think tire wear isn't going to be great for the race. Stints will be tough to do.”
As drivers get back up to speed out of Turn 11, they’re given time to set up the next turn by way of the track’s longest straightaway. Turn 12, a sharp left-hander at the bottom of a hill, leads to the right-right/left-left combination of Turns 13-14-15-16. It’s the slowest part of the track, but also one of the most confounding and compelling.
The final four turns combine higher speeds with a higher degree of difficulty before it’s back to the bottom of the roller coaster. Once finished with a lap, drivers realize they’ve just encountered almost everything they could expect from a world-class circuit.
“It's an interesting track because it's got a lot of low-speed corners, elevation changes, then all of a sudden you throw yourself into those fast esses,” Team Penske’s Simon Pagenaud said after testing last month. “It requires different things from the car to handle right. You have to find the compromise to be the fastest around the whole racetrack. With driving, with techniques, you can adjust to turn around the bends. It's tough. There's 20 corners, so it's a long track. There's a lot of little details to work on.”
Or, in the words of a teammate preparing for this weekend’s INDYCAR Classic at COTA, “I love it, love it, love it.”
INDYCAR CLASSIC:
Race 2 of 17 on the 2019 NTT IndyCar Series schedule
Track: Circuit of The Americas, a 20-turn, 3.41-mile permanent road course in Austin, Texas; this is the first NTT IndyCar Series event at the track
Race distance: 60 laps/204.6 miles
Practice sessions: There are four over the race weekend, three on Friday (starting at 11:15 a.m., 3:05 p.m. and 4:10 p.m. ET) and one on Saturday (11 a.m.); all stream live on INDYCAR Pass on NBC Sports Gold
NTT P1 Award qualifying: three knockout rounds, concluding with the Firestone Fast Six to determine the pole winner; live coverage starts at 3 p.m. ET Saturday on NBCSN and INDYCAR Pass on NBC Sports Gold
Race telecast: Live on NBCSN beginning at 1 p.m. ET Sunday
Radio broadcasts: All sessions are available on the Advance Auto Parts INDYCAR Radio Network. The network is available on IndyCar.com and indycarradio.com for practices, as well as on Sirius 216 and XM 209 for qualifying, with terrestrial network affiliates around the nation added for the race broadcast.