The Nissan GT-R is a fast sports car made by Nissan. It’s designed to accelerate hard and handle well, not just look sporty. People bring it up when talking about performance cars because it’s known for being very quick in real driving and on tracks.
A dry sump is a special way of keeping engine oil where it needs to be during aggressive driving. It’s common on race cars because it helps the engine stay lubricated under hard turns and stops.
A transaxle is a combined gearbox-and-differential unit. Using a Porsche transaxle usually means the drivetrain is designed to handle spirited driving and track use.
“Can-Am” was a famous old racing series. When the host compares the car to a Can-Am car, he means it feels like a classic, big, race-focused machine.
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Indycar Dad: Hey IndyCar family, this is IndyCar Dad. I'm your host for the IndyCar News in five minutes. I read and watch everything IndyCar from the past week, summarize it in five minutes. This is a Bomarito 5 ⁓ 500 review.
So the big news is the race was great. Never a dull moment. Even the yellows and red flags were short, brief, and to the point. They really kept it moving, which is good because this race started way too late.
Like I'm sure people Went to bed over this one. We'll see what the viewership is later in the week, but I'm not predicting good results. Anyway, the results were good from the race. Joseph Newgarden put on a master class.
He really does own this track. And even drivers that can keep up with him should be lauded just for the ability to do that. Marcus Erickson finished second. He had a fantastic run. He almost won the race in a rain delay earlier, and he had a fast car all day.
It's really kind of a shame not to see him win it, but Newgarden was unstoppable. Christian Rasmussen got a third place finish. He drove at the limit all race and finished third. And then Renus VK, this dude is amazing.
Like I really think Renus VK is one of the talents of the sport. If you look into how young he was when he started in IndyCar and what he's done since with the equipment he has, he's really impressive.
So to finish fourth in a junkos car, they though he just did great. And even the team looked great in the pit. So congratulations to those guys. Fifth through tenth, Scott McGlaquin in fifth, Kyle Kirkwood in sixth, pretty good race for him.
David Malukas and then the Penskys, so Pensky's three Penskys in top seventh. Will Power in eighth, which was pretty strong run. Marcus Armstrong in 10th, and Christian Lumard in 11th. Not bad. ⁓ I always do the top rookie.
This week it was Mick Schumacher. He was in 16th, a lap down. And to be perfectly honest with you, it wasn't deserving of a mention because Kyle Collette was up in the top five of this race a bunch of times and his engine blew.
And then Dennis Hauger never even started the race because his car didn't run at the start, which I haven't seen that in IndyCar in quite some time. So it's unfortunate for Dennis Hauger. He's doing really well in the rookie standings.
But if you can't, if the team can't give you a car that runs, that's sad. So ⁓ we do winners and losers every week. Winners here, New Garden, Ericsson, Rasmussen. Great race from all three. They all needed a good result too because none of them are doing that great in the points.
And ⁓ none of them, you know, Erasmussen just signed a contract extension, but I think the other two really would like some showing for their career. ⁓ also winner, Renus VK, he's currently 13th in the championship standings in a junkos.
So that's pretty stunning. So, and then the third winner of the week is me, me. In the preview of the race, I gave you seven drivers to watch for. And ⁓ I stopped doing I stopped predicting results.
I'm just gonna tell you who's gonna be exciting in these races. And this is what I said. I told you Rasmussen would be exciting to watch, and he did not disappoint. There is a save in this race that he barely made.
So New Garden, I said to watch, and he won the race. I predicted an average finish for Kirkwood and he finished sixth. I said Scott Dixon would be ⁓ would run well here, and he really did, except he ran out of fuel at one point.
I said David Malucas and Scott McLaughlin might be good contenders and they were fifth and seventh. I predicted Pato would be in the mix. I might have missed this one a little. Paddo finished 11th, but he was in the mix.
⁓ and I said ROL, Ray Hall, Letterman Lanigan would be terrible, and they were. Mick Schumacher was 16th, Louis Foster was 20th, and Graham Ray Hall was 22nd. So I think I did a great job predicting.
Maybe you should listen to my podcast before these races. I do do a lot of analysis before the race begins. And I do I'm old and I've been watching IndyCar a long time. So I kind of know a little bit about it.
⁓ any losers this week? Well, Chipkinassi racing kind of blew it. They had to emergency stop Dixon, so he had to go to the back of the field at the end of the race. Alex Pillow ran out of gas in an incredibly dramatic moment while on pit lane.
He was slowing down in the fast lane of the pit lane. It was crazy. And then Kiffin Simpson flat ran out of gas on track. And lost a bunch of laps as they had to drag his car back into the pits. So CGR's strategy team normally wins them races, but this week not so much.
⁓ next week we're off. ⁓ it's a free weekend. I'm gonna finish cleaning up my garage and I'm putting my race car, my old race car up for sale. So ⁓ by the way, everybody's asking what it is. I know it's not part of my ⁓ part of my podcast, but it is an ultima.
Ultima is the company that makes the Ultima GTR. It's kind of like a semi-kit car over in England. And this was one of their earliest ⁓ factory race cars. So I've owned it for a bunch of years. It's been sitting there doing nothing.
But ⁓ people have been asking. So it is an Ultima Spider. It has a small block in it, a really hot one with a dry sump, and then it has a Porsche transaxon in the back. So it's kind like a Can Am car from back in the day.
Anyway, thanks for listening. I try to keep these brief and informative. You can find me on socials as IndyCarDad, and I hope to see you at the races. Thanks.
About this episode
Joseph Newgarden’s performance at the Bommarito 500 is framed as a “master class,” with the host also spotlighting Marcus Erickson’s near-win during an earlier rain delay. The recap turns to the chaos of race incidents, including Kyle Collette’s engine failure while running near the front and Alex Pillow running out of gas in a dramatic pit-lane moment. The episode then shifts gears to the host’s own Ultima Spider, breaking down its small-block setup, dry sump, and Porsche transaxle.
A summary of the INDYCAR Bommarito 500 race at Gateway International Raceway in St. Louis. Indycar Dad tells you who did great and who did not in this race summary.
