100,000 reasons to win IndyCar race at COTA

The stakes have been raised for the inaugural IndyCar Classic at Circuit of the Americas.

Upon their arrival Thursday, drivers were greeted with the news that there is an extra $100,000 bonus up for grabs if somebody can win the pole during Saturday's qualifying and then take the checkered flag Sunday.

COTA Executive Vice President Rick Abbott unveiled the prize during the pre-race press conference Thursday, with a giant check as proof.

“Sweet, that’ll be a nice bottle of wine,” said James Hinchcliffe, a Canadian who competes for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports.

The action will start Friday, with practice sessions at 10:15 a.m. and 2:05 p.m. The race will begin at 12:43 p.m. Sunday, and in between will be three days of the premier open-wheel series in North America making its much-anticipated debut at COTA.

“We’ve always wanted to bring an IndyCar race there,” Josef Newgarden, who won the season opener in St. Petersburg, Fla., told the American-Statesman last week. “Certainly a lot of fans have wanted to see an IndyCar race in addition to the (Formula One) race, of course. The more the merrier that you can get at a track like that.”

Austin is the second stop on the IndyCar calendar and is one of two races in the state, along with the Texas Grand Prix at Texas Motor Speedway on June 8. Teams got their first crack at COTA last month when they were here for spring training.

In addition to the racing, English rock band Muse will perform Saturday night at Austin360 Amphitheater after qualifying. Colt McCoy, the former Texas quarterback, will be on hand Sunday as the event’s grand marshal.

The race will feature 60 laps for a total of 204.6 miles. It should take just under 2 hours, in line with the 56-lap F1 U.S. Grand Prix. And while the series is new to COTA, not all of its drivers are.

F1 fans will recognize rookie Marcus Ericsson, who drove for Haas last year. Alexander Rossi remains the only American to race a U.S. Grand Prix at COTA in 2015, and Max Chilton competed in the 2013 race with Marussia.

Mexican driver Patricio “Pato” O’Ward has the most local ties. The 19-year-old grew up in Monterrey, Nuevo León, and lives in San Antonio. He said he will have lots of relatives and friends here this weekend.

“This is the closest home race I’ll ever have,” he said Wednesday.

There are the established names of IndyCar, including Tony Kanaan, Scott Dixon, Marco Andretti, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Graham Rahal and Will Power, and an exciting crop of rookies led by 19-year-old Colton Herta, who posted the fastest lap times throughout spring training.

The season opener offered a mix of old and new at the top, with a podium of 2017 series champion Newgarden, Dixon and Power and three rookies — Felix Rosenqvist, Herta and Santino Ferrucci — in the top 10.

All of the teams start with a clean slate this week, and COTA offers a completely different set of challenges from the street course in St. Petersburg. Whoever posts the fastest time in qualifying will be eager to keep the lead on the 133-foot climb to Turn 1. With an extra $100,000 at stake, the chance for carnage has been raised along with the stakes.

“A bit of a mess,” Ericsson said Thursday when asked what he expects from the first turn. “Hopefully we come out on top of it. Every start here, there’s always people bumping into each other, so I’m expecting something similar on Sunday.”