The hectic Iowa Speedway track provided the most competitive showing of Takuma Sato’s IZOD IndyCar Series rookie season last year, and this time it played host to his first pole position in the series.

On the high-banked 0.9-mile track, Sato completed two laps in less than 36 seconds in his KV Racing Technology-Lotus Dallara-Honda to take his first pole since the 2001 Macau Formula 3 Grand Prix. He then stayed in the lead battle for most of the race, before unfortunately hitting the wall with 68 of the 250 laps remaining.

“It was an exciting weekend, and I’d been really looking forward to coming back to Iowa because of last year,” he said. “This time it would be a different environment with a night race, but still we expected to have a very strong package again.

“Practice was quite straight forward for us, we knew what we needed to do,” he continued. “But we did the usual programme with our three cars to find the best package. I was reasonably happy with the balance and tried to aim for speed by using two sets of new tyres before qualifying in a simulation. The first set I went fastest, but shortly after Scott Dixon went faster, and on the second attempt I went faster again but then I was beaten by Dario Franchitti. So it looked like qualifying would be a battle between the Ganassi cars and us, and of course I expected the Andretti and Penske cars to be in with a chance.”
But none of them could beat Taku. “I knew we would be competitive but I was not expecting fastest! I was so happy with what we achieved – this is such a short oval and it takes only 17 seconds a lap, and you have just one and a half laps before the green flag for your qualifying run, which is two laps. You really need to get up to the speed and you just cannot have any luxury or waist a second before cross the line. I was able to commit so much in my car that on my final warm-up lap I was quicker than anyone else, and this really helped me to pole. I really appreciate the team’s fantastic work on the car – it was a really great moment.”

Unfortunately, there was a collision with Alex Tagliani in post-qualifying practice. “The session didn’t go smoothly,” said Sato. “We were perhaps too optimistic with the downforce and there was clearly not enough in the pack. During the pit-stop we had little mechanical issues and I got back on the track, happier with the balance. Mike Conway and I were closing on Alex. Turn 2 is quite tricky, with a quite tight radius at the end, and the bumps and wind made it very difficult, with the arc giving you quite a late apex. Alex was in the middle lane, I was high, and I approached from the outside. As we into the turn we both come down the lane so he was bottom and I was middle and thought I had enough space. Maybe that was the combination of he went up or I should have given him more space, but his front-right hit my back-left and we had a small collision. At least we repaired them.”

After an installation lap at 3:00pm on race day proved everything was OK, Taku was raring to go in the race. He got a great start, and led the first seven laps before being passed by Franchitti. “Being on pole is such a special feeling,” he said. “It’s probably the easiest situation, because no-one is in front of you so you have clean air and you control the filed for the start. I was happy with my first couple of laps, but on this kind of oval you can’t get away. Also I was struggling with balance a little bit and had a little understeer, so I had to be conservative to save the right-front tyre. Dario seemed very fast and I didn’t block, we went three-wide and he took the lead. But I was happy in that top group.”

At the first stops under caution, Sato dropped to fourth behind team-mate Tony Kanaan and Ryan Briscoe, but he went around the outside of Briscoe on the restart to claim third. That was until Briscoe’s Penske team-mate Helio Castroneves caught up and passed after a spectacular side-by-side battle. “It was exciting to battle again with such a high-level and quality of competition,” said Taku.

After the next stops, also under yellow, Sato dropped to fifth behind race winner Marco Andretti, but took advantage of Castroneves pitting and moved back up to fourth. More stops under caution leapfrogged Taku back ahead of Andretti into third, and then he dived inside Kanaan on the restart to take second. Now he was chasing leader Franchitti, before Andretti came on strong again to drop Sato back down to third.

“The restarts I am feeling more comfortable than before,” he said. “It was very exciting. It was a very competitive battle and we had a strong package, not necessarily to lead all the time but so that I was confident in the group – it was definitely looking good.”

With the race having gone some time under green, Taku was forced to pit for new tyres and fuel, dropping down the order. Everyone else would have to pit, but it was important to maximise speed straight out of the pits on fresh rubber. Just as Franchitti, Andretti and the other front-runners were pitting, putting them back within range of Taku, he lost control at Turn 2.

“I’m very disappointed with what happened. We really needed to push, but at the same time I had to be careful on cold tyres, particularly as night had fallen and it was so cold you needed a jacket – probably I’ve never driven on an oval in that temperature. On the out-lap I was OK, I could feel the car moving and sliding but it was OK. On the first timed lap it was still fine, I was full stiff on the front bar and full soft on the rear to make it stable. However, on the second timed lap, I lost my back end over the bumps – where all the accidents happened – and my car slid and I lost control.

“It was quite unexpected because it was my second timed lap, and it’s a big lesson that you really need to respect oval racing. A little moment at over 300km/h, and you’ve lost everything. You have to be 100% sure and confident for everything is up there, I thought I was but I have to understand more deeply and I was not enough… you have to respect the ovals.”

Now the IndyCar Series moves back into Taku’s natural habitat of road and street circuits, starting with Toronto in Canada. “That’s enough ovals for now!” summed up Sato. “We weren’t particularly competitive in Toronto last year, but I’m very much looking forward to it because we’re much more competitive this year. Hopefully we’ll be strong.”

“The car got loose going over the bump in turn two and I lost it. I feel very sorry for the crew, the fans and the sponsors. Up until then everything was looking good. I am very disappointed.”

KV Racing Technology – Lotus driver Takuma Sato become the first Japanese driver in IndyCar history to capture a pole when he did it today for tomorrow’s Iowa Corn Indy 250 at Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa.

Sato, No. 5 KV Racing Technology – Lotus, qualified with a two-lap average speed of 180.375 mph on the .875-mile D-shaped oval.

Sato captured his first pole in just his 26th IndyCar start, 13th on an oval and second at Iowa. This is the third “official” pole and fourth overall in team history. Jimmy Vasser captured the team’s first pole at Milwaukee in 2005. Tristan Gommendy followed with a pole at Mont Tremblant in 2007 and Will Power took the pole at the Surfers Paradise “exhibition” race in 2008.

“I want to say a big thank you to the whole team, the fans, the sponsors and everyone who has supported me,” Sato said. “It is a fantastic achievement. I knew we were going to be competitive because of last year and this morning I was truly comfortable in the car. I could feel where we needed to be with the setup for qualifying. Working so closely today with the three KVRT – Lotus drivers, working so closely with my engineers, we had a great answer. The mechanics also did a great job preparing the car. I am very pleased with today’s result.”

Sato made his Iowa debut last year qualifying seventh and running strong until an incident late in the race ended his day. He has now qualified in the top-10 five times in eight attempts this year with three top-five starting spots and the pole. Sato, whose previous best qualifying position was third at Mid-Ohio, last year, has shown remarkable improvement on ovals and steadily asserted himself during his second IndyCar season. He qualified a team-high 10th at the Indianapolis 500, but went out early finishing 33rd. At Texas, he qualified a team-high (and then oval career-high) fourth for the first race then finished an IndyCar career-high tying fifth. In the second race, he drew the 25th grid position, but drove a strong race and finished 12th. Sato qualified fifth at Milwaukee and despite a penalty that dropped him well back in the field he battled his way to a eighth place finish. Overall this season, Sato has earned four top-10 finishes (fifths at St. Petersburg and Texas, eighths at Milwaukee and Brazil). He is ninth in the championship standings with 142 points.