MOTORSPORT: Costly failure for Will Power

Mechanical failure has robbed Australia’s reigning Indianapolis 500 victor Will Power of another big pay-day after dominating the first IndyCar series race at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas.

Power was on course to collect an extra $US100,000 ($A141,000) for winning from pole position until an untimely caution period after a rookie crashed and then a driveshaft in his Team Penske Dallara-Chevrolet snapped after he belatedly pitted for fresh tyres and fuel.

Instead the Toowoomba ace was classified 24th and last the day after the 56th pole (second only to Mario Andretti’s 67) of his Indy racing career.

“Massively disappointed, man. If the yellow [flags] didn’t get us, the driveshaft did,” Power said.

“I just want a normal run in a season without this sort of crap.”

Power won the 2014 IndyCar series and last May collected a cheque for $US2,525,454 – then worth about $A3.36 million, now $A3.57 million – as the first Australian to win the Indy 500.

Power also had the pole at the only previous IndyCar round this year, at St Petersburg in Florida, and led 17 laps there but finished third.

He led the first 45 of the 60 laps in Texas but Colton Herta, son of former Indy racer Bryan, ended up taking victory, becoming the youngest winner in the history of the series at just 18 years, 11 months and 22 days - and at only his third start.

Herta drives a Honda-powered Dallara for Harding Steinbrenner Racing (HSR), a partnership between Indianapolis businessman Mike Harding and George Michael Steinbrenner IV of the family that owns the New York Yankees baseball team.

Steinbrenner is 22 and the youngest team owner in IndyCar history, having already been involved in the Indy Lights series the past two years.

HSR has a technical alliance with Michael Andretti’s Andretti Autosport.

“Oh my God, this doesn’t feel real. We were so quick. It was spectacular,” the young Herta said of his victory after leading the last 10 laps from the restart after the caution caused by Swedish rookie Felix Rosenqvist crashed after a clip from Canadian James Hinchcliffe, coming to a stop at the pit-lane entry.

Herta topped an all-American podium, with Penske’s Josef Newgarden and Andretti’s Ryan Hunter-Reay. Another American, Graham Rahal, the previous youngest IndyCar winner and son of Bobby, was fourth.

First-round winner Newgarden leads the series with 93 points to Herta’s 75 with New Zealand’s five-time and reigning champion Scott Dixon third on 57 after finishing 13th in Texas. Power is sixth on 47 points.

The IndyCars were a lot slower at the Circuit of the Americas than the higher-tech F1 machinery – Power’s qualifying lap on the 5.513km track was 1 minute 46.0177 seconds compared to Lewis Hamilton’s GP pole position time of 1:32.237 last October.

Herta set the fastest lap in today’s IndyCar race at 1:48.8953, while Hamilton clocked 1:37.392 in last year’s F1 race (won by Kimi Raikkonen in a Ferrari).

Australia’s Supercars raced at the Texas track in 2013.

Herta had already scored a GTLM class win in the 24 Hours of Daytona this year, sharing a BMW M8.

His father raced several times at the Gold Coast Indy, finishing fourth in 1999. He won twice in the old CART (Championship Auto Racing Teams) series and twice in the Indy Racing League in about 180 starts and tested one of Paul Stoddart’s Minardi F1 cars in 2002.

Since retiring from race driving he has been involved in teams that took the late Dan Wheldon and Alex Rossi to Indianapolis victories.

Power’s disappointing exit in Texas was offset for Team Penske by its third victory in six rounds of the Monster Cup with its new NASCAR Ford Mustangs.

Brad Keselowski led 446 of the 500 laps at the Martinsville Speedway in Virginia.

It was Keselowski’s second win of the season, while Roger ‘The Captain’ Penske’s reigning NASCAR champion Joey Logano also has had a win.

However, Logano and Keselowski trail another Ford man, Stewart-Haas driver Kevin Harvick, on the points table – and he has Toyota pair Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin, both driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, ahead of him.

In Australia, Penske’s Scott McLaughlin is dominating the Supercars Championship in a Mustang and his Shell V-Power Racing Team leads the teams championship.

The Chinese team Techeetah, headed by Australian engineer Mark Preston, won the Chinese round that marked the halfway point of the fifth Formula E electric open-wheeler series.

Victory in Sanya, in China’s south and promoted as the country’s Hawaii, by Jean-Eric Verge came after the Frenchman, the reigning series champion, had missed out on points at the previous three rounds.

Even this time he had some anxious moments, being investigated for not being the required 10 car lengths behind a safety car – but he escaped with a reprimand.

The race ended under a full-course caution after Dutch driver Robin Frijns careered into Brazilian former FE champion Lucas di Grassi.

Techeetah is owned by Chinese media mogul Li Ruigang. It was runner-up in last season’s teams championship while Vergne, a one-time F1 teammate of Daniel Ricciardo, took the driver title.

Techeetah has formed an association with Citroen brand DS and Vergne said after Saturday’s victory: “This is our first win as a new team and I feel very proud and happy to have been able to bring this victory to DS. We’re a Chinese team and winning here was absolutely amazing.”

Team principal Preston said the victory was “a little overdue”.

“It feels sweet because we should have won the last race with [German driver] Andre Lotterer, so it is nice to get the first one as DS Techeetah now,” Preston said.

“We have had the pace and then we hit some issues, but there was never any doubt that we could start winning.”

Newcomer Nissan, which replaced Renault in partnership with French team e.dams, scored its first pole position courtesy of British driver Oliver Rowland, who led Vergne early in the race before a daring overtake by the Frenchman.

BMW i Andretti Motorsport’s Portugeuese driver, Antonio Felix da Costa, was third and, with 62 points, has taken a one-point championship lead over Indian team Mahrindra Racing’s Belgian Jerome d’Ambrosio, while Vergne and Envision Virgin Racing’s Sam Bird both have 54.

Envision Virgin and Mahindra jointly head the teams championship with 97 points ahead of Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler on 96, DS Techeetah 93 and BMW i Andretti Motorsport 80.